Lion Dance

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

01 · Historical Records

The history of Seven-Star Lion Dance being transmitted in Songgang and elsewhere dates from the late Qing and early Republican period and spans at least a little over a hundred years; it is connected with the local people's remembrance of Wen Tianxiang, the famous patriotic general of the Southern Song. In 1947 Wen Yan, aged only 9, from Shanmen Village of Songgang, Bao'an District, formally became a disciple of Jiao Xian, a transmitter of the 'Seven-Star Lion'.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Its principal difference from other lion dance performances lies in the fact that the accompanying gong-and-drum rhythm is 'seven beats and a half', and that it has several dance steps such as the 'liuma step' and the 'biao step', as well as several designs such as the 'dog type' and the 'crouching tiger type'. Songgang lies in the Pearl River Delta. Most of the original inhabitants of Songgang are descendants of the Wen clan, and the annual Seven-Star Lion Dance performance must always be held in front of the Wen clan ancestral hall; it embodies reverence for and transmission of Wen Tianxiang's lofty national integrity and martial spirit. Wen Yan is the second-generation transmitter of Songgang Seven-Star Lion Dance and also the twenty-sixth-generation grandnephew of Wen Tianxiang. The 'Shanmen Wen Yan Waking Lion Training Society' that he founded has become a lion-dance school of considerable renown in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Songgang Seven-Star Lion Dance is a folk dance rich in the regional character of the Lingnan area, with a considerable vocabulary of dance movements; especially in the 'teasing the snake' section the performer has to wrestle for a long time with a live cobra in dance form, which is rare in lion dance performance.

The seven-and-a-half beat

Its chief difference from other lion dances lies in the seven-and-a-half beat of its percussion, an asymmetric pulse governing the lion's steps and breathing.

The courser step and tiger-cub step

The dance's characteristic steps, used with the dog type and tiger-subduing type of lion, marking it off from other southern lion schools.

Dog and tiger-subduing forms

Several lion forms in the Songgang dance, whose differences directly determine the choice of technique and accompaniment.

Teasing the snake

Its rarest feat: the performer wrestles a live cobra through dance for an extended period; with the leader Wen Yan past seventy and no successor, the technique may be lost.

Lion calligraphy

The dance divides into martial lion, whose chief technique is snake-teasing, and civil lion, whose chief technique is lion calligraphy.

Before the Wen ancestral hall

As most Songgang residents descend from the Wen clan, the annual performance is always held before their ancestral hall, honouring Wen Tianxiang's integrity and martial spirit.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Songgang Seven-Star Lion Dance is a traditional dance distributed in Songgang Subdistrict of Bao'an District, Shenzhen City and in neighbouring areas. In its dance technique it is further divided into the 'martial lion' and the 'civil lion'; the principal dance of the 'martial lion' is 'teasing the snake', in which a live cobra is teased, while the principal dance of the 'civil lion' is 'lion calligraphy'.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

It has marked regional, traditional cultural and folkloric characteristics, and high historical, social, folklore-study and artistic-aesthetic value. At present Songgang Seven-Star Lion Dance faces a crisis in its transmission. Its leading figure Wen Yan is over seventy, and none of his disciples can yet take over completely; in particular the younger disciples dare not attempt the 'teasing the snake', and this unique skill may well be lost. Wen Yaisen (recorded in the official archive of associated inheritors): male, Han Chinese, born in January 1941, a native of Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province. In 2006 the subdistrict established a waking lion training society which recruited new pupils locally in Songgang to teach the Seven-Star lion technique, and it also took an active part in various waking lion activities and performances, and taught many apprentices in Hong Kong and other regions as well as in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, so that the skills of Seven-Star Lion Dance were better transmitted and developed. Representative inheritor of the fourth national-level intangible cultural heritage project Lion Dance (Songgang Seven-Star 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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