--- title: "Chinese Lion Dance, Shadow Puppets, Fan Dance and Face Changing: What They Mean, With Pinyin" description: "Chinese folk performances and what they mean: the lion dance 舞狮 and why it eats lettuce, the dragon dance, shadow puppets 皮影戏, the fan dance, Sichuan face changing 变脸, and 26 words with pinyin and sound." canonical: "https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-folk-performances" author: "Mandarin The Wild" --- Free · 26 words # Chinese folk performances [Print as flashcards](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-flashcards?level=mine&words=%E8%88%9E%E7%8B%AE%20%E7%8B%AE%E5%AD%90%20%E8%88%9E%E9%BE%99%20%E9%94%A3%E9%BC%93%20%E9%94%A3%20%E9%BC%93%20%E9%92%B9%20%E7%94%9F%E8%8F%9C%20%E7%9A%AE%E5%BD%B1%E6%88%8F%20%E7%9A%AE%E5%BD%B1%20%E8%88%9E%E8%B9%88%20%E6%B0%91%E9%97%B4%E8%88%9E%E8%B9%88%20%E5%8F%A4%E5%85%B8%E8%88%9E%20%E6%89%87%E5%AD%90%20%E7%A7%A7%E6%AD%8C%20%E8%85%B0%E9%BC%93%20%E6%B0%B4%E8%A2%96%20%E8%B8%A9%E9%AB%98%E8%B7%B7%20%E9%AB%98%E8%B7%B7%20%E5%8F%98%E8%84%B8%20%E8%84%B8%E8%B0%B1%20%E5%B7%9D%E5%89%A7%20%E6%9D%82%E6%8A%80%20%E5%BA%99%E4%BC%9A%20%E8%A1%A8%E6%BC%94%20%E6%B0%91%E4%BF%97) Speed ## Chinese folk performances, and what to watch for | | 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 | ## Lion and dragon dance wǔ舞shī狮 lion dance shī狮zi子 lion wǔ舞lóng龙 dragon dance luó锣gǔ鼓 gongs and drums luó锣 gong gǔ鼓 drum bó钹 cymbal shēng生cài菜 lettuce ## Shadow puppets pí皮yǐng影xì戏 shadow puppet show pí皮yǐng影 shadow puppet; shadow play ## Folk dance wǔ舞dǎo蹈 dance mín民jiān间wǔ舞dǎo蹈 folk dance gǔ古diǎn典wǔ舞 classical dance shàn扇zi子 fan yāng秧ge歌 yangko (folk dance) yāo腰gǔ鼓 waist drum shuǐ水xiù袖 water sleeves (long flowing sleeves in Chinese opera) cǎi踩gāo高qiāo跷 to walk on stilts gāo高qiāo跷 stilts ## Opera tricks biàn变liǎn脸 face-changing (Sichuan opera art) liǎn脸pǔ谱 facial makeup (in Chinese opera) chuān川jù剧 Sichuan opera ## At the fair zá杂jì技 acrobatics miào庙huì会 temple fair biǎo表yǎn演 performance; show mín民sú俗 folk custom; folklore ## What does the Chinese lion dance mean? 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. ## What is the difference between the lion dance and the dragon dance? 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. ## What is Chinese shadow puppetry? 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. ## What is the Chinese fan dance called? 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. ## How does Sichuan face changing work? 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. ## What music plays for the lion dance? 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. ## Can’t hear it? Play uses your device’s Mandarin voice. Edge, Chrome and Safari have one; a browser with none plays each character in our recorded voice instead. ## More Chinese culture - [Peking opera: roles, masks and words](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-opera-words) - [Chinese New Year words](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-new-year-words) - [The Chinese dragon](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-dragon) - [Chinese instruments](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-instruments) Words, pinyin and meanings from our own dictionary; the performances from Wikipedia’s Lion dance, Dragon dance, Chinese shadow puppetry and Bian lian.