Lion Dance

Ⅲ-5Traditional DanceSuixi, GuangdongBatch 1 (2006)Newly Added Item

01 · Historical Records

It grew out of the court lion dance of the Tang dynasty; after the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms, as migrants from the Central Plains moved south, the culture of the lion dance was carried into the Lingnan region. During the Ming dynasty the Xing lion appeared in Guangdong, originating in Nanhai County. Since the 1980s, almost every village has had its own Xing lion team. Throughout the four seasons the sound of gongs and drums rings out at opening celebrations, and at New Year and other festivals the lion teams take to the streets to pluck the greens and tour in procession.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The lion dance, also called “shizi wu”, “lion lantern”, “wuxi” or “playing the lion”, is performed mostly at New Year and other celebratory occasions. In the minds of all the peoples of China the lion is an auspicious beast symbolizing good fortune and the fulfilment of wishes, so lion dancing carries the people's hope of warding off disaster and harm and of seeking good fortune and blessings. The lion dance has a distant history; the “elephant men” recorded in the “Treatise on Rites and Music” of the Book of Han were its predecessor, and Tang and Song poems and prose contain many vivid descriptions of lion dancing. Surviving lion dances fall into two great categories, the southern lion and the northern lion. The southern lion features many difficult and demanding martial techniques and looks vigorous and fierce; the northern lion is naive and charming and takes playful romping as its main content. Because the materials and binding methods used for the lion head differ, lion dances of many kinds abound in each locality, glittering in their variety. The Xing lion belongs to the southern lion of the Chinese lion dance. The Xing lion is a cultural activity that integrates martial arts, dance and music and the like. During the performance, as gongs and drums are beaten, the lion dancers first strike a set of southern boxing blows, which is called “opening the posts”; then two persons play the part of a single lion and dance it, while another, wearing a smiling “big-headed Buddha” mask and holding a large palm-leaf fan, leads the lion onto the stage. The movements of the lion dancers are based mainly on the horse stance of southern boxing, and the movements of the lion include “opening the eyes”, “washing the whiskers”, “licking the body” and “shaking the fur”. The main routines include “plucking the greens”, “drinking at a high platform”, “the lion spits the ball” and “treading plum-blossom stakes”. Among them, “plucking the greens” is the essence of the Xing lion. It has stages of opening, continuation, turn and conclusion, and possesses dramatic and narrative qualities. “Plucking the greens” has undergone many changes, giving rise to a variety of routines that circulate widely. In performance, the Suixi Xing lion developed gradually from the traditional ground lion to the bench lion, from the bench lion to the high-platform lion and the tall-pole lion, and from the tall-pole lion to the stake lion. The difficulty of the stake lion also kept increasing, with the addition of performance types such as tightrope walking and airborne leaps. The tallest stake approaches 3 metres and the largest span reaches 3.7 metres, fully embodying the characteristics of “new, high, difficult and dangerous”; it is acclaimed as “a unique wonder of China”. The characteristic styling of the props of the Shakeng Xing lion of Guangzhou City is this: the lion head has a high, narrow forehead, large eyes that can turn, a broad mouth traced with lines, a broad back, a flattened nose and full cheeks, and teeth that can be either hidden or revealed. Performance is divided into three major categories: the civil lion, the lion dance and the few-lion form. Through such high-difficulty movements as springing, shifting, dodging, pouncing, spinning and leaping, on the ground or over the array of stakes, the performance renders the lion's eight states of joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, movement, stillness, fright and suspicion, expressing the lion's ferocity and vigour. Since ancient times the Guangdong Xing lion has been regarded as an auspicious beast that wards off evil and harm; at every festival or major activity the Xing lion is bound to appear to add zest, and it has flourished without decline, passed down through the generations. The popularisation of lion arts among the masses in the towns and villages has also been unprecedented. The Guangdong Xing lion has become a nationally known folk dance brand peculiar to Guangdong.

From ground to stakes

The evolution of Suixi lion dance from ground lion to bench, high platform, high pole and finally stake lion, difficulty rising at each stage.

Wire-walking and aerial jumps on stakes

The escalating difficulty of Suixi stake lion, adding wire-walking and aerial jumps, with stakes nearly three metres high and spans up to 3.7 metres.

The flying lion breaks the stake

A technique created by the inheritor Li Rongzi, along with the lion climbing the high pole; his stepping is versatile and his performance thrilling.

The lion climbs the high pole

A signature high-altitude feat of Suixi lion dance, requiring climbing and posing on a slender pole, typical of the southern lion's martial daring.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

It is now transmitted among Guangdong, Guangxi and the overseas Chinese of Southeast Asian countries; within Guangdong it is distributed mainly in counties and cities such as Foshan, Suixi and Guangzhou.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Xing lion activities are also widely transmitted in overseas Chinese communities, becoming a cultural bridge by which compatriots abroad recognize their ancestry and return to their roots; their cultural value and significance are profoundly far-reaching. Li Rongzai (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in 1965, a native of Suixi, Guangdong. The footwork of Li Rongzai's lion dance is flexible and varied, his forms of movement are rich and complete, and his performance is thrilling and wondrous, moving the heart. In practice he also innovated such skills as “the high-stake flying lion breaking the stakes” and “the Xing lion climbing the tall pole”, and he promoted his lion-dance skills without reservation. Representative inheritor of the lion dance (Guangdong Xing lion), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the second batch.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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