On September 29th, a tour event was held in Rongcheng District, Jieyang City, where theYingge dance and lion dance were performed together to showcase the traditional folk customs of Chaoshan.
The lion dance, a customary practice in Jieyang, is considered one of China’s oldest traditional cultures. It is a multifaceted art that combines martial arts, dance, and technique. During the event, four lion dance teams, including 100 lions, and four Yingge teams from across the city performed together accompanied by drums and gongs. The teams moved and leapt, leaving the audience in excitement. “It’s such a wonderful experience to see all the performances in one go!”
According to Yang Yongwu, director of the Jieyang Lion Dance Culture Research Center and inheritor of the “Jieyang Lion Dance” intangible cultural heritage project in Guangdong Province, they carefully planned and prepared for their tour in advance. The team sent out 26 pairs of lions, including four pairs of children’s lions and two big head Buddhas leading performing lions with 10-meter war flags. The event featured various performances such as lion formations (including salute cannons) and women’s lion performances. Additionally, they acquired new performance costumes for the occasion.
At the scene, four teams from Puning City, a county-level city in Jieyang, including Nigou Yingge Team, Fumei Youth Yingge Team, Nanshan Yingge Team, and Yuanshan Yingge Team showed off their excellent skills. The actors wore bright costumes and waved colorful dance sticks up and down in their hands. They danced while walking with spirited crisps and postures by tiptoeing, lifting their legs, jumping up. Their vigorous dance moves and majestic momentum shocked the audience.
“You have to start with ‘Yingge Wu’ from an early age!” At the scene, a child who was only four or five years old also joined the Yingge dance performance as a “little guide”. His dance moves were so cute that caused cheers from the audience. Xia Junxing, the leader of the Yuanshan Yingge Team from Puning City, said that as Yingge Dance has become popular throughout China, they have started to do a good job in inheriting intangible cultural heritage from an early age. They allow children to observe and learn action essentials unconsciously during daily training so that folk treasures will not be lost.
It is understood that Puning Yingge dance is a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in China. It is a unique folk dance with a performance style that is vigorous, majestic, rough, and heroic, embodying valuable qualities and spiritual styles such as courage, strength, unity and struggle. In addition, as a kind of magnificent group dance with masculine beauty, Yingge Dance which shows a heroic spirit is considered by people to be a symbol of promoting righteousness over evil and auspicious peace.
After the stage performance, 100 dancing lions and four Yingge dance teams brought their tour performance together in Rongcheng District, which attracted citizen and tourist crowds to watch amidst drums and gongs. The traditional folk performances triggered a tourism boom comparable to a live concert.
Jieyang ancient city tour “ignites” Mid-Autumn Festival cultural tourism craze
“Lion Dance” and “English Song and Dance” are performed on the same stage, giving you a glimpse of the traditional folk customs of Chaoshan! On September 29, an ancient city parade was held in Rongcheng Ancient City, Jieyang City.
Lion dance is a traditional activity in Jieyang area and one of China’s long-standing traditional cultures. Jieyang lion dance pays more attention to skills and is a comprehensive art that integrates martial arts, dance and skills. Accompanied by bursts of exciting gongs and drums, 4 lion dance teams with 100 lions and 4 English singing teams from all over the city performed on the same stage. During the tour of the city, the teams “walked and danced”, causing the audience to cheer and exclaim: “Watch this all at once.” It’s a wonderful show, it’s so lively!”
Yang Yongwu, the inheritor of the Guangdong Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage “Jieyang Lion Dance” project and the head of the Jieyang Lion Dance Culture Research Center, said that they planned this parade in advance and prepared carefully, and sent a total of 26 double southern lions to participate, including 4 There are two small southern lions for children, and there are two small big-headed Buddhas to lead the lions. Performances such as a 10-meter battle flag majestic drum array, female southern lion performances, collective lion array (including salute) and other performances have been arranged. Brand-new performance costumes have also been purchased. .
The reporter saw at the scene that four teams from Puning City in Jieyang, including the Nigou Ying Singing Troupe, the Fumei Youth Ying Singing Troupe, the Nanshan Ying Singing Troupe and the Yuanshan Ying Singing Troupe, showed off their heroic performances. The actors wore bright costumes. The colorful dance mallets were flying up and down in their hands, and they stood on tiptoes, raised their legs, soared, and fell with crisp and heroic postures. They walked and danced, shocking the audience with their vigorous and unrestrained dance postures and majestic and heroic momentum.
“Young singing and dancing should start from an early age!” At the scene, a child who was only four or five years old also joined the singing and dancing performance, “exploring the path” for the team as a “youngster”, and his stylish dance attracted everyone’s attention. cheers. Xia Junxing, leader of the Puning Yuanshan Ying Singing Team, said that as Ying singing and dancing became popular all over the country, they “started from childhood” to inherit the intangible cultural heritage, and subtly let the children observe and learn the essentials of movements in daily training, “so that the folk treasures will not be forgotten” As for having no successors.”
It is understood that Puning Yingge is a national intangible cultural heritage and a unique national folk dance. The performance style is powerful, vigorous, rough and heroic, embodying the valuable character and spiritual outlook of courage, strength, unity and struggle, and courage. . In addition, as a majestic and masculine group dance, Yingge dance shows heroic fighting spirit and heroic spirit, and is considered by the people to be a symbol of promoting good and suppressing evil, auspiciousness and peace.
After the stage performance, 100 dancing lions and 4 heroic singing troupes formed 4 heroic singing lion troupes and entered the ancient city one after another for a tour, attracting many citizens and tourists. The ancient city of Rongcheng was noisy with gongs and drums, and the crowds were huge. The traditional folk performances triggered excitement. The boom in cultural tourism is comparable to the “star chasing” scene.
Text and pictures | Reporter Lu Jiazhen Correspondent Xu Chuangsheng
Translated | Chen Xuan
Editor | Wang Nan
Proofreading | Ma Manting
