BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- A team from Tengxian County of Wuzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region recently won the champion at a national dragon and lion dance competition held in the county.
Bringing out their skills without reservation, the team managed to fit their movements perfectly with the music and superbly mimic various kinds of facial expressions and body gestures of lions, winning the highest score among all teams. Tengxian county, known for holding a long history of lion dance, sent altogether four teams to the competition, harvesting three golds and one silver.
Combining martial arts, dancing, music and acrobatics, the Tengxian Lion Dance is listed as a national intangible cultural heritage, with its history dating back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907). During the heyday of lion dance, there were more than 300 folk lion dance teams in Tengxian County.
In recent years, the county has made extensive efforts to inject new vitality to the traditional performing art. In 2015, Tengxian secondary vocational school included training of dragon and lion dance skills to its curriculum, aiming to explore a new path for the inheritance of Tengxian Lion Dance. The school has by far cultivated over 400 lion dance professionals.
Through the platform of Chinese Dragon and Lion Dance Sports Association, the county has also been actively supporting the lion dance teams to go out and participate in domestic and foreign competitions.
At the same time, by holding major events featuring dragon and lion dance in the county to create a good atmosphere for the sport, Tengxian is also expecting to attract more young people to join the efforts of inheriting the valuable cultural heritage. (Edited by Yu Huichen with Xinhua Silk Road, yuhuichen@xinhua.org)
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