Lion Dance

Ⅲ-5Traditional DanceCang, HebeiBatch 2 (2008)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

Lion dance in Cang County already appeared in the Ming dynasty in the form of tonglehui (joint-happiness societies), circulated widely within the county, and in the early period was performed mostly at temple fairs and at the folk flower societies of the Spring Festival.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Lion dance, also called “shizi wu” (lion dance), “shi deng” (lion lantern), “wu shi” or “wu shizi”, is an important component of the traditional Chinese hundred-performances and acrobatics repertoire. Lion dance has a long history. It is widely popular in the Han areas of China and appears frequently in festival celebrations such as the Spring Festival, using lively and cheerful performance to express the Chinese people's good wishes for auspiciousness and the warding off of disaster. It is generally divided into two major types, the southern lion and the northern lion. The southern lion is agile and fierce and often performs high-difficulty techniques; the northern lion is playful and naive and usually performs teasing and frolicking movements. Cang County lies in the southeastern part of Hebei Province, facing the Bohai Sea to the east and bordering Beijing and Tianjin to the north, with the ancient Grand Canal running through its territory. In the early period it was called “lion play” (shixi) and consisted mostly of “civil lion” (wenshi) performance, with Xingji as the representative. Civil lion performance turns on a single idea, that of “teasing” (dou). It chiefly imitates the instinctive behaviour and playful movements of felid animals, accompanied from the side by mighty and stirring drumbeats. The martial lion developed from the civil lion, and later incorporated martial arts and acrobatic movements into the performance, such as stacking lions, walking a tightrope, climbing a high stool, climbing a pole, tumbling on a high platform, watching the moon from the water, cleverly walking a standing rope, and lotus blossom bursting. The martial lion of Cang County is represented by Beizhang Village in Huangdipu Township. Its movements are highly technical, its drumbeats are mainly fast-paced, fiery, ardent and cheerful, and they lead the whole progress of the lion dance. In Cang County lion dance the traditional-type lion head weighs seventy or eighty jin and the lion skin twenty or thirty jin; even the modern-type lion head weighs more than ten jin, which is not easy for anyone without martial training to bear. Therefore, whether it is a civil lion or a martial lion, both the lion leader and the lion dancers in Cang County lion dance performance are taken by martial artists with deep training. A lion dance team generally has two or three great lions and one or two young lions; a great lion is costumed by two people and a young lion by one person. Cangzhou is known as the “Lion City”, and it houses the largest iron lion in China, cast in the third year of the Guangshun era of the Great Zhou. The people of Cangzhou have danced out the “learning of the lion dance”; Cangzhou lion dance has a transmission and development distinctive in style.

The civil lion of Xingji

Early Cangxian lion dance was chiefly the civil lion of Xingji, its art centred on teasing and imitating feline behaviour to a vigorous drum accompaniment.

The martial lion of Beizhang village

The martial lion grew out of the civil, absorbing stacking, wire-walking, benches, pole climbing, high tumbling and other martial and acrobatic feats, fast-drummed and highly technical.

Liuji-style innovations

The inheritor Yin Shaoshan created twenty difficult movements fusing acrobatics and martial arts and strengthened the percussion, founding the distinctive Liuji style.

Heavy heads and martial performers

Traditional heads weigh up to forty kilos and skins a further ten to fifteen, so both teaser and dancers must be seasoned martial artists.

The lion city and its iron lion

Cangzhou is known as the lion city and holds China's largest iron lion, cast in 953; its teams customarily field two or three great lions and one or two small.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The forms of lion dance differ from place to place across China, and their regional characteristics are very distinct. Cang County lion dance is divided into two categories, the civil lion and the martial lion.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

At present, with the transformation of society, apart from Beizhang and Liuji in Huangpu Township, Nanxiaoying in Zhifangtou Township and other villages, which still have a few lion dance teams, most other places no longer carry on this activity. Cang County lion dance faces a transmission predicament and urgently needs protection and support. Yin Shaoshan (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in January 1960, native of Cang County, Hebei Province. He learned lion dance in his own village's lion dance troupe from childhood, performing with the village troupe in the slack farming season. In 1991 he became head of the Liuji lion dance troupe of Cang County. On the basis of absorbing the essence of traditional lion dance he integrated acrobatics and martial arts into one, and successively created twenty high-difficulty movements such as three-dimensional upright spinning, stool-stamping play, stacked-lion display of might, and descending the mountain to seek treasure. He also deliberately strengthened the rhythmic sense and force of the percussion in order to fully display the mighty and valiant vigour of the northern lion, and thereby created a unique Liuji lion dance style. He led the Liuji lion dance troupe of Cang County to take part in various competitions and large public-welfare performance events, carrying Cang County lion dance to all parts of the country and abroad. In 2007 he founded the Cang County Lion Dance Training Institute, where students are trained all year round. Representative inheritor of the third batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project Lion Dance (Cang County Lion Dance).

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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