How to describe the lion head of the lion dance

The Foshan Zazuo Lion Dance originated in the Ming Dynasty and emerged in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Legend has it that in the Ming Dynasty, there was a one-horned monster in Foshan, with big eyes and wide mouth, making strange cries of "Lian Lian", which the people called "Lian Beast". The beast often night out to spoil crops, livestock, making the chicken and dogs, so the people agreed to eliminate the beast, according to the king of beasts known as the lion image characteristics, with bamboo, colored paper made of fierce shape of the lion, and then made into a lion body with colored cloth, selecting the strong man wearing a lion's head, with gongs and drums, ambush in the place where the beast is infested. When the beast appeared, the gongs and drums, "group of lions" fierce to the beast rushed to the beast, the beast was scared and fled. After that, the monster never appeared again. Therefore, the lion dance has become a custom and gradually spread in the folklore. To the Qing Dynasty Qianlong years, Foshan has a "lion head" production line, many places, organizations customized Foshan lion head.

Foshan lion head is based on the Guangdong stone lion modeling characteristics, based on the resemblance of God, modeling and decorative design are used to exaggerate and romantic expression. Its biggest feature is the vivid shape, colorful and beautiful, exquisite and sturdy production. The shape of Foshan lion's head is generally double gills, round lips, bright teeth, tongue, and behind the two corners of the mouth, there are fine gills and nine fine wings. Artists also envisioned an original lion's horn, make it a fist (head) corner, (bamboo) bamboo shoots, (hemp) eagle corner, ao fish corner, the shape is very eye-catching, so there is a "Foshan lion" called. Craftsmen also created a "soft color lion", the forehead decorated with two dragons playing beads, the back of the head is decorated with a pair of phoenix sunrise, the two eyeballs flashing, the lion's head to the surrounding turn flexible and equipped with velvet beads, star mirrors, mirror each other. The color of the lion head is roughly divided into seven colors, black and white, red and white, big flower face, two flower face and other colors, which are colored with reference to the faces of classical opera characters Liu Bei, Guan Gong and Zhang Fei. Each lion's head, are equipped with more than 100 colorful velvet beads, more than 300 copper mirror pieces (or gold film), glossy, bright and colorful.

The Foshan lion's head is a very complex process, mainly divided into four processes: zazu, paper, writing color and assembly, but the four processes are broken down into more than 1,300 steps.

The zazu, with thin bamboo gabions to tie out the vivid and strong lion head shape, with wire to fix each joint. The shape of the lion's head must meet the requirements of a full head, smooth lines, a wide mouth with a smile, large and bright eyes that can be turned, an almond nose, and bright teeth. This is the most difficult, the most important step in the lion's head, difficult because it does not have standard data to implement, but all rely on the master to master the size of the proportion of experience, and once tied into the lion's head is basically stereotyped, the process can not make up for its shortcomings. Tied for the lion's head of the bamboo gabion generally with Qingyuan bamboo, the second point of Guangning bamboo, Qingyuan bamboo with yellow, very flexible and strong, the lion's head to be able to withstand ten times its own weight and not deformed.

Puff paper, that is, in the bamboo gabions tied on the skeleton of the pounced on the gauze, gauze, silk, and so on. Generally a large lion head to pounce six layers of gauze, so as to make the lion head strong and durable, in the process of lion dance with the lion dancers to display the up and down leaps and not easy to damage. Now the new popularity of the new style of lion head is relatively simple, pouncing on two layers of paper after the clip cloth, and then pouncing on a layer of gauze on it. To achieve a smooth surface of the lion's head, the lines are rounded and proportional, on the "pouncing" skills require a high degree of sophistication. New-style lion head in addition to gauze, but also used a lot of new materials, such as laser film, reflective beads yarn fluorescent paper, etc., rich in the color of the lion head.

Writing color, the old-style lion head is colored in white gauze paper, the color is mostly bright bright red, yellow, green, black and other colors contrast. Lion head decoration focuses on festive motifs and emphasizes the theme of good luck, usually lined with traditional auspicious motifs such as polka dots, flames, spirals, ruyi and grass tails in addition to the theme colors. Since the Foshan lion head shape is combined with the art of face painting in drama, it is more particular about the color. Liu Bei and Guan Yu are used as faces to show the pure and gentle demeanor; Zhang Fei is used as a face to reflect the combative and courageous character. So the old craftsmen will say, the final completion of the lion's head, there is no spirit to rely on writing color performance. Because of the color to write their own color to grasp, hand-drawn, can write a striking color is also a test of the master's level.

Assembly, the last process of zazu lion head, is to paste decorations on the lion head. Foshan lion head is very concerned about the decorative effect, the lion's forehead, the lion's horn, the lion's nose, eye cover and other places to be decorated with various colors of fluff, horse tail mane decorated in the upper and lower eyelashes, eyebrows, whiskers, etc., the lion's forehead in the middle of the installation of a mirror, and there are many small metal, pom pom, small copper mirror, etc. to be glued in all places, so the assembly is also a detailed and complicated work.

Lion dance is generally composed of six people: the lion dance, a lion dance long, a person to remove the tail (was) to show the long body movement form, a person wearing a "Buddha Gong" mask in front of the head to guide the hand pulling the 'big Kwai fan to attract the lion forward (there are also "Yao Gong", "Tao Gong", "Tao" and so on), the lion dance is also a delicate work. ", "Peach Lady" two people with the guide), with the lion competing Shao play, for the lion dance adds a lot of fun. Three people walk behind the lion with gongs and drums. Lion dance two people move in close coordination, with the drums and gongs fast, steamed, light, reason will make the lion alive, dancing out of the thousands of forms, giving a person a kind of artistic enjoyment. Lion dance completely listen to the sucking sound command, and martial arts combined together, this is a highly generalized typical southern lion dance performing arts, and the northern lion dance is completely different.

Now, the lion dance has been a folkloric traditional entertainment, martial arts activities throughout South China, Hong Kong, Macao and Southeast Asia, as well as Europe and the United States in the Chinese region is also common in this folkloric traditional activities.