Guole Kung Fu shines in the East, awakening the lion to cast the soul of Hua Weiyang.
At 19:30 on January 25, 2022 (the 23rd Chinese New Year's Eve of the Waxing Moon), with the rumbling of drums, two majestic and mighty Southern Lions and martial artist and artist Zhao Wenzhuo opened the "New Folk Music National Wind Night" party for Henan Satellite TV's small Chinese New Year's Eve, and the perfect integration of martial arts, southern lions, dance and folk music presented a unique cross-border visual feast of national style for the audience - "Awakening Lion in the South China Sea".
As the opening program, "South China Sea Awakening Lion" gathered cross-border peak strength, academically guided by tsinghua University Institute of Cultural and Creative Development; on the stage performance, cross-border artist Zhao Wenzhuo, Nanhai Bilintang Lion Team, music, Guochao label Xinlefu planning and supervising, many domestic folk music masters all attended the scene, under the efforts of many forces, "South China Sea Awakening Lion" was perfectly presented, showing the power of national style.
The tall southern lion is sometimes cute, sometimes tall and mighty, or moving, or flashing, or swirling, or leaping, and should be accompanied by the melody and drum sounds of the lion, erhu, pipa, guzheng, flute, interpreting the lion's joy, anger, mourning, music, movement, quiet, surprise, doubt. The Diejiao Bilintang Lions interpreted the lions in a wonderful way. Founded at the beginning of the Daoguang Year of the Qing Dynasty, Diejiao BilinTang gradually transformed from a private school into a lion awakening group, becoming a unique team in the global lion awakening team, famous all over the world, and is a lion team that celebrates the New Year to the people of the whole country at the Spring Festival Gala.
Shi Rui, general director of the "New Folk Music Guofeng Night" evening and editor-in-chief of Henan Satellite TV Guofeng Studio, introduced: "Waking the Lion" not only represents a folk culture, but also symbolizes a strong and strong national soul. "Behind the awakening lion contains a rich and colorful traditional culture, in the form of a stage, the lion dance is an intangible cultural heritage culture and a new way of dissemination, and a new path of the intangible lion is presented under the "art + technology" model, so as to give the traditional lion a new vitality.
The performance of "Awakening the Lion in the South China Sea" uses the Cantonese music "Sai Long Wins the Championship" produced by the "Xinlefu" Orchestra. Music director Lu Zhongqiang mentioned that he has always had a special love for Guangdong folk music, and the first thing that came to mind when the program planners planned this time was to "put our changed Cantonese music into the performance of waking up the lion in the South China Sea". Referring to the original intention of creation, Lu Zhongqiang said that "Awakening the Lion in the South China Sea" is a comprehensive performance, adding Zhao Wenzhuo's Chinese kung fu, enlarging the awakening lion drum team, and also joining the folk orchestra, hoping to show the celebration of the awakening lion, the high spirit, and the cute shape.
What is Awakening Lion? Waking lion is a kind of lion dance that everyone is familiar with, which belongs to the southern lion, which originated in the South China Sea of Foshan and has a history of more than 1,000 years. The South China Sea has a long history and culture, is one of the birthplaces of the Pearl River civilization, and is also a typical representative of Lingnan culture.
In 2006, Guangdong Xingshi was officially included in the list of representative items of national intangible cultural heritage. Awakening the lion is a cultural activity that integrates martial arts, dance, music, etc. during the performance, the gong and drum beat, the lion dancer first plays a southern fist, which is called "opening the pile", and then the two play a lion to play the dance, and the other wears a smiling face "Big Head Buddha" and holds a large sunflower fan to lead the lion to the stage. Lion dancers are mostly based on southern fist and horse steps, and lion movements include "opening eyes", "washing whiskers", "licking the body", "shaking hair" and so on. The main routines are "picking green", "drinking water on the high platform", "lion spitting balls", "stepping on plum blossom piles" and so on. Among them, "Picking Green" is the essence of waking up the lion, and there are processes such as starting, bearing, turning, and closing, which is dramatic and story-like.
Passed down from generation to generation, it retains the essence of tradition while constantly advancing with the times and innovating. The South China Sea Lion Awakening has become a well-known folk lion dance brand in Guangdong, and the lion awakening activity has also been widely spread in the Chinese community at home and abroad, becoming a cultural bridge for overseas compatriots to recognize their ancestors and return to their ancestors, and its cultural value and significance are far-reaching.
Awakening the lion is a national movement in the South China Sea. According to incomplete statistics, there are nearly 2800 lion awakening teams in the South China Sea District, and in terms of lion inheritance age, there are juvenile lion awakening teams and three generations of team members; in terms of nationality, there are overseas Chinese compatriots awakening lion teams; in terms of occupation, they are divided into professional teams, amateur teams, etc.
As the place of origin of the awakening lion, in order to closely follow the important national policy of the central government on "the creative development and innovative transformation of excellent traditional culture" and the "comprehensive revival of traditional culture", it is understood that the "Nanhai Awakening Lion Renewal Development Plan" initiated by the Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports of Nanhai District of Foshan City and xiqiaoshan Academy, and guided by the Institute of Cultural and Creative Development of Tsinghua University, is intended to seize the opportunity to assume the great responsibility of inheriting traditional culture, revitalizing urban culture and carrying forward the national spirit.
The "South China Sea Lion Renewal Development Plan" finds the modern expression and era connotation of the lion culture, and promotes the renewal and upgrading of the South China Sea lion. In the Spring Festival of 2022, based on the Thousand Lions of the South China Sea, 12 representative, inherited and innovative lions will be selected to launch the first formation ceremony of the "South China Sea Lion Group".
In the future, the South China Sea Lion Group will become the cultural responsibility of the South China Sea and spread the local culture of the South China Sea; become the youth culture responsibility, and carry out the "two innovations" of the awakening lion culture for the Z generation; become the Chinese culture responsibility, link overseas, spread Chinese culture, and carry forward the spirit of the Chinese nation.
Written by: Nandu reporter Guan Wanling