Lo and behold, this "fish" swims in the streets of Yantian

"Look, this fish swims to the wall", Xiao Li, who went to Yantian District for the first time, was attracted by this painted wall with special colors of Yantian after he left the subway. The "fish" on the wall is the Yantian National Intangible Cultural Heritage - "Sha Tau Jiao Fish Lantern Dance". Dancing fish lanterns for the New Year is an indispensable new year in the hearts of Sha Tau Kok people, condensing the love for traditional folk culture and full of expectations for a better life in the future.

Recently, late at night, reporters walked into Sha Tau Kok and listened to the non-genetic inheritors tell the story of the protection and inheritance of the intangible cultural heritage of the Sha Tau Kok Fish Lantern Dance.

▲Sha Tau Jiao Fish Lantern Dance Performance. Courtesy of respondents

"Fish Lantern Dance" wanders the streets of Yantian

The reporter took the subway line 8 and arrived at Sha Tau Kok Station in Yantian in 40 minutes from Jingtian Station in Futian. As soon as the reporter looked up in Sha Tau Kok Station, he saw the decoration of the fish lamp shape. This is a work from local artist Liu Aiming, "Fishing Village Memory", which extracts the elements of fish pockets and combines them with woven streamlines to form a simple and modern fish lamp shape.

The subway station staff told reporters that Metro Line 8 adopts the concept of "one station and one scene", combines regional landscape and cultural characteristics, and designs the station decoration with sea, mountains, plants and modern crafts as the main elements, reproducing the beautiful ecological scenery and production style along the way. Among them, Sha Tau Kok Station integrates the fishbone lamp as a representative cultural symbol of Yantian District into the space decoration, providing passengers with an immersive artistic experience.

After exiting Exit B of Sha Tau Kok MRT Station, you can see a huge painted wall of "Sha Tau Kok Fish Lantern Dance", and the pattern on the wall is exquisitely showing the dancing fish lamp and making the fish lamp, as if the fish swims on the wall.

In the eyes of Uncle Huang, a resident of Yantian, this painted wall was once "old and dilapidated", which did not conform to the image of Yantian City. Nowadays, after deeply practicing "I do practical things for the masses" in Yantian District and carrying out wall beautification and upgrading projects, these "old and shabby" are gorgeously transformed and butterflies have become beautiful hand-painted art paintings.

Protect and inherit the intangible cultural heritage of Yantian

Follow the painted wall all the way to Chung Ying Street and you'll see the Sha Tau Kok Fish Lantern Dance Folk Museum. In addition to the physical collections such as fish lantern dance sculptures, old utensils, agricultural tools, old photos, and old documents, the museum also uses scene restoration and scene simulation to show the history of ShalanHuang Village and the cultural trajectory of the protection and inheritance of the fish lantern dance. In 2008, the Sha Tau Kok Fish Lantern Dance was included in the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List. In December 2016, villagers created the Sha Tau Kok Fish Lantern Dance Folk Museum in the Sha Lan Scar Office Building.

To dance well, the fish lantern dance must have feelings for the fish and catch the charm of the fish. Imagine yourself as a fish, swimming around in the sky-blue ocean floor. The low horse step is the basic movement, and the horse step is fused with the body. Wu Guanqiu, the inheritor of the Fish Lantern Dance, said. Wu Guanqiu, known as "Uncle Qiu", is a native of Shatoujiao Shalanhuang Village, who has been practicing fish lantern dance with the elders of the clan since he was a child. Now he is 80 years old, the head coach of the Fish Lantern Dance in Shalan, and the fish lantern dancer is still strong and light.

In Wu Guanqiu's memory, every August 15th Mid-Autumn Festival, the 15th Lantern Festival, Mazu's birthday and other festivals, colorful fish lanterns will be lit candles, accompanied by fish lanterns shuttle dance, villagers immersed in a happy and festive festive atmosphere. Originating in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the Shatoujiao Fish Lantern Dance has a history of more than 300 years and is one of the representatives of Hakka fishing culture.

When it comes to the inheritance of the fish lantern dance, Wu Guanqiu's eyes reveal a resolute light. Since 2012, Wu Guanqiu has been going to Shenzhen primary schools, junior high schools and universities to carry out the "Non-Legacy Classroom" activity. In order to actively promote non-genetic inheritance, the Yantian District Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports Bureau and the project protection unit and Sha Tau Kok Street actively explored the new model of "party building leading + non-genetic inheritance", held the Sha Tau Kok Fish Lantern Dance Training Class for two consecutive years, and on the basis of the existing professional strength, selected and trained a group of new forces of the Fish Lantern Dance Performance Team.

Nowadays, the Shatoujiao Fish Lantern Dance has also been "walking" out with the support of all forces, and has successively displayed the charm of Yantian Intangible Cultural Heritage in some countries, provinces, municipalities and Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao regions, and polished the cultural business card of Yantian.

Shenzhen Evening News reporter Xie Qizong Peng Caiping intern Deng Ruying Cai Ruiying Zhao Yingyu