Helinfang Twin Dragons

Item name and level

According to a reply of 28 November 2023 from the Lishui District Culture and Tourism Bureau, eight projects were reported as entering the municipal-level representative ICH list in January 2023, among them Tiger-head Shoes, Hand-torn Chicken, Mingjue Pickled Greens, Helinfang Twin Dragons, Shrimp Lantern Dance and Shiqiu Fishing Songs. Helinfang Twin Dragons is one of them. That reply lists only the names of the projects and is the working wording of the district Culture and Tourism Bureau.

The fifth batch of the list of representative items of intangible cultural heritage of Nanjing, published on 20 January 2023 by the Nanjing Municipal People's Government under Ning Zheng Fa [2023] No. 11, carries the entry "Helinfang Twin Dragons", number NJ-III-29, serial number 10, in the category of traditional dance, with Lishui District as the applying area or unit. This entry records the level as municipal and the item type as traditional dance, with the fifth batch and the publication date of January 2023, and the project number is verifiable.

The municipal list gives only the project name, number, category and applying area or unit; it gives no introduction, no bearers and no guardian unit, so the guardian unit is still to be verified.

Form and scale

A report of 1 February 2024 by Zijinshan News traces Helinfang Twin Dragons to the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty and describes it as two dragons, one blue and one yellow, the body woven from bamboo strips, covered with blue and yellow paper of various colours and lit from within by candles, the whole dragon requiring more than 200 people working together to dance it. The same report states that it was listed as a municipal-level ICH project of Nanjing in 2023, which agrees in both date and level with the municipal publication relied on by this entry (Ning Zheng Fa [2023] No. 11 of 20 January 2023).

The number of sections of the body and its length, the dates on which it leaves and returns, and the parade route are not recorded in that report and no other source in this library supplies them.

Media reports divide the dragon lanterns of Lishui by form and mode of performance into five kinds: lifted dragon, slat dragon, rolling dragon, cloth dragon and hand dragon. This fivefold classification is a summary made by the press rather than an official classification, so this entry cites it for reference only and does not assign Helinfang Twin Dragons to any of the five.

Where it circulates

Helinfang Twin Dragons circulates in Helinfang Village, Qingfeng Community, Honglan Subdistrict. A yearly listing of Spring Festival folk events published on 8 January 2020 by Nanjing Culture and Tourism, the official account of the municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism, and a comparable page of Nanjing Bendibao of 22 January 2024 both give its location as Qingfeng Community, Honglan Subdistrict, one reading it as Qingfeng Community, Helinfang Village and the other as Honglan Subdistrict, Qingfeng Community; the two agree.

In the yearly listing of folk events, at the 2026 Spring Festival the Helinfang Twin Dragons, the Shenzhuang Dragon Lantern and the Hucun Rolling Dragon moved together through the villages and the industrial park of Honglan Subdistrict. This is the reported state of that year and yearly arrangements change, so it is not taken as a standing custom.

To be added

The following are not recorded in the sources held by this library and remain to be added: the number of sections of the body and its length, the materials and specifications used in making the lantern, the dates on which it leaves and returns, the route and endpoints of its parades, the bearers and the guardian unit, and which of the five kinds of Lishui dragon lantern this project belongs to. Until further sources are found, this entry writes none of these details.