“The Hometown of lion dance” the bustling percussion sound in Tengxian county, Guangxi province rang again, and the young lion dancers retrained.
Xinhua News Agency, NANNING, May 5th (reporter Lu Xianting) after being silent for more than two months, the “hometown of lion dance” in Tengxian county, Guangxi province rang out the lively percussion sound again, and the young lion dancer retrained.
In Sizhou village, Mengjiang town, Tengxian county, surrounded by green water and green mountains, the blue metal shed covering an area of more than 3,000 square meters is particularly conspicuous. This is the training base of Hongda Xingshi Regiment in Sizhou.
The reporter learned from the training base that there are more than a dozen children who come to train every day. They all come from the surrounding villages. The oldest is 13 years old and the youngest is 8 years old.
“Is it bitter to learn lion dance?”
“Bitter.”
“Why do you want to learn lion dance?”
“I want to learn a lot of skills and participate in competitions all over the world.”
Kong Xiangyuan, head of Hongda Xingshi Regiment, told the reporter that the lion dance in Tengxian County has a long history and high mass participation, especially from 1960 s to 1980 s, there were lion dance teams in every village, and some villages even had several. Many children are influenced by their parents when they learn lion dance, and they fall in love with them unconsciously.
Kong Xiangyuan, 33 years old this year, danced lions with three brothers from primary school, “The training was very difficult at that time, using turnover basket as lion head and washbasin as gongs and drums.” Day after day, I trained hard, and went out to worship teachers and learn skills. Several brothers gradually became famous and often went out to perform and compete in the lion dance arena.
“Mengjiang town has a strong lion dance culture, and we want to inherit it better.” With the growth of age and experience, the Confucius brothers decided to set up lion dance troupe and carry out lion dance training so that more children could learn lion dance skills. In November 2017, Hongda Xingshi regiment was formally established.
The lion dance in Tengxian county is famous at home and abroad for its unique skills such as high-pile lion dance with 450 degrees of waist rotation, and enjoys the reputation of “world LION. In 2011, the lion dance in Tengxian county was listed in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
At the Sizhou training base of Hongda Xingshi regiment, two groups of tall piles stood up suddenly. One group of standard high piles has a maximum height of 2.5 meters, a minimum height of 1.2 meters, and a total length of 14 meters. The two people who dance the lion must work together to complete a series of difficult movements such as the leap, the upper arm, and the green picking on the pile.
Although the students are young, the pegs on the brim, the Golden Lion hangs upside down, and the single pile carries the waist and turns…… He is as skilled as an adult lion dancer. Some of them were able to perform after training on the ground for only a few months. “Some children were naughty when they first arrived. After a period of training, they became more ambitious, more disciplined and team-conscious, and more hardworking.” Kong Xiangyuan said.
As soon as the reporter stepped into the training base, the students took the initiative to say hello. “Learn the art first, learn the virtue first.” Kong Xiangyuan said that lion dance is a traditional Chinese culture, and its essence lies in etiquette and morality. With the all-round development of morality, intelligence and physique, we can have the spiritual quality of continuous struggle and advancement, and we can better inherit and carry forward the lion dance culture.
In Tengxian county, lion dance culture inspires generations of young people to challenge more superb skills. Song Zijie, who is 20 years old this year, is the lion dance coach and leading player of the Dragon Lion troupe in Yingzhou, Tengxian county. He has been practicing lion dance for more than 8 years and never knew anything about it, to unlock the lion climbing tree, leap steel wire, climb the cliff and climb the cliff on Zeus and other difficult movements, the Zhouzhou lion dance team has also gone from being unknown to representing the Guangxi team in domestic and foreign competitions for many times, ranks among the top in the world.
“There are surprises and dangers in lion dance. I have suffered many injuries in recent years, and some difficult movements even need hundreds of trainings to be trained.” Song Zijie said, “Lion Dance is the same as life. Only by insisting and insisting on it can we have the hope of success.”
On the way to lion dance, young lion dance carries dreams, challenges themselves and continues to struggle. “As one of the Lions, I have come to today, met many friends and learned a lot of cultures, so life has different meanings.” Song Zijie said that he would be a good lion dance coach and pass on lion dance skills and lion dance culture better.