Dragon Dance (Lanxi guillotine)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Dragon Dance

Applicant: Lanxi City, Zhejiang Province

Item No.: 107

Project No.: Ⅲ - 4

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: traditional dance

Region: Zhejiang Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Lanxi City, Zhejiang Province

Protection unit: Lanxi she Township Customs Tourism Development Co., Ltd

Introduction to Dragon Dance (Lanxi guillotine)

Applicant: Lanxi City, Zhejiang 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.

Guillotine is a folk dragon dance which is popular in Shuiting She nationality township, Lanxi City, Zhejiang Province. Its origin is closely related to a long-standing folk story. It is said that during the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, there were many droughts. In order to save the common people, the Dragon King violated the Jade Emperor's will and rained heavily. He was beheaded and separated. People in Lanxi feel the favor of the Dragon King's life-saving. They make a decapitated dragon and dance along the street during the Spring Festival to commemorate it.

The most important feature of amputated dragon is the separation of head and body. The whole dragon is composed of dragon ball, dragon head and 7 dragon bodies. Dragon head and dragon ball can perform many sets of difficult skills independently. Every time the dragon body changes a pattern, dragon head and dragon ball will dance a routine. The dragon head, the dragon ball and the dragon body burn red candles. When they dance at night, the light and shadow twinkle and the colors are colorful. In the past 100 years, guillotine has been developing and innovating in its inheritance, forming more than 20 routines such as "shuangyuanbao", "jinguapeng" and "baxiandi". Later, there was an attempt to change "single dragon" into "double dragon".

The "decapitated dragon", which carries the people's deep affection for the Dragon King's kindness, dances out the people's grief and blessings for a bumper harvest. It is the product of national history. The whole dragon dance is varied, agile and light, with unique artistic blood. At present, due to the shrinking space for survival and development and the increasingly difficult inheritance, Lanxi guillotine is faced with the danger of extinction and needs urgent rescue and protection.