Mazhuang Dragon Lantern

Name and place of transmission

The public notice of January 2024 lists the Mazhuang Dragon Lantern under traditional dance in the extended projects of the recommended list for the fourth batch of district-level representative items of intangible cultural heritage; the applying area or unit is Shiqiu Subdistrict and the recommended guardian unit is the Shiqiu Subdistrict Culture and Sports Station.

A report issued by the Shiqiu Subdistrict Office in February 2024 records that the dragon-lantern performances of 14 to 18 February that year were held at Mazhuang in Xietang Community of Shiqiu Subdistrict, and this library therefore gives that place as the seat of transmission. A list of the dragon lanterns of Shiqiu Subdistrict compiled by a local information service also names Tangzhuang Mazhuang; whether that is the same village as Mazhuang of Xietang Community has not been verified here, and the two are not merged.

Form and size

The same report records that the Mazhuang Dragon Lantern has eighteen sections and is about thirty metres long; that the performers wear white silk jackets and red silk trousers with a red sash at the waist and hold the lantern in their hands, bending forward and swinging from side to side with vigorous steps; and that the performance is accompanied by insistent gong and drum.

In the fivefold division current in the press, the title reads "dragon lantern" and does not say to which type it belongs. The eighteen sections recorded here match the eighteen sections of the Yanjia Dragon Lantern of Shiqiu, which the press describes as a ban-pan dragon, but an equal number of sections is not by itself enough to establish an identical form, and the form remains to be determined. The materials of the prop, the light source inside and the mounting technique have no source in this library.

Dates of performance

The five days of 14 to 18 February 2024 recorded by the subdistrict office are that year's Spring Festival arrangement; no yearly practice is inferred from them. The dates of the dragon-lantern performances in Shiqiu Subdistrict differ from year to year.

Transmission and safeguarding

The public notice lists no representative bearer for this project, and the third-batch district-level list of bearers (2017) records none for it either.

Uncertainties

First, this is an extended project. The public notice does not name the main project on which it depends, and no inference is drawn here.

Second, the form is not stated. The title reads "dragon lantern" and the report gives only the number of sections and the length; whether Tangzhuang Mazhuang and Mazhuang of Xietang Community are one village has not been verified.

Third, the report by the subdistrict office contains the sentence that the dragon lantern, as a national-level item of intangible cultural heritage, has a history of more than two thousand years. This refers to dragon-lantern dancing in general and not to the level of the Mazhuang Dragon Lantern, and the project must not be written up as national-level on that basis; its level is district-level according to the public notice.

Fourth, the recommended guardian unit is the Shiqiu Subdistrict Culture and Sports Station and the applying area or unit is Shiqiu Subdistrict. These are two different columns of the notice's table and must not be used interchangeably.