Dragon Dance (dragon lantern of Quzhou)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Dragon Dance (dragon lantern of Quzhou)

Applicant: Quzhou County, Hebei Province

Item No.: 107

Project No.: Ⅲ - 4

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: traditional dance

Region: Hebei Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Quzhou County, Hebei Province

Protected by: Quzhou Cultural Center

Dragon Dance (dragon lantern of Quzhou)

Applicant: Quzhou County, Hebei Province

Dragon dance, also known as "Dragon Dance", is the most widely distributed and far-reaching folk dance in China. This kind of dance has various forms of expression, and the styles of dragon dance in different nationalities and regions are quite different.

According to the shape of the dragon, there are many forms of dragon dance, such as cloth dragon, yarn dragon, paper dragon, grass dragon, Qian dragon, bamboo dragon, brown dragon, bench dragon, shutter dragon, lotus dragon, fire dragon, chicken feather dragon, meat dragon and so on. Different forms of dragon have different dance styles and techniques. The traditional performance procedure of Chinese dragon dance is generally composed of "invite the dragon", "leave the dragon", "dance the dragon" and "send the dragon". Dragon dance is an important part of the spirit and cultural heritage of the Chinese nation.

Quzhou dragon lantern originated in the Song Dynasty, is a unique traditional folk dance in Quzhou County, Hebei Province. It is said that in the Song Dynasty, Quzhou County suffered nine years of waterlogging, and the local farmers were in poverty. In order to pray for the Dragon King's blessing in good weather and bumper harvest, people specially made a dragon with a lamp in its body, named "dragon lantern", dancing to show their admiration for the Dragon King. Since then, the custom of lantern dance has been handed down from generation to generation and has continued to this day. The dragon lantern of Quzhou originated in Dongjie village and Nanfu village of Quzhou town. Now it has expanded to ten villages, and the dragon lantern of Dongjie village is the most typical.

The dragon lantern of the Quzhou Dynasty has a unique style. The dragon lantern is made of bamboo strips. It is powerful and majestic. It has the spirit of dominating the world and swallowing the wasteland. Dragon dance performance is basically carried out at night. The dragon lantern guard of honor is large-scale, and the dance method is strange and changeable. There are more than 20 kinds of performance methods, such as Panlong, rolling dragon, drilling dragon, running dragon and so on. At the beginning of the performance, drummers beat gongs and drums, and paper fish, turtles, shrimps, crabs, mussels and other aquariums led the way in front of the dragon. Then the ten dragon dancers set out with the drum, the red spider leaping up and down, the dragon's head biting the spider tightly, and the dragon's body dancing in an inverted arc one by one. The scene was hot and warm. The oil twist lit in the dragon lantern reflects the scales dancing with the dance, showing the effect of light or dark. The torchbearer danced the fireworks and emitted the fireball with thick smoke, which covered the whole performance with a layer of mysterious and hazy color.

Quzhou dragon lantern is a typical representative of Han dragon lantern dance, and its round body dragon lantern is a unique creation. At present, due to the shortage of funds, production and performance without guarantee, lack of reserve talents and other reasons, the dragon lantern of Quzhou is facing a serious survival crisis, which needs to be rescued.