Shijiawan Lion Dance

“A collective exhibition and performance of Xinzhou District’s Intangible Cultural Heritage was inaugurated in the square of Wenjin Academy on February 26. Sixteen cultural heritage programs were presented. Among them was the Shijiawan lion dance on stacked tables. This traditional art performance faded away a hundred years ago, but marked its renewed appearance at the event. It attracted more than 10,000 visitors.

A total of 48 old fashioned square tables were piled up to form a 10-meter-high pyramid-like tower. Amid the deafening sound of gongs and drums, two lion dancers climbed from the first step to the tenth. When the two lion dancers finally reached the top platform, they performed various acrobatic skills before wishing the audience good luck on a scroll unfurled from the lion’s mouth.

The Shijiawan lion dance originated in the Shijiawan Village during the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty. This art performance stopped in the early twentieth century.

According to Zhan Shuangruo, the deputy curator of the Xinzhou District Cultural Museum, they spent around two years in recovering this unique lion dance performance. As opposed to the Chinese Northern Lion Dance that emphasizes rolling movements on the ground, or the Chinese Southern Lion Dance that highlights fighting movements on high poles, the Shijiawan lion dance features playful dancing on stacked tables to stress the lion’s quality of mischief.”

source: Changjiang weekly