Longgang Dragon Dance
Longgang Dragon Dance
Nominating Unit: Longgang District, City of Shenzhen
Longgang Dragon Dance is a square dance performed by the locals in Longgang District of the City of Shenzhen to celebrate harvest and festivals. Its distribution is centered around what is now Longcheng Street and Pingdi Street and radiate into the neighboring areas. This area used to be the Longgang Township of Bao’an County, and has been inhabited by Hakka people hundreds of years ago. It got its name from the legend that the dragon king used to tour the South Sea with his ten children, and one got attracted by the scenery and stayed here. The other nine children dragons stayed in the neighboring peninsula which later became Kowloon (literally nine dragons in Chinese) of Hong Kong. Therefore, the locals always have a tradition of loving and respecting dragons. Dragon dance also gained popularity in Hakka people’s local customs.(https://www.daowen.com)
Longgang Dragon Dance uses cloth dragons. Wood and bamboo are used for its skeleton, and cloths are used to be its body and face, with colorfully painted and glistening gold and silver scales. The troupe is made up of 12 people, with the pearl man to be the director of the whole dance. The performance takes giant X shaped steps to be its main steps, and incorporates such movements as shaking, swinging, rotating, kneeing, jumping, crossing and writhing, etc. There are also many routines such as “half moon”, “dragon playing water”, “crossing dragon body”, “through dragon gate”, “dragon whirling the sea”, etc. The accompanying music is mainly percussions with lion drums, giant cymbals, and gongs.
Longgang Dragon Dance reflects the belief and worship of Hakka people toward Chinese people’s dragon worship. It combines both artistic and folk values, and is deeply loved by the locals. In 1999, Longgang Township was named “Homeland for Ethnic and Folk Art in Guangdong Province”. However, due to changes in living styles and diversification in entertainment, Longgang Dragon Dance is entering oblivion and marginalization. Protective measures need to be taken.