*Drunken Dragon Dance

*Drunken Dragon Dance

Nominating Unit: City of Zhongshan

Drunk dragon of the City of Zhongshan, also called twisted head dragon, wood dragon, timber dragon, dragon boat head, originated from Changzhou village in the Song Dynasty. Later on it was propagated into Zhangxi, Shaxi, Dayong, and Haotou townships, and even into Macao. In ancient times, on the Buddha Bathing Festival on the 8th of June of the lunar calendar, the locals would put a wood carved dragon totem in front of the village temple for worshipping, with a relatively simple and liberal ceremonial dragon twist dance. Later on it was evolved into a special folk dance form for ancient Zhongshan area——drunk dragon.

Zhongshan Drunk Dragon Dance includes such activities as paying tribute to the god, presenting gold flowers, inviting the dragon, three bows and nine kotows, drinking, dragon dance on banquet, inviting drinking, touring, etc., and bears evident features of ceremonial dance. The prop is a two-segment, but not joint dragon carved with hard wood. One person would play the head, and the other one the tail, forming a group. Depending on the occasion, there can be 4, 6, 8, or 10 groups. During the performance, the head and tail need not to be joined. Rather, a combined form of horse stance from the South Fist and dual fight is used. The rule is as such: if the dragon head is high, then the tail must be low; if the dragon head is on the left, the tail must be on the right, in a opposite manner. Basic movements include drunk steps, kylin steps, leaping steps, jumping the cloud, left-right twist and jump, high and low crossing, front and back squatting, etc. Basic formations include dual dragon out of sea, horizontal, zigzag, rectangular, plum blossom, etc. The accompanying rhythm is lion dance beat, mainly with “three-star beat”. The musical instruments that are used include big drum, big cymbals, small cymbals, and gongs with protruding edges, etc.

The most charming trait is that Zhongshan Drunk Dragon Dance learned from the performing routines of Drunk Fist. Every performer will pretend to be half-intoxicated, and moving about with wood dragon high up in the air. Several toasters run across the dragon formation with giant liquor jars in hands, feeding the dancers with liquor. Dancers totter around, rolling or falling to the ground. They would spit out liquor mist and yell out loud while giving the performance. What the audience smell is liquor, what the audience see is a drunk dragon running about and toddle around in a liquor sea. The performers behave as if they are drunk, but they are sober inside; their steps are drunk, but their minds are clear.” Their performance brings a special charm and heroic sense to the drunk dragon show and the audience all feel awed.(https://www.daowen.com)

Zhongshan Drunk Dragon Dance is very special and unique in its forms. Its choreograph is rich and carefully designed. It is an artistic combination of dragon culture and liquor culture, a perfect unification of dancing art and folk martial art, and bears great cultural and artistic values.

Because of urbanization and the impacts from imported cultures, plus the old age of most important transmitters, Zhongshan Drunk Dragon Dance is faced with a survival crisis. Care and protective measures should be taken.

It was enlisted into the second batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage in 2008.