Dragon Dance Gala in Fenghua

July 2010 witnessed Fenghua， a county-level city under Ningbo， hold Xuedou Mountain International Maitreya Cultural Festival. Xuedou Mountain in eastern Zhejiang is said to be the place of enlightenment for Maitreya， a Buddha in the future. Fenghua is where Chiang Kai-shek was born. On July 17th， thousands of local people flocked to Fenghua Sports Stadium to watch a dragon dance gala， attended by 12 dragon dance teams.

The dragons at the gala had something in common: all the dragons were made of fabric. Fenghua is home to China’s oldest fabric dragons， which go back to more than 800 years ago.

The dragon is a totem of Chinese civilization. Dragon dance highlights the majesty of Chinese spirit. Images of a few people doing a dragon dance and praying for rain can be seen on ancient oracle bones of more than 4，000 years old. History has a great variety of records of dragon dancing. At first dragon dancing was a ritual to commemorate ancestors and pray for blessing and later it evolved into a popular entertainment. By the Tang (618-906) and Song (960-1279) dynasties， dragon dancing had become a common sight during the Spring Festival across the central kingdom.

Over centuries， dragon dancing has evolved in various forms， styles， and choreographs. A traditional dragon dancing performance is usually divided into four stages: overture， dragon appearance， dragon dance， and exit.

The twelve dragon dances at the Fenghua gala showed a great variety and art. The team from Fenghua Senior High School won the gold medal for their brilliant coordination. The movements were masterfully choreographed; the show displayed majesty， strength and a high degree of difficulty. The silver-medalist was a team from Shanghai Sports Academy. The dance highlighted excellent rhythm， vivacity， speed， form. A team from Hunan Province showed a dance of four dragons. A team from Hubei Province wowed audience with a dragon dance in which all the actors walked on 2-meter-tall stilts. A team from Chongqing staged a dragon show in which the dragon went through flaming fire. A team from Wuxi， Jiangsu Province showed a dragon decorated with bright feathers of roosters. One eye-catching performance was staged by a dragon dance team from America. The team was from Boston and the members were from a kongfu club founded in 1966. The dragon dance team has participated in various dragon dance competitions and won a string of honors. A dragon dance team from a high school in Taiwan showed to the audience in Fenghua a Hakka-styled dragon dance enriched with local elements of Fuzhou. The team had won a top prize at 2010 Asia Dragon and Lion Dance Competition.

Fenghua is China’s home of fabric dragon dancing. The fabric dragon in Fenghua goes back to more than eight hundred years. The dancing is one of the most influential dragon dancing genres in China， characterized by elegance and unique style which combine to create a strong artistic appeal. In 2005， the dragon dancing was put on Zhejiang Province’s first directive of intangible cultural heritage and in 2006 it was on the nation’s first directive of intangible cultural heritage.

Experts have long since summed up the characteristics of Fenghua Dragon Dancing: animation， coordination， manner， variety， and speed. As early as 1955， a team from Fenghua staged a dragon dance in Beijing. Later it won a bronze medal at the fifth world youth festival. In recent years， the dragon dance from Fenghua has won a series of national and provincial top awards. In 1996， Fenghua was designated as a home of national folk art for its fabric dragon dance. The dragon dance was invited to perform at the opening ceremony at the First National Farmers Art Festival. The dragon dance team also attended Zhejiang Week and Ningbo Day at the World Expo 2010 Shanghai. □