The majestic and majestic Guangdong lion awakening performance. Picture of this newspaper
The 56-year-old Huang Qintian is a national non-hereditary heir of Guangdong Lion Awakening and a well-known Lion Awakening Master in Foshan. Photo by Peiwen Zhou
Li Wanzhen, the inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage Foshan lion head (caiza) project and the "Li Family Lion" lion head za. Photo by Peiwen Zhou
At the base of "Huang Feihong Zhonglian Cable Martial Arts Dragon lion team", a lion head of more than 7 meters high and weighing 2 tons is eye-catching. Photo by Peiwen Zhou
Along with the noisy gongs and drums, nearly a hundred majestic male lions rushed to the bamboo platform in the middle of the square, Huang Feihong and his apprentices jumped on the platform with the silver lion in their hands, but unexpectedly, a giant lion head at least five times the size of the other lion's heads suddenly appeared in the slash, and more than a dozen people lifted it up on the ground, and everyone knew that Zhao Tianba's lion had arrived. Only to see this giant lion with its teeth and claws throwing all the surrounding lions off the platform, and went straight to the highest place of 'Li is Qing', leaving only Huang Feihong's silver lion dodging left and right, deftly avoiding the attack of the giant lion, and also climbing all the way to the highest place, a fierce battle between the two lions around 'Cai Qing' is about to unfold..."
This is the most exciting climax of the third film in the Huang Feihong series of films "Lion King Battle" released in 1992 by Hong Kong director Xu Ke and starring kung fu movie jet Li, and it also made the awakening lion culture originating in Foshan, Guangdong Province, popular for a while, and is still the source of the creation of many literary and artistic works. From the dance drama "Wake Up Lion", which won the Chinese dance "Lotus Award", to the animation movie "Lion Boy" that recently broke 200 million at the box office, Guangdong Wake Lion has become one of the most distinctive "national tide" IP in the minds of the young generation.
In fact, lion dance in China has a history of thousands of years, divided into "Northern Lion" and "Southern Lion", the former is a traditional lion dance technique prevalent in the north of the Yangtze River in China, which is said to have originated in the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 AD), by Emperor Wu's expedition to Hexi, Gansu Province, after capturing the Hu people, he ordered the Hu people to dance; and the Southern Lion originated in the Tang Dynasty, from the dream of the Tang Ming Emperor, and there have been hundreds of large-scale lion dances collectively performed by hundreds of people in the Tang Dynasty court performances. However, its evolution into the "Southern Lion" that people see today is a combination of the folk "Nian Beast" culture unique to foshan's South China Sea. Compared with the simple and realistic and humble attitude of the "Northern Lion", the "Southern Lion" pays more attention to a "wake" word, emphasizing the performance of the characteristics of the sleeping lion has awakened, the rigidity and softness are harmonious, and the mighty and exciting, while the local martial arts customs of Foshan are integrated into the awakening lion performance, and the performance of the high pile lion dance and the green competition reflects the difficult martial arts skills. Nowadays, it is more popular in the global Chinese community, and the more that has been included in the category of international sports competitions refers to the Guangdong awakening lion, that is, the "Southern Lion".
As early as 2006, Guangdong awakening lion as an authentic Lingnan traditional folk culture has been included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list, in 2008 Foshan lion head (Caiza) also entered the national intangible cultural heritage list, the local awakening lion circle immediately has two national masters, namely engaged in lion dance "Huang Feihong fifth generation heir" Huang Qintian master, and the late "Li family lion" lion head as the craftsman Master Li Wei. This issue of nandu culture Lingnan intangible cultural heritage map came to Foshan Nanhai specifically to visit Master Huang Qintian, as well as Li Wanzhen, another descendant of "Li Jia Shi" and the sister of Master Li Wei, and listened to them share the legendary story of Guangdong Waking Lion.
This issue is written by Nandu reporter Wang Yayun
Special topic coordinator: Nandu reporter Zhou Peiwen
guru
▲ "Lion King" Huang Qintian: The spirit of the dragon and lion goes deep into the bone marrow
Nanhai Dali Town, Foshan, Guangdong Province, is a well-known "martial arts town" in the country, and the base of Master Huang Qintian's "Huang Feihong Zhonglian Cable Wushu Dragon and Lion Team" is located in Dali Town. When the reporter came to the base, it was the time to bid farewell to the new, the team from all over the country to perform continuously, almost all the coaches and students went out to perform, Master Huang personally led the reporter to visit the training hall, museum and honor room, there are lion heads who have participated in the National Day parade performance, there are lions who have won the World Awakening Lion Championship, as well as countless trophies, plaques, pennants and honorary certificates, the most eye-catching is a lion head that is more than 7 meters high and weighs 2 tons. "It took Master Zazuo almost a year to make it, and it should be the world's largest handmade lion's head." Master Huang introduced.
However, among all the "treasures" of the base, the most valuable is probably Huang Qintian himself, as the fifth generation of the famous patriotic martial artist Huang Feihong's inheritance genealogy and apprenticeship transmission, the 56-year-old Huang Qintian is the national non-hereditary heir of Guangdong Awakening Lion, and is currently an international referee, a technical committee member of the China Dragon and Lion Sports Association, the executive vice president of the Guangdong Dragon and Lion Sports Association, the president of the Foshan Nanhai Huang Feihong Zhonglian Cable Martial Arts Dragon and Lion Association, and has won the National Advanced Individual Award for Mass Sports in the past three years. In September this year, he also received a meeting with President Xi Jinping before the National Games as a representative of advanced units and advanced individuals in national sports. It can be said that in the circle of waking lions, Huang Qintian has long been recognized as the "lion king".
Speaking of learning martial arts at the age of 7, Huang Qintian started from Hong Quan, when every household in Dali Town had a tradition of learning martial arts, and many children lived a life of going to school with teachers during the day and practicing martial arts with their masters at night, and Huang Qintian joked that he may be more "talented" and "many moves can be imitated by looking at them once." After having Hong Quan as the foundation, he also learned from Master Zhang Zhihua, the fifth generation of martial artist Huang Feihong, to learn the awakening lion kung fu. Unlike many film and television works, including Huang Feihong's films, which portray the warriors who dance the lion's head as the protagonists, Master Huang told reporters that in fact, the person responsible for the lion's tail is the person responsible for the lion's tail. "When we judge the competition, whether the lion tail dance is good or not may account for more than 60 percent of the scoring factor," Master Huang said, "because the lion tail dance is the most test of the athlete's basic skills, and this person controls the rhythm of the whole lion." "So to learn to wake up the lion, Huang Qintian also started from the initial gong and drum class, to the flat ground dance, and then to the plum blossom pile that is higher than one layer higher than the other, from the lion dance head to the final lion dance tail, so that the lion art continued to improve, and when he was young, he became a famous lion awakening master in the eight villages of ten miles.
Although Huang Qintian loves to wake up lions, he did not dare to think of developing lion dance into his own profession at the beginning, fortunately, Foshan folk have a special love for dragon and lion culture, there has always been a vast market, and since the mid-1990s, the local government has vigorously supported folk traditional skills, encouraging enterprises and individuals to actively participate in the inheritance of The traditional culture of Guangzhou-Foshan. In this context, Huang Qintian established his own dragon and lion team in 1996, and in 1998, he was officially named as the fifth generation of Huang Feihong and was strongly funded by the local enterprise Zoomlion Cable, which led to today's "Huang Feihong Zhonglian Dragon and Lion Team", and Huang Qintian's promotion and teaching of the culture of waking lions can be fully carried out.
"As a master, the disciples must first start from our traditions, because I think we must understand what our ancestors left behind, its connotation, and its history, so that we can more deeply understand the spirit, and with the spirit, you can show that kind of arrogance when you do the action." 」 Huang Qintian said that over the years, tens of thousands of students have been instructed by him, all over the world, and before the epidemic, 4,000 to 5,000 foreign students will come to visit the teacher every year. And the longer he has been engaged in this line, the deeper he understands it, the more Huang Qintian has a sense of responsibility and mission, his idea is not only to win a few games and win a few championships, but to carry forward the culture of the awakening lion and never lose it.
Although Foshan has retained many traditional lion dance skills as the home of waking lions, this long-established folk art has also lost some stunts due to several wars since the end of the Qing Dynasty, and Huang Qintian and his dragon and lion team have the idea of recovering these traditional stunts. To this end, he and several coaches have taken the opportunity to go overseas to perform in many places in Southeast Asia, visit local martial arts groups, ask those teachers for advice, and sometimes when participating in some international lion awakening performances, they see that other teams have made moves that they have never seen before, they will also imitate on the spot, sometimes the dragon and lion teams on the field just finished performing, they immediately learned off the field. In this way, while acting and searching, many of the Southern Lion moves that had been lost in China in the early years were learned by Huang Qintian's lion team and carried forward.
"Awakening the lion is a project full of kaleidoscopes, for example, just for a 'green picking', there can be panqing, snake green, crab green, stool green, gao qing, ground green, water green, bridge green, even if it is the same set of actions, different people can also make different styles, different effects, so everyone should hold a learning attitude and learn from each other." And Huang Qintian himself is now older, he has already walked down the high pile, but he also personally demonstrates and instructs his apprentices from time to time, "We Southern Lions pay attention to a mighty and brave momentum, and we want to dance with that kind of vitality and vitality, which is achieved by hard training on weekdays." ”
In particular, it is worth mentioning that in addition to the art itself, Huang Qintian has always stressed with his disciples that he learns to be a man by learning to wake up the lion. Over the years, his lion team has received disciples in the local area as "those who come do not refuse", "teach art for free", and also "eat and wrap up", which is quite a bit of Huang Feihong's style of Master Huang Feihong with Wu Jishi, so many parents of "problem teenagers" have come to the door and asked Master Huang to teach those "lost lambs". "I've received too many 'naughty boys' here," Master Huang told reporters, "what kind of fight-loving, smelly temper, Internet addicts, anyway, the school parents can't control the children, sent to me, we do not refuse, there are ways to let them return to the right path." "There have even been drug addicts and mentally handicapped children who have come to visit the teacher, and the Lions have accepted and guided these marginal teenagers to regain their confidence in life."
Huang Qintian feels that the "warrior benevolence" of the outside world's personal evaluation of him is only a small factor that can achieve the effect, the most important thing is that the awakening lion itself brings positive energy to those teenagers who encounter difficulties in life, "I think that waking the lion is a thing that emits positive energy, you can learn it to infect the positive spirit it represents, no matter whether you eat this bowl of rice in the future, which line and which karma, you will have the spirit of the dragon and lion in your life, and when you encounter difficulties, this spirit can help you overcome difficulties and become strong." ”
▲ Li Wanzhen: A century of inheritance, generations of perseverance
Foshan Chancheng District Pujun North Road subway station is a densely populated commercial and residential area, Li Wanzhen Studio is located on the second floor of a somewhat dated commercial market. When the reporter went, the provincial non-hereditary inheritor was making two lion heads with his daughter Zhou Jiaxin, "Recently there was a 'Intangible Cultural Heritage Year' activity in the province, and we were invited to participate in it, so we had to prepare for it." Li Wanzhen told reporters, "In addition, CCTV has a program that says that if you want to come to us to shoot tomorrow, you need to prepare a lion's head semi-finished product for teaching demonstration." ”
As the fifth generation of Li Jia Lion, Li Wanzhen is one of the most representative figures of Foshan Lion Head Caizha Technique, Li Jia Lion is famous at home and abroad for its excellent quality and mighty shape, the giant lion lion head danced by the villain Zhao Tianba in the movie "Lion King Battle", that is, Li Wanzhen and several masters spent more than a month in Beijing to make it, and now many large-scale cultural activities often use the lion head of Li Jia Lion.
The history of the Li family lion has also been more than 200 years. The ancestors of the Li family first moved from Jiangxi to Foshan, when they made a living from the craft of the tie, after coming to Foshan, they found that the local lion awakening activities were popular, and the demand for lion heads was large, and the ancestors of the Li family gradually studied the production of lion heads full-time, and finally with their outstanding craftsmanship, the Li family lion stood out and became a lion head with a reputation and competition for procurement in the local martial arts. After several generations of inheritance, the descendants of the Li family have continued to improve and progress in this process, such as reducing the weight of the lion's head to meet the needs of the high-pile lion dance, and increasing the color and material to cater to the young people. When Li Wanzhen was a child, she often saw her parents engaged in lion head weaving at home, learned the craft, and eventually entered the industry to become the heir of the family craft.
"The characteristics of our Li family lion are high and straight forehead, large eyebrows, wide apricot nose, full cheeks, bright colors, and look very spiritual and powerful." Li Wanzhen said that many of the popular lion head shapes on the market are inspired by The Li Family Lion, including the recent hit movie "Lion Boy", and the painting team has also publicly admitted that the lion head animation in it is a reference to the Li Family Lion shape. The production of a lion head of Li Jiashi includes four major processes of tie, flutter, writing and loading, more than 300 small steps and more than 1300 nodes, even if it is a skilled master like her to make a lion head herself, it will take at least 10 to 15 days, "because you must focus on fine, sloppy, otherwise sorry for our Li family lion signboard." ”
The reporter saw the most in the studio is Foshan's traditional "Liu Guanzhang" lion head and "Five Tiger General" lion head, there are also gold, pink, purple and other new lion heads, Li Wanzhen said that they will also make customized versions of the lion head according to the special requirements of some customers, such as lion heads with brand colors, or implant some sound and light, smoke spray and other effects. She has not counted how many lion heads she has made over the years, but she believes that where there are Chinese, there will be lions, and where there are lions, you can see the Lion of Li.
At present, Li Wanzhen studio is also perennial enrollment, every week there will be children to learn to make simple lion head drawing skills, at the same time she often takes her daughter to go to colleges, middle schools and even kindergartens to popularize the production process of Li Jia Lion, and also hopes to recruit more apprentices in this process, after all, as an intangible cultural heritage, Li Jia Lion is not only a family inheritance, but also a responsibility for Guangdong folk culture and even national culture inheritance. "Of course, I hope that the craft of Caizha Lion Head can be passed on from generation to generation," Li Wanzhen said, "but it is one thing to like it, and it really needs to be paid a lot to make it a lifelong career, or start by stimulating interest and do my best to promote it to more people." ”
After the wave
Wake up the lion "national tide" out of the teenager
In fact, for Li Jiashi, the lion head caizha technique has been passed down from the sixth generation, that is, Li Wanzhen's 31-year-old daughter Zhou Jiaxin, the former mathematics teacher has now been full-time to help Li Wanzhen to take care of the production and promotion of "Li Jiashi", and while inheriting the traditional craft, Zhou Jiaxin and her lover also try to develop more cultural and creative products that young people like from time to time, and actively promote the awakening lion to integrate into the "national tide" atmosphere of the young group.
"We have launched Li Jiashi-themed clothing, car accessories, home furnishings... Are quite popular with young people," Zhou Jiaxin told reporters, the reporter also saw a lot of keychains, mobile phone pendants, dolls, etc. in the studio, colorful lion heads are vivid and vivid, "Many people who come to Foshan to travel like to buy our lion heads as souvenirs to send back, very Foshan characteristics." At the same time, she also came up with different products that can combine the Li family lion with some folk festivals, such as the Spring Festival when they did the lion's head theme of the Spring League and Li Isfeng, which are very popular in the flower market, and the Tanabata Festival also features pink Li Jia Lion and couple Li Jia Lion jewelry, which also aroused the interest of many young people. With the assistance of her daughter and son-in-law, Li Wanzhen is also very relieved to hand over these "trendy" things to the next generation.
In contrast, although Master Huang Qintian has not yet designated the next generation of heirs, he has a wide range of apprentices, even during the epidemic period, there are 180 professional team members in the team, and these junior team members often bring new ideas to the lion dance art. "Sometimes the music changes, sometimes it's the action 'shakes', bringing new meaning to the performance." Huang Qintian said that in fact, as a member of the technical committee of the China Dragon and Lion Association and an international referee, he told reporters that there are also special "creative dragon lion" projects in the dragon and lion competitions, "In the dragon and lion competition 'creative dragon lion' single event, the participants will use street dance, disco elements, new wave music, etc., which are encouraging the younger generation to be bold and innovative, while inheriting the tradition, integrating new era elements and adding vitality to the dragon and lion spirit." ”
Movies such as "Lion Boy" have been widely praised by the public, and are also popular things for all lion practitioners, "In fact, we can now see many young people taking the dragon and lion as a representative of a 'national tide', and there are many cultural and creative products around the dragon and lion spirit, including film and television dramas, stage performances, etc. They like to use dragon and lion elements, which are very gratifying." Huang Qintian said, "Waking the lion is a precious treasure left to us by the ancestors, and I believe that we will pass it on and carry it forward." ”