Lion Dance (Xushui lion dance)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Lion Dance (Xushui lion dance)

Applicant: Xushui County, Hebei Province

Item No.: 108

Project No.: Ⅲ - 5

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: traditional dance

Region: Hebei Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Xushui County, Hebei Province

Protection unit: cultural center of Xushui District, Baoding City

Introduction to lion dance (Xushui lion dance)

Applicant: Xushui County, Hebei Province

Lion dance, also known as "Lion Dance", "lion lantern", "Lion Dance" and "Lion Dance", is performed in festivals and festive activities. The lion is a auspicious animal in the eyes of the Chinese people of all nationalities, symbolizing good luck. Therefore, in the lion dance activities, it reposes the good will of the people to eliminate disasters and seek good luck. Lion dance has a long history. The "Elephant Man" recorded in Hanshu · Liyue Zhi is the predecessor of lion dance. There are many vivid descriptions of lion dance in Tang and Song poetry. The existing lion dance can be divided into two categories: South lion and north lion. South lion has more difficult martial arts skills and has a vigorous and fierce look. North lion is charming and cute, and most of them take playing as the performance content. According to the different materials and methods of making fake lion, there are many kinds of lion dance in different places.

Hebei is the birthplace of Beishi. The Lion Club of Beili village in Xushui county was founded in 1925. It existed as a folk Flower Club and developed rapidly after the founding of the people's Republic of China.

The lion dance in Xushui mainly takes place during the Spring Festival and the temple Dharma Assembly in spring. The former holds props in both hands to play the lion's head, while the latter holds the former's waist with both hands and puts on a lion's skin made of ox hair to play the lion's body. The two cooperate to play a big lion, which is called Tai lion. The other one wears a lion's head mask and a lion's skin to play a small lion The son is called the little lion; the one who holds the embroidered ball to amuse the lion is called the lion leading man. Lion leading Lang plays an important role in the whole lion dance. He should not only have heroic spirit, but also have good martial arts skills. He can perform such actions as "flying over the lion in the front", "flying over the high table in the back", "turning over the plum blossom pile in the cloud" and so on. It is an important feature of lion dance in the north that the lion leader and the lion cooperate with each other. The basic characteristics of Xushui lion dance are exaggerated appearance, round head, flexible eyes and wide mouth. It is powerful and powerful, but also naive. It can simulate the lion's actions such as watching, standing, walking, running, jumping, rolling, sleeping and shaking hair. It can also show "playing bench", "plum blossom pile", "jumping pile", "jumping between piles", "bright moving shape" and "360 degree" Some difficult skills, such as twisting and bending, independent single pile jumping, forward somersault two-stage down pile, backward somersault down pile, etc.

Xu Shui lion dance plays an important role in China's folk art performance. In 1953, he went to Beijing to participate in the national folk art performance, and visited and performed many times on behalf of the country. He won the first prize in the competition of "the fourth World Youth Festival" held in Bucharest, Romania. Hebei Acrobats Association officially named Beili village as "the hometown of acrobatic lion dance" in October 2001. At present, due to the high cost of lion dance props and the difficulty of training new people, Xushui lion dance is facing the inheritance crisis, which needs to be rescued and supported by relevant departments.