Lion Dance

Ⅲ-5Traditional DanceJieyang, GuangdongBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The green lion, popularly called the 'green lion with white brows' and also called the 'open-mouth lion', is a traditional lion dance unique to the Chaoshan region, and is especially flourishing in Rongcheng, Jieyang. The Sun clan of Nanmen in Rongcheng migrated from Jinging in Yuhu, the former seat of Jieyang County, and on days of ancestral sacrifice or celebration they have always danced the green lion; this has continued for more than three hundred years. In Chaoshan, early lion dancing had, besides the functions of martial training and entertainment, the meaning of driving away epidemic ghosts; to this day the Rongcheng area of Jieyang City, Guangdong Province, still keeps the custom of dancing the green lion to ward off evil, and lion dancing has therefore long been bound up with martial arts halls, ancestral clan halls and seasonal sacrificial rites.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Sun clan of Nanmen in Rongcheng migrated from Jinging in Yuhu, the former seat of Jieyang County, and has always danced the green lion on days of ancestral sacrifice or celebration, a practice that has continued for more than three hundred years. The 'head' of the green lion has a protruding forehead, tall nostrils, eyes like bronze bells, a long curly beard and mane, and a fierce, imposing appearance. The principal movements of the green lion performance are the 'lion-beating sections', also called 'nipping the louse' or 'capping the head'. According to legend these comprise eighteen sets of routines: the lion bites the foot, the lion nips the louse, the sleeping lion, the lion turns over, treading the seven stars, stepping the eight trigrams, the lion crosses the bridge, playing the lion, rescuing the lion, table-top skills, table-top well-probing, the lion cuts blood, biting fruit, snatching the money, biting the green, the lion receives the gift, worshipping at the temple, and four gates straight through. In addition, the green lion also performs 'cai qing', the plucking of the greens, which includes 'high greens' and 'ground greens'. High greens performance includes three techniques: holding up the pillar of heaven, climbing onto the dish and mounting the shoulder; ground greens performance has many varieties, such as orange greens, coiling greens, eight-trigram greens, seven-stars-accompanying-the-moon greens, venomous-snake greens, bridgehead greens and crab greens.

The eighteen-part lion routine

The principal action of the green lion, also called catching lice or the head set, traditionally comprising eighteen linked routines.

Named episodes of the eighteen

Episodes within the eighteen, alongside lion crossing the bridge, teasing and rescuing the lion, table work, snatching money, biting the greens, greeting gifts, temple worship and the four gates.

High greens

The high-altitude techniques of plucking the greens, demanding the dancer take them from stacked props or a human pillar; the inheritor Sun Shuqiang added ladder plucking.

Ground greens

The ground-level routines of plucking the greens, drawing on everyday objects and folk tales, including orange greens, coiled greens, bagua greens and snake greens.

The lion as an exorcist

Beyond martial practice and entertainment, early Chaoshan lion dance served to expel plague spirits, and the custom of dancing the green lion to ward off evil persists in Rongcheng.

The Sun family lineage

The inheritor Sun Shuqiang, son of the martial artist Sun Zheng-gao, learned boxing, lion making and ritual from the age of six, later building a teaching base, martial hall and bone-setting clinic.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The 'green lion', popularly called the 'green lion with white brows' and also called the 'open-mouth lion', is a traditional lion dance unique to the Chaoshan region and deeply marked by local characteristics. The green lion dance is a form of lion dance unique to the Jieyang area, with distinctive local features. The 'head' of the green lion has a protruding forehead, tall nostrils, eyes like bronze bells, a long curly beard and mane, and a fierce, imposing look, and its design is markedly different from the other schools of the southern lion. Its dance technique is rooted in a foundation of martial arts, stressing a steady lower body and force in the upper limbs, and it is accompanied by the Chaozhou gong-and-drum music, giving it a fierce and vigorous momentum. Its performance combines high-altitude techniques such as picking the greens from a high ladder, holding up the pillar of heaven, climbing onto the dish and mounting the shoulder with ground-green routines such as coiling greens, eight-trigram greens, seven-stars-accompanying-the-moon greens, venomous-snake greens, bridgehead greens and crab greens; it is a form of lion dance unique to the Jieyang area.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

In Chaoshan, early lion dancing had, besides the functions of martial training and entertainment, the meaning of driving away epidemic ghosts; to this day the Rongcheng area of Jieyang City, Guangdong Province, still keeps the custom of dancing the green lion to ward off evil. Sun Shuqiang (recorded in the official archive of associated inheritors): male, Han Chinese, born in July 1974, a native of Jieyang City, Guangdong Province. He comes from a family of martial artists in eastern Guangdong and is the son of the martial artist Sun Zhengao. At six he began to learn martial arts, the craft of making green lions, lion dancing technique and the lion-art folk traditions from his father. He both inherited the traditional technique of the waking lion and, drawing on his own mastery of martial arts, developed high-difficulty techniques such as picking the greens from a high ladder. He established an inheritance base for green lion dancing, with activities reaching military camps, towns and schools, and training courses held every year with a hundred or more participants each time. At the same time he opened a martial arts hall and founded a bone-injury research centre, building a supporting system for the development of the green lion technique. The green lion troupe he leads takes part in all kinds of large events and has won praise and favourable comments. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level intangible cultural heritage project Lion Dance (Green Lion).

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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