The lion drum is the main accompaniment instrument for dragon dances, lion dances, martial arts and parades, and its production is an independent folk traditional craftsmanship. The lion drum production of the century-old "Jinsheng" store in Kaiping City, Guangdong Province belongs to the Southern Lion genre, and its products are not only sold in Guangdong Province, but also sold to the United States, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and other countries and regions.
Jinsheng Lion Drum Shop is located in Sanbu Xinchang Yongfu Road, Kaiping City, founded in 1888 by Hu Houhat, making and selling lions and drums. The 1980s was the most prosperous period of the lion drum business, the lion drum was in short supply, and the third generation of Hu Woyi developed it into a comprehensive shop that made dragons, lions, drums, gongs, cymbals and other dragon and lion props. The "Golden Sound" lion drum making technique is passed down from generation to generation by the children of the Hu family, and the whole set of lion drum making technology is complex, and it will take at least ten years to fully master all the processes. The store currently produces more than 60 varieties of lions, dragons and drums.
The production process of lion drum is complicated, first of all, the selection of materials, the skin is preferably the back of the cow, the buttocks of the cow, and the wood is more likely to use banyan wood. Secondly, open the board according to the sketch, plan it and build a drum mold, and use bamboo hoops to do it. Next, grind the drum body, open the drum mouth, and fix the drum shape. After that, the number of drum galls is determined according to the size of the lion drum, and the drums are even numbers regardless of the size of the drums, such as the shakufroku and shakuhachi lion drums with 8 drum galls, the middle drum with 6 or 4 drums, and the small drums with 2 drums. Then there is the drum skin, that is, the drum machine is used to fix the surrounding holes (12 big drums, 8 small drums) while beating and pulling the skin, and using an iron rod to grind while tightening the cowhide until the whole skin is tightened and the audition is satisfactory. Finally, it is necessary to nail, color, batch ash, and glue drum paper or colored cloth to complete the production of lion drums. The golden lion drum looks like a barrel, narrow on the top and wide on the bottom, and has a loud sound, which is a folk art masterpiece with Lingnan characteristics.
The shop wakes up lion production process is fine, there are more processes, divided into tie- work, lion fighting, writing lions, lion loading and other procedures, manufacturing techniques, selection of materials according to different types of lions and different.
At present, the golden lion drum making technique has been included in the list of intangible cultural heritage of Guangdong Province.