*Gauze Dragon Dance of Hetang Town
*Gauze Dragon Dance of Hetang Town
Nominating Unit: Pengjiang District, City of Jiangmen
Hetang Gauze Dragon got its name from its originating place——Hetang Township of City of Jiangmen. Legend has it that Li Tangzuo of Huangwan village, Hetang Township used to serve as a government official in Sichuan Province. After service, he returned his hometown, and improved the local grass dragon with features of a “colored dragon” from Sichuan, and created the first gauze dragon lantern. Later, in the early 20th century, the village fellow Li Yuying who had traveled to Japan made further improvement from the techniques of Japanese dragon dance, and gradually Hetang Gauze Dragon came into being.
Hetang Gauze Dragon is more than 50 meters long. Its most prominent feature is that the dragon body is made of specially made light-weight gauze, with gold coin-like red and yellow silk pads as the dragon’s scales. Inside the body there are candles with wind and drop protective mechanisms. Especially, when it is lit up in the evening, the whole dragon body becomes translucent and glows brilliantly. When it is played, golden light shines through, like a floating rainbow.
Hetang Gauze Dragon is formed on a whole set of martial art and combines varying “lines” with difficult “points”. It varies from a 2-dimentional to 3-dimentional style. The 2-dimentional style is used for marching forward, and consists of changeful movements, such as bowing in front of god, welcoming the dragon, zigzag walk, double rings, round dragon, double fish, etc. The 3-dimentional style is more acrobatic, with such patterns as Fanji, double gate, encircling, playing with the pearl, jumping dragon, lotus pillars, Haitang blossom, fi sh jumping through gate, etc. Among them, Fanji and jumping dragon are highly difficult tricks. There are more than 20 kinds of steps, including dogtrot, giant steps, bow steps, and intertwined steps, etc. Agility and lightness are most important for the dancing steps. The whole dragon dance lasts around one hour. It includes many patterns and changes and requires a lot of skills. There are difficult stunts one after another, so are the climaxes. Most impressively, the candles inside the dragon body never go out. Altogether 26 dancers come onto the stage in turn to relay the performance, without stopping the dance or disrupting the formation. It is called “impossible stunt”.(https://www.daowen.com)
Hetang Gauze Dragon is mostly played on important festivals and celebrations, or gods’ birthdays and temple fairs. There are special “eye drawing” and “dragon watering” ceremonies before the performance. It can be performed in a square or on a stage. It can even be performed on a 30-meter long bridge over a fi sh pond, which is called “dragon bridge dance”. The dragon on the bridge echoes the dragon’s reflection in the water, bringing reality into illusion, and forming a astonishing scene of “firing dragons in the sea”. It is called a stunt of southern China.
Hetang Township is named “Homeland for Folk Art in Guangdong Province” by the provincial Department of Culture for the creativity and rich local features that the gauze dragon brings. It is also named “Homeland for Folk Art in China” by the Minstry of Culture.
There is much creativity in the making as well as performing forms and styles of Hetang Gauze Dragon, and it bears great cultural value. However, due to the transformation of social life and the influence of new means of entertainment, the living condition of this art form is threatened and facing a breakdown on its transmission. Urgent effective protections are needed now.
In 2008, it was enlisted into the second batch of state-level intangible culture heritage.