Chao News client reporter Chen Tangtang.
Lishui, located in the southwest of Zhejiang, the junction of Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, is the "hometown of Chinese folk art". It has a history of more than 600 years so far, and is popular in nine counties (cities and districts) in Chuzhou, and belongs to spontaneous and self-entertaining folk activities, so it is called "Chuzhou Banlong". In 2009, "Chuzhou Banlong" was included in the third batch of Zhejiang Province Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
Chuzhou Banlong is a large-scale traditional dance intangible cultural heritage project, which mostly organizes dragon dance teams in villages, clans, and gangs, and requires nearly 200 people to participate in a complete performance. The production of the dragon is exquisite, the materials are mainly bamboo, wood and cotton paper, and it integrates the crafts of tying, plastic, weaving, pasting, dyeing, pasting, painting, tying, nailing, etc., and combines calligraphy, painting, paper-cutting, carving and other folk arts, which is a form of folk art exhibition and performance. On the occasion of the New Year of the Dragon, Chao News interviewed Wu Liangman, the representative inheritor of the provincial intangible cultural heritage of Chuzhou Banlong, and asked him to tell the story of him and Chuzhou Banlong.
Wu Manliang. Narrator: Wu Liangman.
The dragon dance has been around for many years, but I don't remember it as a child. I remember that Wu Laolan, the old man of my ancestors, said that more than 200 years ago, there was a custom of dancing the dragon during the New Year's festival in the Wucun area of Lishui Liancheng. However, I heard that the earliest popular thing in Wucun was the dance of the dragon, not the board dragon. Compared with Banlong, the production and dance techniques of Bulong are relatively simple, easy to operate, and do not require many people, so it is easier to organize activities. The reason why it was later changed to dance the dragon is that one year when the village Bulong team danced the Bulong in Liang Village, Laozhu Town, the local villagers threw firecrackers to the Bulong to congratulate according to the customs of the time. Later, some villagers suggested changing the dance to the dragon, because the dragon dance could not throw firecrackers at the dragon.
I heard from the villagers that in 1952, Wucun organized a dragon dance, and I was not born at that time. I got in touch with Banlong in the 70s of the 20th century. I remember the first time I participated in the dragon dance organized in the village in 1976, which was also the second time that the village organized a dragon dance celebration after more than 20 years. My cousin Wu Cun'er is the pillar of Takemura's banlong performance. Bringing the Dragon Ball is the key to the Dragon Dance, and the formation changes during the Dragon Dance are all directed by the Dragon Ball. The dragon ball is composed of a round lantern 80 cm high and 50 cm wide and a mangosteen with a top, and a single person dances to guide the dragon and is the main character of the dragon dance. The dragon dragon is led by the dragon ball, and the dragon head follows the dragon ball closely, and wherever the dragon ball is taken, the whole dragon will be coiled. At that time, the formation of the Wucun dragon dance has a cross array, a plum blossom array, an incense burning array, an ingots array, a mandarin duck array, a five-star array, a triangle array, a dragon head, a dragon tail, a dragon egg, etc., according to the size and shape of the dragon dance venue, the dragon ball hand plans to choose the formation, and the dragon dance is connected in a formation, and a burst is buckled. When the dragon dances, the whole dragon is majestic and magnificent, and the performance is alive and well. All kinds of formations need the command of the dragon ball, and the dance level of the dragon ball is the guarantee of whether the dragon dance is wonderful or not, which seems easy, but in fact it is not difficult, and there are high skill requirements.
From the year I knew about the banlong dance in the village, I often followed my cousin to watch the production and painting of the banlong. Gradually, I developed a strong interest in the dance of the board dragon. My cousin asked me if I would be interested in learning how to carry dragon balls, and I said I liked it, and he asked me how to teach me. And so, in 1978, I began to learn the technique of carrying dragon balls from him.
Carrying dragon balls is a very physically demanding activity, the round lantern and mangosteen do not seem to be heavy, but it is also quite difficult to dance, not to mention that the dragon dance is very long, a night less than five or six hours, more than ten hours, requires a lot of perseverance. At that time, I was just in my twenties, and physical strength was not a problem, the key was to be able to master a relatively comprehensive dragon dance technique, which was the main problem of the dragon dance. Takemura is a good Dragon Ball player and a good master, and under his careful guidance, after two years, I have basically mastered the art of carrying Dragon Balls. One year, the village started to dance the dragon again, and my cousin was old, so he asked me to try it, and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to bring it well, but I really wanted to try it, so I went up hard, and I didn't think that the first performance would be good. Since 1982, the Banlong Dance in Wucun has lasted for more than ten years, and it was the most prosperous time for Wucun Banlong. That year, there was another dragon ball player in the village who brought the dragon balls, but the skills were not learned, and the dancing dragon formation became chaotic, and the dragon head could not get in and out, making the scene very embarrassing. After that, every time there was a dragon dance in the village, I basically brought the dragon balls.
I have participated in the dragon dance for many years, and I have two of the most impressive ones. One was in 1997, when he participated in a large-scale folk celebration performance in Lishui City to celebrate the "Return of Hong Kong". At that time, three dragon dance teams of Qinglin Village, Wucun and Laozhuma Village were organized to celebrate in Naaisi Square in Lishui City. At that time, the Wucun dragon danced all over the streets and alleys of Lishui, and its dragon dance was on the "Zhejiang" **, which added glory to the mountain city of Lishui.
There is another time, and it is also the most lively activity of Chuzhou Banlong since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The 11th International Photography Art Exhibition of China and the 2005 China Lishui International Photography Culture Festival jointly organized by the Chinese Photographers Association and the people of Lishui City, carried out a large-scale celebration of "Dragon and Lion Dance in Lotus City", more than 3,000 people performed for more than 130 minutes, and danced out of the sincerity and enthusiasm of the people of Lishui to welcome photographers from all over the world and all over the world, which was eye-opening, and a total of more than 20 dragons gathered in the urban area around Lishui to carry out large-scale dragon and lion dance activities in Naaisi Square. The 208-section Yunhe Xianglong won the title of "The First Dragon in Chuzhou", and the Wucun Banlong won the silver award.
The dragon dance is a hard entertainment project, the dragon body of the dragon is made of wooden boards and paper, bamboo strips, etc., the weight is not light, and the dragon dance in addition to the local, most of them have to go to other villages, except for going to a far away village to transport to a place with a tractor and then assemble it, most of the places are almost on foot. Wucun Banlong's footprints are all over the countryside around Liancheng and Lishui City, Bihu Town, Qingtian Lakou and other places. At that time, there was no bridge on the Ou River, and if you went to Shuige and other places, you had to take a ferry first, and then move it ashore to assemble. Sometimes when the dragon dance is over, it is already dawn, and I sleep at home during the day, and I have to go to other villages the next night. In 1987, I paid 5,000 yuan to buy wood, bamboo, paper, candles, etc., and hired a lot of people to help with processing, binding, painting and pasting. The dragon dance often has to go to some villages or some villagers' homes to congratulate and beg, less than a few hundred yuan, more than thousands of yuan, in addition to the cost, the rest of the money to the dragon dancer salary, in the past generally only more than 2 yuan a day, in 1987 there were more than 7 yuan, everyone is very happy.
The dragon dance is a collective project, organizing a dragon dance team, ranging from more than 100 to hundreds of people, and all of them require young and strong labor. The dragon head needs seven or eight people to carry it together to dance, the dragon body is generally one person in a section, and when dancing, other people need to assist on the side, and the dragon tail needs three people. During the dragon dance, the drum band has seven or eight members, and as few as three or four people. The dragon dance team in 1987 had 125 dragon sections, which was the largest dragon dance in Wucun.
Due to my active participation in the dragon dance, I was identified by the cultural department as the first batch of representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage in Lishui City in 2009, and was also named the first batch of outstanding folk art talents in Zhejiang Province in the same year. In 2000, I won the first prize of the organization award and performance of the "Into the New Century" folk art conference in Liandu District; In 2003, he participated in the Lishui Civic Art Street Performance and won the gold medal; In 1998, 2000, 2005, etc., many times on Lishui TV broadcast the grand occasion of the performance of the Wucun Banlong team led by me.
In recent years, due to the large number of people needed for the dragon dance and the wide range of influence, some leaders are reluctant to approve it due to safety responsibility considerations, and the dragon dance activities are mainly limited to remote rural areas, and there have been no dragon dance activities in Lishui City since the dragon and lion competition in 2005; Due to the fact that a large number of villagers went out to work, the time at home was short, and the dragon dance was very hard, most young people were not willing to participate, and the Spring Festival dragon dance custom in Wucun gradually disappeared. As the inheritor of dragon dance skills, I still can't give up in my heart, and I often guide my two sons and some villagers to participate in dragon dances and dragon balls when I have the opportunity. Especially in my own family, I stipulate that every year at the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, the father and son should review the skills of carrying dragon balls at the dinner table, using the table as the field and chopsticks as the dragon, and demonstrating the dragon dance scene together, hoping that the intangible cultural heritage of Wucun Banlong will be passed on from generation to generation.
In order to let more people understand the essence of Lishui Banlong, many places invited me to be a teacher to explain and train you about the key points of Banlong Dance. I hope to bring the cultural heritage and essence of Chuzhou Banlong to everyone.
*Courtesy of the interviewee).
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