Question 1

What does the Chinese lion dance mean?

Accepted Answer

It frightens off bad luck and brings good luck, which is why it opens the New Year, new shops and weddings. Before it starts, a guest dots the lion’s eyes with red ink to wake it, 点睛 (diǎnjīng). Its high point is “plucking the green”: the lion climbs up to a lettuce, 生菜 (shēngcài), which sounds like 生财 (shēngcái), to make money, eats it with the red envelope tied to it, and spits the leaves out to the crowd to scatter the luck.

Question 2

What is the difference between the lion dance and the dragon dance?

Accepted Answer

A lion, 舞狮 (wǔshī), is two dancers, one at the head and one at the tail, moving like a playful animal to a drum, a gong and cymbals, 鼓 (gǔ), 锣 (luó) and 钹 (bó). A dragon, 舞龙 (wǔlóng), is a team of nine or more, each holding a pole under the long body, making it weave and coil after a pearl. Southern lions, from Guangdong, have big heads and a horn; northern lions are shaggy and often come in pairs.

Question 3

What is Chinese shadow puppetry?

Accepted Answer

皮影戏 (píyǐngxì), shadow play: flat figures cut from donkey or cow hide, painted and oiled until light shines through, worked on rods behind a lit cloth screen while a band plays and the puppeteers sing. A legend dates it to the Han dynasty, when a court magician cast the shadow of an emperor’s dead favourite on a curtain; it grew in Shaanxi and Gansu, and UNESCO listed it in 2011.

Question 4

What is the Chinese fan dance called?

Accepted Answer

扇子舞 (shànzi wǔ), the fan dance, with a 扇子 (shànzi), a fan. Fans are also used in the northern street dance 秧歌 (yāngge), and in classical dance, 古典舞 (gǔdiǎn wǔ), along with the long silk “water sleeves”, 水袖 (shuǐxiù). The Korean fan dance, buchaechum, is a different dance with big feathered fans.

Question 5

How does Sichuan face changing work?

Accepted Answer

变脸 (biànliǎn) is a trick of Sichuan opera, 川剧 (Chuānjù): a performer changes painted masks in a fraction of a second, with a turn of the head or a sweep of the sleeve. The thin silk masks are worn in layers and pulled away one by one, and the exact methods are kept secret, long taught only within families.

Question 6

What music plays for the lion dance?

Accepted Answer

A big drum, 鼓 (gǔ), a gong, 锣 (luó), and cymbals, 钹 (bó), together 锣鼓 (luógǔ). The drummer leads: the beat tells the lion when to wake, creep, leap or eat, so the dancers move to the drum, not the other way round.

Question 7

Can’t hear it?

Accepted Answer

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	In Chinese	When you see it	What to watch for
Lion dance	舞狮 wǔshī	New Year, shop openings, weddings	Two dancers inside one lion, led by the drum; it climbs to “pluck the green”, a lettuce hung with a red envelope
Dragon dance	舞龙 wǔlóng	New Year and the Lantern Festival	A team holding a long dragon up on poles, chasing a pearl
Shadow puppets	皮影戏 píyǐngxì	Village fairs, theatres in Shaanxi and Beijing	Painted leather figures behind a lit cloth screen, moved on rods
Fan dance	扇子舞 shànzi wǔ	Folk festivals, school and dance shows	Silk fans opened, spun and fluttered in time, often in pairs
Yangge	秧歌 yāngge	Northern streets and parks at New Year	A bouncing street dance with fans and silk, to drums and horns
Waist drum	腰鼓 yāogǔ	Shaanxi festivals	Drummers leaping and spinning, small drums tied at the hip
Face changing	变脸 biànliǎn	Sichuan opera, 川剧	Masks that change colour in the blink of an eye, too fast to see how
Stilt walking	踩高跷 cǎi gāoqiāo	Temple fairs, 庙会	Dancers in costume on stilts as tall as a person
Acrobatics	杂技 zájì	Theatres and fairs; Wuqiao in Hebei is famous for it	Spinning plates, human towers, bowls balanced on the head

Chinese folk performances