Ye Zhongming began to learn lion dance with Huang Qintian at the age of seven, and was the head coach of the Huang Feihong Dragon and Lion Troupe of Zoomlion. Zoomlion Huang Feihong Dragon and Lion Regiment has won the world championship for many times and has won the reputation of "World Lion King". In recent years, as a representative of Lingnan culture, they have appeared in CCTV programs many times, and have appeared on the stage of CCTV Spring Festival Gala in 2014, 2016 and 2018, becoming the pride of Guangdong people.
He began learning dragon lions at the age of seven
Go through "devil" training
"I grew up in the countryside, and every New Year's Festival, the village will organize lion dances, and every year during the summer vacation, the elders in the village will also organize children to learn martial arts and wake up lions in the ancestral hall or under the banyan tree." Ye Zhongming talked about the reason why he learned to dance lions, "The reason why I have such a great interest in lion dances is because of a story when I was five years old. When a lion in our village woke up and wanted to go to the bridge near our house to worship the public, when the lion was about to walk to my door, I was watching on the side of the road, and the lion suddenly stuck his head out, which frightened me. I cried and asked mom and dad why the lions were biting me. Mom and Dad said it was my uncle's dancing lion and it wouldn't hurt me. "Because of this experience, Ye Zhongming became interested in lion dance and wanted to understand how to dance such a mighty lion." In the process of learning lion dance, I learned a lot of culture, different routines have different meanings, including the fortune dance of doing business, the lion dance of birthdays, and which dance method of breaking the money and blocking disasters... There's a lot of culture here that I'm worth learning. ”
"Master was particularly strict when he trained us, getting up at six o'clock every day to go for a run, and after breakfast, he formally trained his skills and physical fitness. What I'm most afraid of is physical training, because the amount of exercise is so large that it can be described as 'horrible'. "Ye Zhongming still remembers once, when Ye Zhongming and his brother trained until more than 11 o'clock, they wanted to steal a lazy and go to see the newly bought lions, but they were discovered by the master, scolded, and punished them to run 15 kilometers, and only after they came back could they have lunch. And when I first started training plum blossom piles, because of psychological fear, I did not dare to go to the pile, and in order to let us adapt to the height of the plum blossom pile as soon as possible, the master chatted, ate, and drank water on the plum blossom pile. ”
The content of physical training also includes dragon boating, "dragon boating is a kind of whole body exercise, you can practice waist strength, leg strength and arm strength, there is a local kneeling way of paddling, the whole kneeling rowing, not a kilometer, but ten kilometers, twenty kilometers, very bitter and tired, after paddling back at night to continue to practice martial arts." Because the lion dance requires martial arts skills, practicing horse steps is really hard, the master will put an incense under our butts, put a bowl on our hands and thighs, can't move, can't stand, can't sit down. ”
Constantly innovating lion art
Target the World Lion King
"The most difficult thing is to learn the form and innovative movement of lions, our master is strict, we must have what others do not have, and we must be better than them." Others practice ten times, we have to practice a thousand times, in order to form a unique muscle memory, make the movements stable enough. Ye Zhongming recalled his journey of learning to wake up the lion, "The road to innovation is really hard and difficult, and it is often injured, the most serious one, three months of rest before recovering." Ye Zhongming once thought of giving up, "because it is really too bitter, and some of the classmates and friends around me have gone to college, some have begun to work to make money, we learn lion dance purely as a spontaneous hobby, and there is no income at the beginning." ”
As an ornamental sport, dragon and lion require at least two to three years of training time from entry to stage performance. As one of the "main bones" of the Huang Feihong Lions, Ye Zhongming really participated in the performance after 1998. Before this, he had hardly made money through lion dances, and the food and living in the lion team was all dependent on the help of the master and his brothers. But for the sake of his dream, Ye Zhongming still chose to stick to it. He set himself the goal of Guangdong Provincial Champion, National Champion, Asian Champion, World Championship Champion, World Lion King, and worked hard towards his goal step by step.
Among Huang Qintian's first apprentices, Ye Zhongming was the youngest. The so-called "master leads the entry, cultivation depends on the individual", Ye Zhongming trained hard, the requirements for himself have always been very high, the learning art is not partial, and the cooperation with the master and brother is also relatively good. In order to keep up with the times, Ye Zhongming constantly understands the lion dances in other places and even lion art around the world, innovates the difficulty, and achieves "people without me, people have me", catering to social development and the improvement of ornamental value. "Guangdong Awakening Lion has developed to the present, and has experienced many innovations, from dancing on the ground, dancing on the table, dancing on bamboo poles, dancing on ladders, and developing to dancing on plum blossom piles. Plum blossom piles have developed from wooden piles in the previous martial arts to steel pipe piles now, which are relatively tall, relatively strong, difficult and interesting. Ye Zhongming said that their team set up plum blossom piles according to the characteristics of each person, flipped on the plum blossom piles, turned the body in the air, 180 degrees in the air, 360 degrees in the air, etc., are the innovative actions of the Foshan Zhonglian Huang Feihong Dragon and Lion Troupe. Their dragon and lion performances combine southern martial arts, dance, skill and music, with strong movements, bravery and mighty movements, as well as dexterity, agility and stability; Drum music is accompanied by dense drums and tight cymbals (gong shooting method), the drums are rich and orderly, the techniques are concise and dexterous, rigid and soft, ever-changing, and lifelike.
Inherit the dragon and lion culture
Discover the talent of the awakening lion
Ye Zhongming has paid a lot in inheriting lion art and innovating lion art, and has done his best, regardless of the sect, to teach the students unreservedly, hoping that the dragon and lion culture can be passed on from generation to generation. In the past, lion dancers did not receive the attention and attention of the society, but now, traditional culture has been picked up again and recognized and valued by the government and all sectors of society. Now, he can proudly say, "I'm a Dragon Lion coach." ”
In order to let more teenagers fall in love with the Guangdong Awakening Lion, Ye Zhongming has been promoting the activity of "Dragon Lion Entering the Campus", "We also promote the awakening lion culture through paper cutting, handmade, painting, movies, games and other art forms that children like, including the popular "Lion Boy" some time ago, we are the technical consultants of this movie, the shape of the lion, the costumes of the characters, including the drummer inside, and its prototype is one of my disciples, the fat boy." Ye Zhongming also mentioned a micro-film called "Southern Lion Dream", "The story of the little child in it is my real experience." ”
Ye Zhongming has always advocated that learning the culture of waking lions should start from dolls, "The Dragon and Lion Association has established a special kindergarten as the enlightenment of awakening lion talents. The most important thing to start learning to wake up the lion is to learn etiquette, how to salute, how to worship the teacher, and guide children to learn traditional culture. Ye Zhongming's son is now more than two years old and has begun to train with his brothers in the association, he thinks it is very fun, he likes lions.
Intangible Cultural Heritage Science Popularization
Speaking of dragons and lions, the South China Sea Dali is not to be tolerated, here not only has the reputation of "the source of dragons and lions", but also the first batch of "national hundreds of millions of farmers fitness advanced towns", "national dragon and lion sports towns", but also guangdong province folk culture and art (wake up lions, traditional dragon boats) hometown. Since the Beginning of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, There have been many lion practitioners in Dali, and every festival or major celebration, they will definitely move to wake up the lions to help. For hundreds of years, Dali has maintained the custom of waking up the lion to celebrate the New Year, and it has been passed down through the generations. The dancing dragon and lion contain the spiritual core of festivity, unity and enterprising, flowing in the blood of every Dali person. In 2006, the Dali Dragon Lion has been included in the first batch of intangible cultural heritage lists of the state and Guangdong Province; In 2012, the Dali Lions Club was also included in the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the South China Sea. As a national -level "intangible cultural heritage", the dragon and lion movement in Dali has shown a professional and industrialized development model in recent years, which has revitalized the traditional culture of waking lions.
Written by: Xu Kun, reporter of Nandu Wan Finance Agency
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