My hometown show for more than 600 years, why does the king of lions Gaizi lion continue to live

Mondo Culture Updated on 2024-02-18

The energetic team members walked on the stage, gave everyone a "fist salute" and quickly got into the lion quilt, the lion dancers were majestic and agile, and their spirit and expressiveness were displayed through the eyes of the lion; The lion tail dancer is sensitive and elegant, with every swing of the lion's head, skillfully controlling the lion's body, the two cooperate tacitly, constantly jumping and moving in the sonorous gongs and drums, attracting a cheer ......

On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, Qingtang Village, Southwest Town, Lufeng City, Guangdong Province, is staging a unique lion performance - "Our Festival, Spring Festival Qingtang Lion". The well-known "blue-faced and white-fronted" Qingtang Gaizi lion in the Hailufeng area originated here.

Over the past hundreds of years, the inheritance form of Qingtang Village's traditional culture has changed, but the feelings of family and country and the spirit of advocating literature and martial arts represented behind it have not changed. As an important part of the traditional culture of Qingtang Village, the Gaizi lion has been passed down to this day, which is a good example.

No matter how tired we are, as long as the gongs and drums sound, the whole village will boil instantly, and I can't hold back and want to dance. Huang Wenze, deputy director of the Yongxing Museum in Qingtang Village, described his love for Gaizi Lion.

During the Spring Festival or rally celebrations, the villagers of Qingtang Village always hold lion dance performances. Different from other places, the lion dance in Qingtang Village has a round face and a wide mouth, white forehead and green face, and looks particularly fierce. About the Gaizi Lion, there is a slang saying in Hailufeng area that "the green face and white forehead, the lion class is free from plundering", which means that no matter what kind of lion class, when meeting the Gaizi lion, you must stop the flag and bow down to show respect, so the Gaizi lion is also called "the king of lions".

"Lion Dance" is a strong part of the lion dance performance, which usually refers to the gathering of different lion halls in a specific festival or celebration, taking turns to show their lion dance skills and compete with each other, bringing visual enjoyment to the audience, and carrying the importance of blessing and auspiciousness.

The lion meeting in Qingtang Village is very different because of its unique lion meeting. The reporter saw that the Qingtang Village Gaizi Lion Club waited at the entrance of the village before the start of the event, accompanied by the beat of drums, stepping on solemn steps, shaking his head and shaking his head to make a welcome gesture, which is a unique local lion tradition. When other lions see the lion from a distance, they will immediately fall to the ground and crawl forward as a sign of respect. At this time, the members of the Gaizi Lion will immediately step forward to lift the lion's head on the opposite side, and the other members of the lion class will stop this behavior, which fully demonstrates the etiquette and cultural tradition of the lion dance.

The reporter saw at the lion performance site that as the sound of gongs and drums became more and more excited, the lion seemed to be given life, with a high face, flowing mane, and a majestic posture stepping into the audience's sight. The movements of the lion dancers are sonorous and powerful, clean and neat, and they skillfully use techniques such as lifting, jumping, vertical, rolling, and throwing to show the bravery, majesty and agility of the lion to the fullest. During the performance, it was accompanied by sonorous and powerful leather drums and high-pitched and rugged gongs, and the scene was full of life tension, which made many tourists applaud.

Why does Gai Zi Lion have such a high status? Why is it known as the "king of lions"? This is related to the long tradition of garrisoning in the Lufeng area, and it is also inseparable from the inheritance and love of Qingtang people.

The lion dance originated from the military maid, and was originally used in the ancient army as a ritual to go out for sacrifices, raise military prestige, and intimidate the enemy, and the "Gaizi Lion" originated from the military lion of the Ming Dynasty.

The people of Lufeng Qingtang are the descendants of the Jieshi Guards of the Ming Dynasty, and have evolved into a local group of "martial arts", and the Gaizi lion has been inherited and developed here, with a history of more than 600 years.

Huang Zhiqiang, the sixteenth-generation inheritor of the Gaizi Lion in Qingtang Village, introduced the positive scene of the inheritance of the Gaizi Lion. "Most of the people who come to practice in the museum are young people, and the teaching mode here is still the traditional 'old to bring the new', so that the experienced brothers can pass on their knowledge and skills to the younger brothers and sisters, so that this art will be passed on from generation to generation. ”

*Do I need to pay tuition? No, you don't! As long as you are willing to learn and are interested, I will teach you when you come. When the reporter asked about the tuition fee, Huang Xiaoning, the captain of the Yongxing Hall in Qingtang Village, smiled and waved his hand, "It is my greatest wish that our Qingtang Gaizi Lion can be carried forward and known by more people!" ”

In the thunderous applause of everyone, the lion performance came to an end. The lion dancers show their skills on the stage, but also convey a spirit. Their performance is not only a visual enjoyment, but also a spiritual shock, so that every audience can feel the charm of the lion dance art and the traditional beauty that transcends time and space in the sound of gongs and drums.

For more than 600 years, Qingtang's "Gaizi Lion" has been passed down orally from generation to generation without interruption. Today, the Qingtang "Gaizi Lion", which is rooted in the soil of traditional Chinese culture, is continuing to dance in the new era through the inheritance and development of generations of Qingtang people, making it shine in the hundred gardens of traditional Chinese culture.

Planner: Li Muyuan, Wang Yujia, Xie Yanhua.

Reporter: Hong Lin.

Cinematographer: Zheng Renxiong.

Editor: Wang Jing.

Review: Zhou Jiajia.

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