"As long as the drum beats in our hearts, we are lions." The 2021 movie "Lion Boy" let the lion dance enter the public's vision, allowing us to see the enthusiastic youth of a group of dream-chasing teenagers. The teenagers support each other, stumble all the way, and finally create miracles to realize their dreams.
In Ninghai Qiantong, there is also such a group of hot-blooded teenagers, who have revitalized the once-declining lion dance skills and poured out a different kind of youth with sweat.
Empty your legs, swoop forward and backward, move left and right... A few days ago, in the ancestral hall of The Ancient Town of Qiantong in Ninghai, several teenagers were practicing lion dances.
The sound of gongs and drums, one person "lion head", one person "lion tail", stepping on the drum sometimes jumping, sometimes turning in circles, the footsteps are light. Master Tong Panfeng stood to the side, carefully watching every movement of the team members.
In the former childhood, the lion dance has a long history, dating back to the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, the former children had formed a lion class to perform at the Lantern Festival. At that time, there were two lion classes, "on the street" and "on the street", which flourished in the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, and continued until the gradual demise of the 1950s.
The former child lion class has a huge team, ranging from as few as thirty or forty people to as many as fifty or sixty people, including lion heads and lion tails, dancing fists, dancing sticks, dancing forks, dancing swords, raising fire lamps, bands, etc. However, due to various reasons, the former child lion dance was once lost. It was not until the Lantern Festival (a local folk entertainment activity) in 2016 that it returned to the vision of the former children. It is Tong Panfeng who has contributed to the return of the former tong lion dance.
Tong Panfeng, a native of the ancient town youth, why did he reorganize the former Child Lion Class in the first place? He said it stemmed from his ancestors.
"It's also a coincidence. I knew from my elders that my grandfather had been a member of the former Children's Lion Class. When I was a child, my impression of the lion dance was the Hong Kong drama "Huang Feihong" and "Fang Shiyu", and after knowing it, I wanted to restore the tradition of lion dance. ”
In 2015, he quit his job and went to Shandong and other places to learn lion dance. But he soon found that the promotion of lion dance culture and the revival of traditional culture need to start from dolls. In 2017, he started teaching at qiantong Town Center Primary School, and the first batch of "lion teenagers" were born.
11-year-old Ji Yukun and Tong Yuheng are classmates and a pair. The skinny Ji Yukun is shorter than the stout Tong Yukun, so he plays the lion head, and Tong Yuheng is responsible for the lion's tail.
For Tong Yuheng, the lion's tail means to bear more - when the lion is upright, it is up to him to support the lion's head. The moment he lifts it, he will grin hard. At this time, Ji Yukun's feet would borrow power on his thighs, and after countless times of practice, even through the thick sweatpants, Tong Yuheng's thighs were still reddened.
The lion dance troupe is recognized as the most crying Zhang Zhenhao, who has won the title of "Young Lion King" in only one year after "entering the industry". Learning to dance lions often has bruises, and on the eve of participating in the competition last year, Zhang Zhenhao accidentally broke his knee. On the day of the competition, he was still secretly wiping tears from the stage, and as soon as he got on the stage, he conquered all the judges with his naughty and witty performance.
"You don't feel bitter doing what you like." Zhang Zhenhao said that the blood of the lion dance has surged in his and his friends' hearts.
These teenage children are not afraid of hardship and tiredness, and use their small bodies to pass on the lion dance skills that have been lost for more than half a century of their predecessors, and in just a few years, they have won the grand prizes of the national, Zhejiang and Ningbo lion dance championships at all levels.
In 2020, Qiantong Central Primary School was recognized by the Zhejiang Dragon and Lion Sports Association as the "first batch of Zhejiang Dragon Dance (Lion Dance) Inheritance Teaching Base". "Where there are Chinese, there is a lion dance." Tong Panfeng said that the lion dance is not only a performance, it symbolizes the high-spirited posture of the Chinese nation and the pride of the Chinese. "As long as I can still dance, I must promote the lion dance culture."
Regarding what the spirit of the lion dance is, this group of "little lions" speaks in unison: do not accept defeat, do not retreat, do not give up!
Reporter: Zhang Haiyu
(Ningbo Evening News)