Lion Dance (Songgang Seven Star lion dance)

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

Applicant: Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province

Item No.: 108

Project No.: Ⅲ - 5

Time of publication: 2011 (the third batch)

Category: traditional dance

Region: Guangdong Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province

Protection unit: Party construction service center of Songgang street, Bao'an District, Shenzhen (personnel service center of Songgang street, Bao'an District, Shenzhen; Activity Center for retired cadres of Songgang street, Bao'an District, Shenzhen; community education center of Songgang street, Bao'an District, Shenzhen; culture and sports center of Songgang street, Bao'an District, Shenzhen; labor security service center of Songgang street, Bao'an District, Shenzhen)

Introduction to lion dance (Songgang Seven Star lion dance)

Applicant: Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province

Songgang Seven Star lion dance is a traditional dance distributed in Songgang street and adjacent areas of Bao'an District, Shenzhen city. The main difference between it and other lion dance performances is that the accompaniment rhythm of gongs and drums is "seven beats and a half", and there are many dance steps such as "Liuma step", "Biao step", and several shapes such as "dog type" and "Fu Hu type". It is also divided into "Wu Shi" and "Wen Shi" in dance methods. The main dance methods of "Wu Shi" are "Tiao snake" (Tiao live Cobra), and the main dance method of "Wen Shi" is "lion calligraphy".

Songgang is located in the Pearl River Delta. Since the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, the Seven Star lion dance has been spread in Songgang and other places for at least one hundred years, which is related to the local people's nostalgia for the famous patriotic general Wen Tianxiang of the Southern Song Dynasty. Most of the aborigines in Songgang are descendants of Wen family. The annual Seven Star lion dance must be held in front of Wen family ancestral hall, which contains the respect and inheritance of Wen Tianxiang's righteous national integrity and martial spirit.

In 1947, at the age of 9, Wen Yan, a descendant of the "Seven Star lion", formally worshipped Jiao Xian as his teacher. Wen Yan is the second generation descendant of Songgang Seven Star lion dance, and also the 26th generation nephew of Wen Tianxiang. His "Shanmen Wenyan lion dance training club" has become a well-known lion dance school in Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

Songgang Seven Star lion dance is a folk dance with Lingnan regional characteristics. The dance vocabulary is quite rich, especially in the "snake tease" link. The performer needs a long time to fight with the live cobra in the form of dance, which is rare in lion dance performance. It has distinct regional characteristics, traditional cultural characteristics, folk characteristics and high historical value, social value, folklore value and artistic aesthetic value.

At present, there is a crisis in the inheritance of Songgang Seven Star lion dance. Wen Yan, the leader of the army, is over sixty years old, and none of his disciples has been able to take over the whole team, especially "tease the snake". The young disciples dare not try it, and this unique skill may be lost.