Festive parade caps holiday

THE 2nd Zhuhai Folk Art Parade marched from Jiuzhou Town to the intersection of Jingshan Road and Jiuzhou Avenue, on Thursday, celebrating Chinese Lantern Festival.
Led by a golden and a silver dragon, a 13.8m dual-dock leading float, which had been refitted from a container truck by Zhukuan Group, served as a stage on which more than 20 performers from New Yuanming Palace Art Troupe and the Zhuhai Female Chorus staged folk songs, danced and played folk music. The 100,000 yuan ($14,000)-float, 4.42m wide and 5.8m tall, provides 60sqm of floor area.
On-Water Wedding Team, Lianzhou Dise Land-Boat Procession, Doumen Float, Lion & Dragon Team, Drum & Gong Cupboard Band, Float II, Qianwu Piaose Street Procession, Xiangzhou Float, Colour-Fan Dance, Sheng (male roles), Mo (middle-aged male roles), Jing (painted face), Dan (female roles) and Chou (clowns) Cantonese Opera group, Watch the Tide at the Sea Pogramme, Shatian Folk Song Team, a Waist Drum Ensemble, a 60-member Yangge Group, Jinwan Float, Shoal Wildlife Dance, an eight-member Crane Song & Dance Team headed by 76-year-old Chen Fuyan, Ocean Spring Resort’s Dream by the Sea Square Matrix, Wanshan Float, Yingge Dance Team, Huitong Village Original Artwork Base Float, Tai Chi Fan Team, “Guosen” Performance Team, Yuanming Grand Ceremony Performance Team, New Yuanming Palace Float and the Cavalry Team formed the parade. Nearly 1,120 people took part in the activities.
At 10am, senior government officials dotted the eyes of the two dragons, thus initiating the dragon dances, deafening drums and gongs, salutes by fire, burst of colour ribbons and fireworks. The leading float set out slowly with six southern lions prancing on the upper dock and 12 females in ancient Chinese costume dancing on the lower dock.
The event was jointly sponsored by the Publicity Department of the Zhuhai CPC Municipal Party Committee, Department of Culture, Radio, Television, Press & Publication and the local Federation of Literary & Art Circles.

Floats
Designed to be held by “waves,” the 5m-tall Xiangzhou Float highlighted the theme “Nature, Development and Olympiad,” which was interpreted by a globe model, two huge rings and five Friendlies -- 2008 Beijing Olympic mascots. Decorated with sea waves, dolphins, flowers, seagulls, coconut trees, surfers, sea fish and pearl images, the Wanshan Ocean Development Exemplary Zone Float promoted the strategy of developing transfer warehousing, island tourism and sea fishery.
The Huitong Village Original Artwork Base Float, themed “Cultural Zhuhai, City of Creation,” displayed the blueprint of the city, which is: to highlight Nanfang Industry Park, to make the city a movie and TV series filming location and a land of museums, and to construct an original artwork base, a cartoon, animation and web game creation base, a cultural products production base and a printing industry base.

Crane Song & Dance
Crane Song & Dance, headed by 79-year-old Chen Fuyan, a Chenghai villager in Sanzao Town, Jinwan District, encompassed seven other cranes played by Kung Fu practitioners from Wulingyuan Kung Fu Theme Park on Hengqin Island. Following them were young “cranes” from Haihua Primary School in Sanzao Town.
Sanzao villagers play lion and crane dances from the first to the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, Chen Fuyan explained. On New Year’s Eve, a venerable elder dots the eyes of the crane with a new writing brush, which inaugurates the crane dance, he added.
Sanzao Crane Singing can be traced back 700 years to the Song Dynasty. Sanzao was an island then and each village was located on hills or in forests with paddy fields and coastal beaches around. Cranes flew to the fields or coastal areas for food in the morning and flew back to the woods in the evening.
Lions were considered “auspicious” for being powerful enough to drive away evil and protect people from being hurt while cranes, which were “immortal,” were considered symbols of longevity. Thus crane songs and dances as well as lion dancing become popular and were re-enacted as folk events during Chinese New Year. People imitated what the cranes did as dance and sang to match it. All villagers in Sanzao Town -- men and women, young and old -- sang crane songs and all men played crane dances at that time. The scene lasted until the Cultural Revolution and resumed years ago.
Composed of five performers -- one singing, one dancing in the costume of the white crane – 2m long and weighing 10 grams, and three others playing the drum, gong and cymbal -- the display is lively and ardent. Starting with “White Crane” and ending with “Fully Fledged to Soar to the Sky,” a crane song has four lines advising people to follow the right path and do good deeds, or suggesting blessings for good health, favourable weather, prosperity and peace. In addition, Sanzao Crane Dancing vividly reproduces how the crane combs its feathers, eats, walks in water, flies and plays in the wild in the background of the Crane Singing.
On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, which is considered the birthday of human beings, villagers hold a ritual. At the ceremony, the lion and crane circle a bonfire, indicating that their souls are being sent to heaven.

Qianwu Piaose
The eight boards of the Piaose procession were: “Pied Magpie Tweets Plum Blossom,” “Crab Crosses River,” “Legend of the White Snake,” “Guanyin Sitting on a Lotus Flower,” “Rising Up Upon Hearing the Crow of a Rooster to Practise Sword Playing,” “Mu Guiying’s Marriage,” “Nezha Conquers the Dragon King” and “How Leung Hung-Yuk’s War Drum Caused the Jin Troops to Retreat,” the latter being the latest addition. Eighteen children from Qianwu Primary School in Doumen impersonated figures from folktales or historical stories standing on steel sticks, which is called Sexin, or performance core.
The action is composed of Sechuang (performance bed), Sexin (performance core), Sejiao (performance foot), Segun (sticks) and Sekang (supporters). Traditional Piaose, with children ranging from 2 to 13 years old as the focus, demonstrates figures from folktales or historical stories or the figure of Buddha or other immortals. Thin children are used to produce an effect of light movement.
The street procession has taken root in Qianwu Township, Doumen District, since it was introduced by villager Liang Guodong from Jiangxi Province during the Tianqi period of the Ming Dynasty. The folk art was suspended in 1950 but resumed in 1988 with support from the local government and financial assistance from townspeople in Hong Kong and Macao, according to a performer.
While the Piaose is on parade, a Drum & Gong Cupboard between every two boards creates a dynamic combination of sound, posture and performance.
The performance has been developed in three categories: “Mase,” meaning figures on horses; “Shuise,” those on water; and “Piaose,” those on moving stages held aloft by people.
On-Water Wedding
Singing dominates the Dan Clan weddings. Escorted by female relatives and friends, the young bride sings to thank her parents before leaving for the wedding while her party sings to express congratulations, good wishes and parting feelings. Sugarcane, bamboo spar and peanuts are gifts from the groom’s party. A few middle-aged women in red stand behind the newlywed and must come from happy and harmonious families, so they can convey their good luck to the couple.

Yingge Dance
Yingge Dance, covering a series of scenarios featuring Liangshan Heroes played by Kung Fu practitioners, displayed traditional folk dances in Chaoshan Area, which covers the eastern part of Guangdong Province, especially Chaozhou, Shantou and Jieyang cities.

Yuanming Grand Ceremony
The Yuanming Grand Ceremony, a reproduction of the last episode of the panoramic drama “Great Qing Dynasty” performed by the New Yuanming Palace Art Troupe, contained 70 royal relatives in fine clothes and 16-member cavalry teams.

Folk art teams
A 64-member Coloured Umbrella Dance team with individuals in different traditional attire staged the multicomponent, all-inclusive and harmonious culture in Zhuhai. Watching the “Tide by the Sea” was a dance accompanied by dramatic drum while the “Sheng,” “Mo,” “Jing,” “Dan,” and “Chou” Cantonese Opera performance brought on stage the types of facial makeup used in operas. All performers of the three programmes were from community art troupes.

“This year’s Zhuhai Folk Art Parade is much better than last year,” Zou Jihai, a member of the CPC Party Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Federation of Literary & Art Circles, commented. Zhuhai is no longer the old Zhuhai, whereas it is an area for fusion of national or even world cultures, he pointed out.
An onlooker surnamed Liu from Sichuan Province said the parade was extremely fantastic. She had to go to transfer the photos to a computer, as the stick memory in her cell phone was full, she said.
Some 120,000 people watched the Lantern Festival parade.
(ZD News)