Zhangjia Dragon Lantern

Name and place of transmission

The public notice of January 2024 lists the Zhangjia 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 of January 2025 by Lishui Release and the annual schedule compiled by a local information service both place the item at Zhangjia in Xiangyang Village of Shiqiu Subdistrict, and this library gives that place as the seat of transmission. A separate entry in this library's glossary records Zhangjia Village as a village of Hefeng Town; it is not the same place as the Zhangjia of Shiqiu Subdistrict, and the two must not be confused.

Form and making

According to the report of Lishui Release of January 2025, the whole dragon is made of mao bamboo and decorated with flowers and coloured balls; the head, body and tail are mounted with xuan paper and fitted throughout with candles, so that when lit at night the body shines through. The lantern has eighteen sections and is nearly fifty metres long. The report states that it is the only dragon in the area with black scales and that it "bills itself the most imposing great dragon south of the Yangtze"; the latter is a promotional wording of the press, reproduced here in quotation marks.

As to what distinguishes the performance, the same report describes the head as slightly raised, the jaws opening and closing, and the moment when the pearl is thrown out. In the fivefold division current in the press, the title reads "dragon lantern" and the report does not say to which type it belongs, so the form remains to be determined.

Sequence of the performance

The same report divides the dance into two stages, "playing the ground" and "paying respects at the doors": the villagers first gather in the open ground of the village to dance for the new year, and after the performance on the ground the team goes from street to street to pay respects at each household and pray for good fortune. When the performance ends, the lantern is kept in the village dragon-lantern hall for use in the following year.

The Nanjing Daily of 15 February 2026 reports that twenty-nine great dragons of Shiqiu Subdistrict performed during the Spring Festival of that year, among them the district-level item of Xiangyang Village, with processions every day from the second to the eighth day of the first lunar month.

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 title differs between sources. The public notice of the fourth batch reads Zhangjia Dragon Lantern, while the Nanjing Daily of 15 February 2026 reads Zhangjia Great Dragon. Both are reproduced as they stand and not merged.

Third, three characterisations of the project's standing are given side by side: the public notice lists it as an extended project, which by definition builds on an item already on the list; the Nanjing Daily calls it a district-level representative item; and a report supplied by the Shiqiu Subdistrict Office names it among the thirty great dragons of the subdistrict. The level given here follows the public notice.

Fourth, the form is not stated; the report gives only the materials, the number of sections and the sequence of the performance.

Fifth, "bills itself the most imposing great dragon south of the Yangtze" and "the only dragon in the area with black scales" are promotional wordings of the press, kept in quotation marks and not adopted here.

Sixth, 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.