Dragon Dance Culture in Tongliang

Dragon Dance in Tongliang, Chongqing, "Dragon Dance" and "Dragon Dance" have a long history. Dragon Dance on Tongliang was also included in the list of the first national intangible cultural heritage in the State Council. Artists who visit the dragon lanterns in Tongliang and the masters who dance dragons can appreciate the grandeur, exquisiteness and delicacy of "Dragon Dance in Tongliang".

Zhalong artists have been handed down from generation to generation.

Among the numerous Zhalong artists in Tongliang, three are called "Three Descendants of Tongliang Dragon Lantern": Jiang Yulin, Zhou Junan and Fu Quantai. Jiang He died on Tuesday, and only 72-year-old Fu Lao is still innovating his tying method. Seeing Mr. Fu in his small workshop, neighbors who are familiar with him say that Mr. Fu is the best at painting and is one of the "Top Ten Folk Artists in Chongqing". The old man witnessed the development of bronze dragon lanterns. Speaking of the history of dragon lanterns, Fu Lao relishes: "Bronze dragon lanterns began in the Ming Dynasty and flourished in the Qing Dynasty. According to legend, there were all kinds of dragon decorations and patterns in the famous ancient temples of Lufeng Temple and Bolun Temple in this county 1400 years ago, and people enjoyed playing with dragons ... ""Tongliang is a land of rice. The earliest dragon was a straw dragon, which was easy to burn people because of fireworks when dancing, and later it was transformed into a hard-necked dragon. It stands upright, and the lights in the festival complement each other, which is very spectacular. Because this dragon's neck is long and hard, it is not convenient to dance, and it is still not ideal. " According to the old man, around 1924, the famous architects in Chengguan, Li Jiezhi and Liu Lianshan, added a circle of ribs to each building on the basis of this dragon, which made the dragon round and firm, and each building could freely expand, contract and rotate, thus a new kind of dragon with bones, flesh and peristalsis appeared, which was called "big dragon" or "crawling dragon". In this way, through the careful production and improvement of several generations of skilled craftsmen such as Fu Lao, the original cloth-backed big colorful dragon with more than 20 people dancing has been reduced to a new type of small colorful dragon with 5 or 3 people dancing. According to different industries, seasons and intentions, there are simple and practical bench dragons, Huang Jinglong who asks for rain in dry season and filial dragons who mourn. There are more than 100 kinds of dragon-themed craft products in Tongliang, which are not only used for dancing, but also for decoration. They are exported to more than 20 provinces, autonomous regions and cities in China, as well as the United States, French and Italian countries.

Dragon master dances out of Asia.

After bidding farewell to Master Zhalong, we met Yongjiang Zhang and Zhang Shunsheng, famous dragon dancers in Tongliang. As soon as he saw master Yongjiang, he put on a posture of "flying dragon in the sky" and said heroically, "We Tongliang people can't dance in any town or village! Everyone can dance! " Master Yongjiang said, "The key to dragon dancing is to have a dragon in your heart, usually my dragon head and other dragon balls ..." When they started dancing, they felt elegant and generous in slow dancing and unrestrained in fast dancing, which was really touching. They said, "The bronze beam fire dragon is more charming. It beats iron and water, breathes fire, people dance in the fire, dragons fly in the fire, and the scene is warm and colorful. " Master Zhang Yongjiang recalled that when I was young, I was looking forward to the 13th to 15th of the first month, which was the climax of the dragon dance and the most lively. On the street, dragons and dragons leap and roar, fish lanterns and lion lanterns fly back and forth, and dragons, wahoo trees and honeysuckle flowers are peaceful. At this time, business travelers, friends and relatives from other places gathered in Chengguan, and the whole city was brightly lit and hotels were full. ...

Dragon Dance on Tongliang is rooted in tradition and blended with modern elements. Percussionist Wu Shuo, we not only use gongs and drums, but also use electronic harmony effects to combine traditional performances with modern instrumental music to compose new music, creating a turbulent and mysterious ocean artistic conception and giving the audience an immersive feeling. "We have danced' Dragon Dance' in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Japan, and have been invited to perform in the United States, Britain, France, Switzerland, Belgium, India and other countries and regions." Master Shunsheng proudly said, "We have also received many foreign apprentices!"

Reflections on the Bearing Culture of Tongliang Dragon Dance

Cao Dingfu, director of the Cultural Bureau of Tongliang County, said that we have compiled and traveled to various towns and villages. Whether it is oral teaching or audio-visual recording, we must continue to collect and organize the endangered Tongliang Dragon Dance into books for future generations to verify. Tongliang people played a brand-new look of Longxiang with their fascination with dragons. Soon, the first book that systematically records the dragon dance culture in Tongliang, Integration of Folk Dragon Dance in Tongliang, will be published soon. Data collection has been completed in this book.

Tongliang county is expected to invest more than 3 million yuan in the next five years to rescue and protect Tongliang dragon dance culture. It is mainly used to collect, sort out and publish dragon culture-related materials, innovate dragon dance programs in Tongliang, establish dragon dance ecological protection communities, cultivate dragon dance backbone teams, improve and innovate dragon lantern techniques, and enrich and update the display in Tongliang Dragon Museum. Chongqing Tongliang Dragon Dance, with its cultural characteristics and unique artistic appeal, was identified as the finale of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games. In order to show the unique customs of Bayu culture in the cultural performance of the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympic Games.

It is understood that the cultural performances before the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games include folk songs, national dances, folk sports, percussion and other art forms. Since accepting the program recommendation at the beginning of last year, the organizing committee for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games has carefully understood and reviewed 134 programs. After many comparisons and screening, 20 programs of * * * were finally confirmed and became the official performances of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, including Chongqing Tongliang Dragon Dance with strong regional cultural characteristics and auspicious and festive artistic appeal.

The person in charge of Tongliang County Wenguang New Bureau said that the content that the Olympic Organizing Committee asked Tongliang Dragon to perform was "unheard of and unseen". According to this requirement, Tongliang Dragon, which appeared at the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympic Games, mixed a lot of competitive dragon performances, which was very different from traditional performances. The "moves" of the Olympic dragon dance are more capable and coherent than before, creating a new "12 strokes of the Olympic dragon dance", followed by "dragon going out to sea-recruiting thousands of troops horizontally-dragon playing in water-Bibo-Longxing Taiji".

At the same time, we also made special improvements to the music and kimono of Tongliang Dragon Dance. There are four dragons participating in this performance, each of which is about 60 meters long. In order to embody the concept of "Green Olympics" in the Beijing Olympic Games, the cloth for making dragon tools adopts new environmental protection materials imported from the United States, which is more flexible. The color of "Longlin" is more vivid and has a stronger sense of color. Under the irradiation of sunlight or light, the reflected brilliance is more dazzling. "Dragon dancing is elegant and dynamic, which can meet the needs of all kinds of difficult action performances. The innovation of music combines Sichuan Opera, symphony, harmony and other musical elements, and has the effect of "combining Chinese and Western music, crossing ancient and modern times, and integrating heaven and man". The clothing is specially designed by the designer designated by the Olympic Games and produced by the manufacturer designated by the Olympic Games. The styles and colors are novel, combining elements of Sichuan opera costumes, traditional double-breasted clothes, samurai armor, dragon dancing and seaweed, and western animation. In addition, this dragon dance performance also has new breakthroughs and new highlights. The total performance time is ***5 minutes. It is unprecedented for an actor to complete "12 innovative and difficult movements" such as standing and kicking shoulders, lotus blooming and dragon dancing.

Zhou Keji, the chief commander of the Olympic Dragon Dance Exhibition Organizing Committee, said that, unlike the previous Tongliang Dragon Dance Exhibition, more than 100 actors who participated in this exhibition were young people, the oldest being 45 years old and the youngest being 17 years old. They are composed of school music and beauty teachers, amateur athletes and staff of party and government organs. Experts explained that the traditional dragon dance on Tongliang is simple and difficult to perform, and the elderly with rich performance experience can complete it, but the difficulty and taste of this performance are different from the past, which requires higher skills and cultural accomplishment. The teams participating in the performance adopted off-the-job training, practiced for 6 to 7 hours every day, and danced the dragon body for about 1 000 times. The whole performance team has entered the final sprint state. "Rehearsal is very hard. The number of dragon dances per day exceeds 65,438+0,000. Injuries during rehearsal are common. I have used dozens of boxes of band-AIDS. Since April 2nd, at the Dragon Dance Training Base in Tongliang County Sports Ground, 65.438 million+dragon dance enthusiasts have been training hard every day, and their enthusiasm has not diminished even in hot weather. Because, in the hearts of these dragon dancers, there is a common belief: to successfully complete the performance task at the opening ceremony of the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games and show the magnificent Bayu culture. In order to fully prepare for the performance before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, and let the elegant demeanor of Tongliang Dragon and the majestic posture of Bayu culture be perfectly displayed at the Olympic Games, the Tongliang Dragon Dance Team is very strict with every technical move, and its members are also training very hard. Zeng Guo Ling, a member of Tongliang Dragon Dance Team, told the reporter: "We start at 7 o'clock every morning, run three times on the 400-meter track of the sports ground, and then do fast dragon dance exercises. We must swing our arms from side to side more than 2000 times, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. "High-intensity training every day makes many players of Tongliang Dragon Dance Team grind out blood bubbles on their hands. After the training, they bought dozens of band-AIDS and wrapped the blood bubbles tightly. Team member Wang Gang strained his thigh muscle and swelled up, but he didn't rest for a minute. After spraying Yunnan Baiyao, he went into training. Team member Wang Ji broke his left ankle and kept training in plaster. Yi Long, a fair-skinned dragon dancer, became a "black peony" after four months of outdoor training in the scorching sun. She smiled and told the author that although it has become oily black now, as long as it can dance the dragon well and contribute to the country and hometown Chongqing, it is worthwhile. "

Get 8 applause in 5 minutes.

After performing in front of tens of thousands of spectators at the Bird's Nest Stadium for the first time, the members of Chongqing Tongliang Dragon Dance Team were all excited. According to Zhou Keji, head coach of Chongqing Tongliang Dragon Dance Team, yesterday was the first time that Chongqing Tongliang Dragon Dance performed according to the formal procedures of the opening ceremony. The audience liked the program very much and applauded warmly for 8 times. According to the arrangement, Chongqing Tongliang Dragon Dance has three rehearsals before the official performance of the opening ceremony. After the first two rehearsals, the team will rehearse in the "Bird's Nest" on August 5 according to the official performance process of the opening ceremony, which will be their last rehearsal opportunity. Yesterday, the team suddenly received a notice to participate in the rehearsal. Chongqing Tongliang Dragon Dance Team did not disappoint the director. They conquered the audience with their wonderful performances. The whole performance lasted for 5 minutes, and they won 8 applause from the audience. The applause of the audience in the last group modeling action exceeded 1 minute. Zhang Yimou, the general director of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, praised the Tongliang Dragon Dance as the "most ambitious and characteristic" program in the cultural performance of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. At the end of 1970s, mass cultural activities in Tongliang County began to return to noumenon. 1980 On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the cultural department of Tongliang County organized folk artists to dance in Zhadalong, the county seat. Since then, after being dormant for more than 20 years, the annual Tongliang Dragon Lantern Festival has been reborn.

During the period of 1982, Tongliang county, under the guidance of Chongqing cultural department, comprehensively arranged its own dragon lantern art.

1At the end of 983, Tongliang Dragon Lantern participated in the cultural performance in Chongqing Square, which was well received.

1984 On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Tongliang Cultural Bureau joined hands with hundreds of people to bring the main varieties of Tongliang Dragon Lantern to the streets of Chongqing, which attracted wide attention from the news media.

1In April, 1984, Chongqing Acrobatic Troupe went to France, Britain, Switzerland, Belgium and other western European countries to perform with two bronze beams, which was well received by the local society.

1On October 6th, at the grand celebration of the 35th anniversary of the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), Shougang workers took part in the world-famous dragon dance parade held in Tiananmen Square.

1In September, 988, in the national dragon dance competition held in Beijing, Tongliang Dragon Dance won the first gold medal.

1992, won the highest prize in the second Shenyang International Yangko Festival.

1994 won the first place in Fuzhou Zuohai Cup National Dragon Dance Invitational Tournament.

In the same year, Tongliang dragon tools were designated as the standard props of the competition by the State Sports Commission; Tongliang Dragon Dance Routine was designated as the standard routine by the State Sports Commission.

In May, 1995 won the first place in the first national dragon dance competition held by the State Sports Commission.

In July of the same year, he won the gold medal in the "Diaoqing Cup" international dragon and lion invitational tournament in Guangdong Province.

From 65438 to 0996, the delegation of Tongliang Dragon Lantern went to the United States for cultural exchange.

From 65438 to 0997, at the first Dragon Dance Art Festival in Beijing, Tongliang Dragon Dance Troupe won three awards: best performance, best organization and best director.

1998, Tongliang Dragon Lantern went to Singapore to hold a lantern festival.

1999, Tongliang Dragon Lantern went to Malaysia to hold a lantern festival.

In September of the same year, Tongliang Dragon Dance Team won the championship in the "Longgang Cup" Dragon Dance Invitational Tournament in Xijiang.

In the same month, Tongliang Dragon Dance Team won the naming right of "China National Dragon Dance Team" in Jinan National Dragon Dance Championship.

On June 5438+ 10 of the same year, a delegation of 450 people from Tongliang Dragon Lantern, composed of "Jiulong Square", "Dragon and Phoenix Peony" and "Erlong Play Pearl", went to Beijing to participate in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), which once again caused a sensation at home and abroad.

In September, 2000, Tongliang Dragon Dance Team won the standard routine gold medal and team championship at the 4th National Agricultural Games.

At the end of June of the same year, 65438+ 10, the first China Tongliang Dragon Lantern Art Festival was held in Tongliang County. At that time, the Dragon Soul large-scale song and dance gala, Dragon Wind China Dragon Dance Invitational Tournament, Dragon Foundation Dragon Culture and China Dragon Dance Art Seminar, Dragon Rhyme Dragon Culture and Art Exhibition in 2000, China Tongliang Dragon Lantern Festival in 2000 and other projects were launched one after another, which significantly raised the dragon lantern culture in China to a new level.

In June, 20001,the delegation of Tongliang Dragon Lantern once again went to the United States for cultural exchange.

In the same year, Tongliang Dragon Lantern went to the United Arab Emirates to hold a lantern festival.

In May, 2002, Tongliang Dragon Dance Team won the standard routine gold medal and team championship in the second national games.

In June and July, 2002, Tongliang Dragon Dance Team went to Hong Kong and Macao to participate in cultural exchange activities.

From June to 10, 2003, Tongliang Dragon Lantern went to Thailand to hold a lantern festival and dragon dance performance.

Tongliang Dragon Dance won many awards, such as the 35th anniversary ceremony of National Day, the first prize of Baxi Cup, the gold medal of Beijing Tourism Year, the first prize of Guaqing Cup, the gold medal of the 2nd National Sports Conference, the gold medal of Farmers' Games and the gold medal of Longgang Cup.