Lion dance stands for our culture

Cute lion heads, deafening (震耳欲聋的) gongs (锣) and drums, an excited crowd—these are all part of the lion dances you often see during Chinese holidays or at the openings of new shops and restaurants.

【小题1】 It can drive away evil (邪恶) and bring good luck. As one of the most well-known folk dances in China, the lion dance has been performed for more than 2,000 years. It was very popular during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

【小题2】 Born in Zhongkeng village in Dongguan, Guangdong, Wang Rentao watched villagers perform it when he was young. “It’s a time-honoured (历史悠久的) tradition here and the love for lion dance is in everyone’s blood,” Wang said.

Now the head of the village’s lion dance troupe (演出队), 【小题3】 “We’ve won many awards and taken part in many important events, including the celebration of the 70th birthday of New China at Tian’anmen Square,” Wang said.

Wang’s troupe is famous for dancing on quincuncial piles (梅花桩), one of the most difficult lion dance skills. Performers jump from one pile to another at a height of about 2.5 metres. 【小题4】

“The training is really tough. Performers need to have a solid (扎实的) base of kung fu skills first. Even with that, they can fall from the pile and get hurt,” Wang said. “But that’s also the amazing part of lion dance, the part that makes it valuable heritage.”

The lion dance is popular not just in China, but in overseas Chinese communities. Many overseas Chinese see the lion as a symbol of China.【小题5】

With the popular show Street Dance of China taking the Internet by storm, many students are becoming interested in the art.

The 2020 Beyond Da Stage World Kids Street Dance Games (2020BDS) ended in Hangzhou, Zhejiang on Oct 7. Many students between the ages of 6 and 16 joined in the competition.

Yang Chongzhe, a boy of 13, won the locking competition. During his performance, he moved his body freely before stopping all of his limbs(四肢) at once. This is called “locking”, which is one kind of street dance. He also showed how high he could jump, reaching a height of 1.4 meters.

Yang's winning performance came from his years of practice. He began to learn street dance when he was only five years old. He kept practicing for two or three hours each day, learning jumping and landing on his knees (膝盖). Over time, he learned how to change (变化) these movements and make them his own. He loves street dance so much that even just hearing music makes him want to start dancing.

“I really love locking. It makes me feel happy and relaxed,” Yang said, “It can also help me to be more focused and I become much healthier as well.”

Tan Dun, a world-famous composer showed an interest in music when he was young. He loves the sounds of the rushing water and the blowing wind because, to him, the best music comes from nature. Since he had no musical instruments then, he made music with common objects like stones and paper. In 1978, Tan entered the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Eight years later, he went on to study in the USA. There he got to know great musicians from around the world. As he likes the sounds of nature, Tan uses them a lot in his music. His amazing piece of music Water does not use any musical instruments. Instead, Tan makes over 50 sounds from water by controlling the speed of water flow.

Tan has helped build a bridge between the East and the West. He has successfully brought Chinese and Western music together. The music for the Beijing Olympics uses traditional Chinese music and the sounds of an ancient Chinese bell, though it is in a Western style.

“My music is to dream without boundaries（边界）, ” Tan once said. In his works, the past and the present, common objects and musical instruments, traditional Chinese music and modern Western music all mix together to make a new type-music without boundaries.