Folk Culture

Dragon and lion dance is a cultural treasure of the Chinese nation with a history of more than 2,000 years. The dragon and lion dance symbolizes prosperity and good luck, rich in strong national colors and unique traditional artistry, and is the essence of the bright culture of the Chinese nation. In people's memories, there are gongs and drums accompanied by dragons dancing to music. The dragon dance combines jumping, pouncing, climbing, flipping, stepping on balls and other difficult maneuvers, making it a delightful event. Therefore, the Dragon and Lion Dance has become the best folk activity to celebrate the festive season. Today's Dragon and Lion Dance, which has been transformed from a folk cultural and sports activity into a sport integrating martial arts and acrobatics, with its high level of skill development, wide range of coverage, and its future diversified development, everywhere shows the new charm of this ancient fitness and recreation program of the times. Dragon and lion dance by the world and the people of all ethnic groups, passed down from generation to generation, enduring, thus forming a rich and splendid national traditional culture - dragon and lion culture.

Introduction of Dragon and Lion Dance:

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China is the birthplace of Dragon and Lion Dance. Since its inception, dragon and lion dances have been loved by people of all races, and have been passed down from generation to generation, flourishing, and thus forming an extremely splendid dragon and lion culture.

Dragon and lion dance in China, originally a spontaneous, entertaining, casual folk traditional cultural and sports activities. After more than two thousand years of development, its form, a wide variety of styles and schools of colorful. The lion dance is divided into the southern lion and the northern lion, the northern lion moves lightly, mainly jumping and tumbling, and is popular in the central plains of north China and parts of south and east China; the southern lion is big and powerful, and the drums and music are majestic and exhilarating, and is prevalent in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Singapore and other places. There are nearly a hundred kinds of dragon dances, including fire dragon, grass dragon, cloth dragon, paper dragon, segment dragon, basket dragon and lantern dragon. In the traditional custom, people regard the dragon as the embodiment of good luck, and the dragon dance is practiced in every place during festivals. In the old days, when there was a long drought in some places, there was the custom of dancing dragons for rain.

In modern times, the dragon and lion dance movement with the migration of Chinese and spread to all over the world, in the past decade, many countries and regions in Southeast Asia has been the development of the dragon dance, lion dance movement has become a sports competition, international dragon and lion dance competitions have increased year by year, the modern dragon and lion dance, has been by the general performance activities, the development of a set of recreation, festivals, athletics and fitness in one of the many functions of cultural and sports activities, and began to standardize the dragon dance, and started on the way to a new level. activities, and began to embark on a standardized, scientific, competitive, international development track.

In order to promote the popularization of dragon dance and lion dance in China and worldwide, the State General Administration of Sports established the China Dragon and Lion Dance Sports Association in 1995, and has held many international and domestic dragon and lion dance events. At present, the International Dragon and Lion Dance Federation has also been established in the international arena, headquartered in Beijing.

The origin of the Dragon Dance:

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The Dragon Dance originated in the Han Dynasty, and has continued through the ages. The dragon dance was initially used as a ritual to worship ancestors and pray for sweet rain, and then gradually became a recreational activity. In the Tang and Song dynasties, the dragon dance was a common form of expression during the New Year's festivals.

On the origin of the Dragon Dance, there is a folk legend: one day, the Dragon King's back pain was unbearable, all the drugs in the Dragon Palace ate, but still not effective. Had to become an old man came to the earth to seek medical treatment. The doctor touched the pulse was very strange, asked: "You are not a person, right! The dragon king saw no way to hide, had to tell the truth. So the doctor let him back to his original form, from the waist of the scale armor to catch a centipede. After the poison was removed and medicine was applied, the dragon king recovered completely. In order to thank him for his treatment, the king said to the doctor, "If you make a dragon dance as I do, you will have good weather and good harvests. After this incident, people thought that the dragon can make rain, every drought will dance dragon praying for rain, and there are spring dance green dragon, summer dance red dragon, fall dance white dragon, winter dance black dragon rules.

The origin of the lion dance:

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The lion dance began in the North and South Dynasties. In China, there are various forms of lion dance, which can be roughly categorized into northern lion dance and southern lion dance. The appearance of the northern lion dance is very similar to the real lion, the whole body covered with a lion phi, the lion dancers (generally two people dance a big lion) only feet, not see their people. Northern Lion Dance has female and male, there are cultural lions, martial arts lions, into the lion, cub lion. The southern lion dance is mainly popular in Guangdong. This kind of lion dance consists of one person dancing the lion's head and one person dancing the lion's tail. The shape, style and color of the lion are different from the northern lion. The lion dancers wear various kinds of lantern pants, and on top of them, they wear the lantern-sleeved shirts or undershirts of the Tang costume with Miyu buttons, which can be seen on the whole body of the lion dancers. The lion dancers have to put on their best foot forward.

Legend has it that in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, a monster appeared in Foshan, Guangdong Province, at the turn of the new and old years, it would come out and trample the crops, injuring people and animals, and the people complained of endless suffering. Later, someone suggested using the lion dance to scare the beast, and it worked, the beast escaped. The local people believe that the lion has the power to drive away evil spirits and suppress demons, and there are auspicious omens, so every Spring Festival will be banging gongs and drums, door-to-door, lion dance to pay tribute to the New Year in order to eliminate disasters and harm, and to forecast auspicious intentions.

Modern dragon and lion sports features:

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Modern competitive dragon dance is represented by the nine-section cloth dragon. The dragon body is 18 meters long, danced by 10 people (1 dragon bead, 9 dragon dancers) on a 20*20 meters square level field. Dragon dancers in the marching dynamics to complete the "dragon" cruising, undulating, tumbling, crossing and other actions, the use of a variety of human postures will be strength, amplitude, speed, endurance, etc. rubbed in the dragon dance skills, or dynamic or static, composed of beautiful images of the dragon's sculpture, to show the dragon's essence of the charm of the dragon, to show the dragon symbolized by the Chinese people's spirit of the spirit of competition.

Modern Jingjia lion dance originated in the 80's, by the lion's head, lion's tail composed of a single lion, in the long 10-14 meters, the highest not more than 3 meters, the lowest not lower than 0.8 meters of the pile array, the use of a variety of footsteps footwork, through the prancing, scooting, flashing, pouncing, pirouettes, leaping, and other difficult movements interpretation of the lion joy, anger, sadness, joy, movement, static, shock, doubt, the eight state, to show the lion's ferocity and strength. In the process of the performance, its soothing and gentle place, people can not help but clap their hands; its flying, jumping time, let a person trembling and heart-breaking and uplifting.