Lion Dance

Ⅲ-5Traditional DanceMeizhou, GuangdongBatch 2 (2008)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

During the Datong era of Emperor Wenzong of the Tang dynasty, Buddhism was introduced to Meizhou and combined with local culture to form the distinctive “xianghua” school.

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. The mat lion dance is also called “playing the mat lion” (daxishi wu). It is a traditional dance peculiar to the Hakka people within the suburban area of Chengjiao, Meijiang District, Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, and is a unique item of “xianghua” Buddhist ritual. In ancient times the people of Meizhou mostly lived along mountains and close to water; their houses were low and small and their dwellings were extremely scattered. Whenever a death occurred, it often had to be attended to day and night and lasted a very long time, and so the accommodation of the clan relatives and friends attending the funeral became a problem that was not easy to solve. Under these circumstances, the mat lion dance in “xianghua” Buddhist ritual helped people express their grief in a special way and bless the living with health and peace, and thus became an important link in the funeral. The mat lion dance wins through resemblance. When the activity takes place, the performers cover their bodies with straw mats and imitate the walking and leaping of a lion. The whole performance includes links such as “bringing out the lion”, “leading the lion”, “dancing the lion”, “planting the green”, “stealing the green”, “hiding the green”, “snatching the green”, “teasing the lion” and “entering the lion”, taking about twenty minutes from beginning to end. During the performance, gongs, drums, cymbals and the Hakka great gong-and-drum ensemble accompany from the side. The mat lion dance is deeply loved by the people of Meizhou for its humorous performance style and its distinct Hakka character. The props and accompanying instruments it uses are plain and simple, revealing a beauty of rustic intimacy, with something of the meaning of “singing by the earthenware basin” and “using long songs in place of weeping”. The mat lion dance has therefore become an important part of the funeral culture of Meizhou.

Bringing out, leading and dancing the lion

The first three of the nine episodes, danced under a straw mat in pursuit of likeness, to gongs, drums, cymbals and Hakka great gongs, the whole lasting some twenty minutes.

Planting, stealing, hiding and seizing the greens

The middle episodes, in which the greens provide the thread linking a sequence of actions, turning mourning into a plotted, suspenseful performance.

Teasing and concluding the lion

The closing episodes, which with the earlier ones help the bereaved express grief and wish peace to the living.

The straw mat costume

The performer covers himself with a straw mat to imitate a lion; the simplicity of props and instruments gives a plain, intimate beauty akin to singing at the coffin.

Hakka gongs and Xianghua rites

A dance peculiar to Hakka Meijiang and unique to the Xianghua Buddhist rite, which formed after Buddhism reached Meizhou in the Tang and blended with local culture.

One monk and three lions

A form developed by the inheritor Shi Baohua from the original one-monk-one-lion pattern; he commands every difficult technique and has taught dozens of disciples over forty years.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The forms of lion dance differ from place to place across China, and their regional characteristics are very distinct.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance · Lion Dance.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

In recent years this traditional dance faces a survival crisis and urgently needs to be rescued and protected. Chi Hongqing (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Dharma name Shi Baohua, male, Han ethnicity, born in April 1960, native of Meizhou City, Guangdong Province. He is now the abbot of Bifeng Temple in Dongjiao, Meijiang District, Meizhou City, and a xianghua monk of the Hengshantang lineage of Meizhou Hakka xianghua Buddhism. Influenced by his father's generation from childhood, he loves and is absorbed in the mat lion dance performance of xianghua Buddhist ritual; from the age of seven he often practised standing, squatting and striding techniques together with his father. At fifteen he became a disciple of Shi Zhanglong and Shi Danhua and studied assiduously the content of xianghua Buddhist ritual and the performance techniques of the xianghua ritual implements; after completing his training at nineteen he went on studying in greater depth. He masters the various high-difficulty techniques of the mat lion and, on the basis of preserving the original-ecology single-monk single-lion performance, has developed the performance form of single-monk three-lion. The mat lion he performs is exquisite and lifelike, fierce in expression, nimble in leaping and free in tumbling. Representative inheritor of the fifth batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project Lion Dance (Mat Lion Dance). He has worked in the art for more than forty years, taking part in various performances at home and abroad, winning a number of awards and teaching more than several dozen disciples.

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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