Looking at the world, Guangzhou Tianhe CBD is a special existence. There are towering skyscrapers, quaint centuries-old ancestral halls, vibrant innovations and developments, and a long-standing traditional culture. In the past, farmland was transformed into urban areas, and traditional activities with unique Lingnan characteristics such as waking up lions and picking dragon boats are still well inherited. Modernity and tradition blend together here. Recently, the traditional dragon head of Shipai Village of Tianhe CBD appeared at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, so that the vitality of Lingnan culture in Tianhe CBD once again bloomed on the international stage.
A Dragon Teng
Debut at the Winter Olympics
The only black-bearded dragon was selected by the Olympic Organizing Committee
On February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. At the opening ceremony, the countdown session strung together with China's 24 solar terms was fascinating. Among them, a dragon head with a very Lingnan charm jumped out of the water with a splash of water, which is the shipai dragon head that guangzhou Tianhe Shipai people are proud of.
Dong Junjie, a typical post-90s generation, grew up in Shipai since childhood, and under the guidance of the elders of Shipai, he fell in love with the dragon boat culture. In 2021, he integrated this love into the design and creativity of the new generation of Shipai dragon boat dragon dragon boat dragon He hit it off with Zhang Weichao, the inheritor of the Guangzhou intangible cultural heritage project "Dragon Boat Dragon Head, Dragon Tail Making Technique", to create a dragon head with cultural self-confidence in the spirit of the new era.
"The dragon boats in each village have their own characteristics, and each dragon head represents the culture and spirit of each village, and must be unique." Zhang Weichao told reporters: "Designing the dragon head for Shipai Village, I repeatedly communicated with friends who know the history of this village. Different surnames, different totems. The new faucet, whether it is shape, color, or detail matching, must be discussed repeatedly to determine the final appearance. ”
If you look closely at the Shipai dragon head in ronggui's hometown, you will find that the mouth shape of the dragon head is like an "eagle's beak", and the eagle's beak is sharp enough to fish, representing a "harvest". On the side of the "eagle's beak" there is a pattern as thin as "Ruyi", representing "peace and happiness". The place where the green hook and gold line on the dragon head resembles the fin of the fish is a net pattern, which means "to eat and to catch the net". Looking at the dragon's teeth, the boundaries are clear and crystal clear; the transition from the dragon's lips to the dragon's flesh is natural in color.
The dragon's whiskers floating in the string of dragon necks are inspired by the flowing hairs in the lion dance, and the dragon's whiskers are deliberately designed to flutter backwards, so that the dragon's head presents a more agile posture. There are a total of 8 dragon boats in Shipai Village, which is also the only black-bearded dragon at present. When making, the designer added gold powder to the black paint, which allowed the faucet to shine and shine from different angles, especially in the sunlight, showing a state of striving in the times and breaking the waves in the rapids.
Cultural confidence
"Stone Dragon Rises to Chinese Dragon"
On the day that the selected dragon head was honored to return to Shipai, a micro-documentary called "Shipai Dragon" was released to the public, which truly restored the love affair between Shipai dragon boat culture and the Beijing Winter Olympics with realism and white painting techniques. Director Zhang Tong said that combined with more than ten years of experience in insisting on following the stone pai culture, the documentary presents the real event of "Chinese traditional culture confidently displayed in front of the people of the world" with the expression concept of "the stone pai dragon rising to the Chinese dragon".
According to director Zhang Tong, the film starts from the design concept of the dragon head designer, and the first part of "carved dragon" takes "carving" as the keyword, highlighting the design core, "each dragon head represents the culture and spirit of a village", and guides the "depth and connotation of the culture of the stone dragon boat". Subsequently, the second part of the micro-documentary, "Borrowing the Dragon", took "borrowing" as the key word to record the picture of the designer and the Shipai elders discussing major events together, highlighting the strong support of the Shipai elders for this will, and showing the pattern and arrogance of the Shipai people in the face of state affairs and major events.
In the third part, with "race" as the key word, using montage techniques, the stone dragon head and the classic scene of the Winter Olympic Games are cleverly painted, showing the vigorous strength of the dragon spirit in the Winter Olympic Games field, through chinese athletes to the people of the world, which is the unique meaning of the "dragon race". The fourth part takes "welcome" as the key word, records the grand scene when the dragon head tailored for the stone plate returns to the village, and presents the cultural heritage of the stone brand dragon boat of "respect", "inheritance" and "courtesy" through the expression of the details of the greeting picture.
Although the former farmland has been transformed into an urban area, The Shipai people's feelings for dragon boats have not changed, and their love for dragon boats has been engraved into every detail of the micro-documentary. "This micro-documentary is a special product created for The Shipai people in a special period, so that the Shipai people can use the hot spots of the Beijing Winter Olympics to go to the world, let the Chinese traditional culture go to the world, and reflect the self-confidence and mission of the Shipai people." Chi Jinling, chairman of Shipai Sanjun Enterprise Group, said.
B Lion Leap
There is Echo Bing
Awakening the lion has the magic to unite everyone
In Guangzhou's Tianhe CBD, the traditional customs of lion dances for the New Year have not diminished for many years. Like dragon boats, the awakening of the lion is also an iconic symbol of Lingnan culture in the CBD.
Located in the central area of Tianhe CBD, Liede Village is famous for being "the first urban village in Guangzhou to be completely transformed". On important holidays or festive days, drums will be sounded in front of the Liede Ancestral Hall and the Economic Associated Press to cheer up the villagers and townships. Since its establishment in 1982, the Liede Dragon and Lion Team has won the honor of "Lion King" in domestic and foreign dragon and lion competitions dozens of times, and is also the only awakening lion team that can "dance on the dragon boat".
Different from the general commercial lion awakening team, the "native" village community lion team like the Hunting Dragon Lion Team, only the Spring Festival is the "peak season" during the year, and the rest of the time is basically the "off-season". Most of the team members are amateurs, and only on festive days like the Spring Festival or in the early stages of competition preparations, the team members will "raid" training. Everyone has a love for dragon and lion culture, basically all of them are responsive.
"Waking a lion is like having a magic that unites the whole village." Li Zhifeng said that although the members of the Hunting Dragon Lion Team come from different surnames in the village, they get along very harmoniously. "As long as we are interested, we are welcome, and it does not matter whether we have the same surname." Li Zhifeng introduced that in Guangzhou, many village dragon and lion teams are formed according to surnames, and generally play their own.
Li Zhifeng, the leader of the Liede Dragon and Lion Team, has joined the team for more than 30 years and witnessed countless glorious moments of the Dragon and Lion Team. At the Performance of the Guangzhou Dragon Boat Festival of the Dragon Boat Festival in 1997, on the dragon boat participating in the Competition of Liede Village, two lions danced at the same time and jumped lightly on the high stake, which attracted the attention of the audience as soon as it appeared, and the performance of the four seats made everyone clap their hands and applaud. It was with this idea that the Liede Dragon Boat won the first prize of the Rainbow Dragon Performance. Since then, the Hunting Dragon and Lion Team has the reputation of "the awakening lion team dancing on the dragon boat".
Leading the Hunting Dragon Lion Team, what bothered Li Zhifeng the most was how to retain the team members and how to absorb "fresh blood". There are many people who have a try-and-play mentality, but there are also many people who give up halfway, some people feel that training is too hard, some people can't cope with too much time because of work or academic pressure, and some people choose to leave together because their friends have left the team.
At present, most of the more than 60 teams of the Hunting Dragon and Lion Team are post-80s in the village, and there are fewer players in their teens and twenties. But in fact, the intensity of the lion awakening exercise is large, it is a full-fledged physical work, and basically 30 years old can already be regarded as the "retirement" age. Li Zhifeng said frankly that the Hunting Dragon Lions are facing the problem of personnel "faults". In order to cultivate lion talents. Every summer vacation, the Hunter Awakening Lion Team will recruit students to learn to wake up the lion for free, whether they are from the village or foreigners, as long as they are interested in learning, they can sign up to participate.
Even in the face of the embarrassment of personnel faults, as the leader of the Hunting Dragon Lion Team, Li Zhifeng firmly believes that the tradition of waking up the lion will not die. "It's just that the action is not so good, and the technology is not so exquisite." Li Zhifeng said that although life is becoming more and more modern, whether it is the government, schools or people, more and more attention is paid to the inheritance of traditional culture. As the culture of waking lions is gradually recognized by young people, this tradition will be passed on from generation to generation.
"Activities such as lion awakening and dragon boat are traditional and more exquisite, and they need to be enthusiastic about traditional culture to find fun in them." Modern life pays attention to simplicity and fast pace, and the young people in the village are usually busy with work, and it is not realistic for them to devote their free time to high-intensity dragon boat training. Dong Wenhan, the third-generation inheritor of the Dong clan dragon lion of Shipai and the president of the Dong Han Tang Dragon and Lion Regiment, said. However, in recent years, dragon boat and lion awakening have become important competitions on the major stages at home and abroad, and major universities in China have also organized and established dragon boat teams and lion awakening teams, which have made Dong Wenhan feel that dragon boats and lions are still attractive to the younger generation. He hoped that in the future, folk traditional customs and activities can also be more professional, and the way of inheriting and carrying forward traditional culture will be more innovative.
Inheritance
The New Lion First Dance opens the light
Shipai Village is the "neighbor" of Liede Village. This 700-year-old urban village also has a tradition of waking up lions. This year's Spring Festival, Shipai Village ushered in a new "male lion". The first dance of the new lion, according to the traditional custom, must carry out the traditional ritual of "opening the light and lighting the eye", after the opening of the light, it will become a powerful and magical lion that can ward off evil spirits and blessings.
When the auspicious time is chosen, the opening ceremony is held in the Jade Void Palace of Shipai Village. Dong Wenhan, a young man who grew up in Shipai Village, is the third generation inheritor of the Dragon Lion of The Dong clan of Shipai and the president of the Dragon and Lion Regiment of Dong Han Tang, and he and his disciples arranged a ceremony on the spot early, placing the new lion in front of the worship table for the gods, and inserting the yellow skin leaf (the folk believe that the yellow skin leaf can get rid of evil qi) next to the horn of the new lion, and decorating its horn with a ribbon, which is called "hanging red with hairpin flowers". "Behind each traditional custom is a rich historical story, as well as a philosophy that we Chinese behave in the world, and always teach us." Dong Wenhan said.
Subsequently, Dong Wenhan began to burn incense, toast (sprinkle wine) to heaven and earth, bow, and then the two disciples put on the lion's head and entered the lion's body, and then Dong Wenhan used yellow skin leaves to clean the whole body of the new lion, read the opening of the light to the finishing touch, holding a new pen, with chicken blood and cinnabar as dyes, opening the light and lighting the eyes of the new lion, and the serious atmosphere reached its peak. It is said that this is to give the new lion an auspicious aura and the power of spreading blessings, that is, to give the new lion the source of life.
Written by: Nandu reporter Xia Jiawen Intern Lin Zhiqin Correspondent Chi Yancheng
Photo: Zou Jun, Lin Zhiqin