*Shatoujiao Fish Lantern Dance

27.*Shatoujiao Fish Lantern Dance

Nominating Unit: City of Shenzhen

Fish Lantern Dance of Shatoujiao first appeared at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. It was created by ancestors of the Wu family from Shalanxia Village of Shatoujiao, who had been fishermen for generations. They created this dancing form based on fish’s shapes and living habits, plus some imaginations. It is more than 300 years old now. It is mainly distributed around Shatoujiao, Yantian of City of Shenzhen, and Danshuikeng, Gangxiaxincun of New Territories of Hong Kong, and is a regular program when the locals are having celebrations for festivals, new years and harvest, as well as god worshipping or ancestor memorial services. Now small drums and big cymbals used by the fish lantern dance band 70 or 80 years ago are still on exhibition in the history museum on Sino-British street in Shatoujiao.

Shatoujiao Fish Lantern Dance is an animal dance with props and has a story-telling style. The fish lantern prop is made with bamboo strips. There are models of red, green, and black carps, fire spot fish, Ding Gong fish, sea crucian, etc. They are all covered with gauze paper and painted with ornamental colors. The fish is 80 to 100cm long and can twist in every direction. A stick is joined at the belly of the fish for the dancers to hold and operate. Candles are placed in the fish belly and when they are lit up, the whole fish would glow, making the fish astonishingly beautiful. This is how it got its name.

Performance is usually conducted in the evening. Four white hollow pillars are placed on the ground to represent dragon pillars under the sea. Inside the pillars, candles are lit up, so no extra lighting is needed. Sea blue curtains enclose the perimeter, indicating the depth of the ocean. The performance begins with more than 20 dancers holding fish lanterns of various colors, affectionately and joyously swimming behind the curtains. The story of a school of fish fighting a villain fish under the sea unfolds. A yellow snakehead mullet, which is strong, ferocious and has a strange shape of dragon-like head fish-like tail, is the imaginary villain under the sea. It constantly chases and attacks other fish, swallowing small ones, even the smallest kind, cow fish. The climax of the dance arrives when the school of fish, under the leadership of a red carp, surround the mullet and defeat it ultimately. During the performance, the dancers behind the curtains must keep a low horst stance so they can lower their bodies and bend their back to maneuver around. The gestures of the fish also orchestrate with the dancers’ steps, which control the fish lanterns’ ups and downs, swimming, and swinging, to render different moods and emotions, such as leisure, excitement, surprise, etc. For example, the dancers can perform “lined-up swimming”, “sand shoveling”, “water scurry”, “flying over”, etc. quickly, swiftly, and vividly. Under the flexible operation of the dancers, all the 20 to 30 fish lanterns glow up with colorful lights, drifting and flickering around in the dark night like a glittering milky way. It is truly a luxury to the eyes.(https://www.daowen.com)

The Shatoujiao Fish Lantern Dance is accompanied with gongs, drums, cymbals, trumpets, and trumpet shells. The music is wholly of Guangdong Province style. There are arias like “Guang Hua Yuan”,“Da Kai Men”, and lively “De Sheng Ling”, etc. They accent the rhythms and emotions of the dancing , and has strong South China’s coastal characteristics.

Shatoujiao Fish Lantern Dance embodies the traditional view of good and evil, and points out the simple truth that whoever bullies the weak will get punished ultimately with this unique style and theme. The famous Sino-British Street located in this area is exactly such a historical evidence of how foreign intruders tasted their own medicine, which reinforces the profound symbolic and cultural values of this dancing form. This dancing form has itself become a spiritual bond between the compatriots who are divided by a street, close but could never reunite.

Before that, Shatoujiao Township had been named “Homeland for Guangdong Province Ethnic and Folk Art” in 2001, and “Homeland for Folk Art in China” by the Ministry of Culture in 2003. Shatoujiao Fish Lantern Dance was enlisted as the second batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage in 2008. However, with the changes in people’s working and living styles, especially with the impact of pop and business cultures, Shatoujiao Fish Lantern Dance is losing its showing platform, and some dancing movements are already lost, together with a predicament of lack of transmitters. Stronger protection and sustaining measures are called for.