| Dragon and lion dance is a traditional sporting event of China, and it is a wonderful and exciting event.Dragon and lion dance can reflect China’s traditional folk culture as well as manifest the treasure of China’snational culture. China’s dragon and lion dance has been gradually developing. Since the formalestablishment of Chinese Dragonlion Association in1995, and thanks to its organization and leadership,China’s dragon and lion dance has been developing rapidly; besides, public recreation, entertainmentperformance and athleticism have also enjoyed great improvement, which is helpful to carry forwardnational spirits, inherit the national culture as well as to promote the communication with foreign countries.As a famous city boosting its long history and splendid culture, Kaifeng is full of national culture. Forone thing, the folk cultural activities of Kaifeng have been well conducted; for another, its dragon and liondance has also enjoyed a favorable development. With a long history, Henan University is located at thedowntown of Kaifeng city. In addition, Physical Education College of Henan University also offers coursesof dragon and lion dance. In recent years, the school’s dragon and lion dance team has achieved manyawards in international tournament, nationwide competition as well as in provincial contests. It can be saidthat Physical Education College of Henan University has not only cultivated groups of excellent talents indragon and lion dance for the society, but also made great contributions to the vigorous development offolk culture sports. In Kaifeng, folk culture sport is also a career. Kaifeng is a famous city for its tourism,history and culture; therefore, there are many performance activities about folk culture that will be held onfestivals. However, the dragon and lion dance is more suitable to holiday celebrations, weddings,commercial activities and large gatherings.By means of investigation on the current situation of Kaifeng’s dragon and lion dance, the authordiscovers several important problems hindering the development of Kaifeng’s dragon and lion dance: First,as for holiday celebrations of special tourism that have been held in recent years in Kaifeng, theperformance content of dragon and lion dance has been gradually reduced, the performance scale has beennarrowed, with a sign of decline. Second, in Kaifeng city, there are not many tourist spots providinglong-term employment for dragon and lion dance groups. That’s to say, dragon and lion dance groups are often employed for giving temporary performances, which results in greater competition pressure. Third, inKaifeng city, various weddings and commercial activities tend to use lion dance for celebrations, whiledragon dance is rare. Fourth, although Kaifeng’s dragon and lion dance is with an excellent school leader, ithas not entered the physical education courses in elementary and secondary schools as well as colleges inKaifeng. Moreover, few schools offer such a course, which leads to students’ insufficient understandingabout it. The reasons are as follows: on the one hand, schools do not pay attention to dragon and lion dance,failing to include the sport into the PE courses. On the other hand, schools have neither introduced qualifiedteachers of dragon and lion dance nor increased investment on dragon and lion dance. All these result ingreater barriers to inherit dragon and lion dance in schools of Kaifeng. Fifth, since2008, Kaifeng has notconducted any similar contests, leading to a rapid decline of dance groups’ consciousness of competition.By reviewing the historical process of Kaifeng’s dragon and lion dance, the author makes an analysison its current status. The researcher believes that the decline of Kaifeng’s dragon and lion dance does notappear in only one day. Following countermeasures can be taken to change the current situation: First,organizers of various holiday celebrations have to provide spiritual encouragement and material award forgroups performing dragon and lion dance; meanwhile, organizers should also pay attention to the time,content, scale and level of performances. Second, tourist spots can make a long-term employment fordragon and lion dance groups for daily performances. In this way, the time, content, places and wages forgroups’ performances will be guaranteed; the performance will be more wonderful than other folk cultureactivities; because of colorful and wonderful performances, dragon and lion dance will attract more touristaudience. Third, it is necessary to conduct reforms on dragon and lion dance so as to expand its market forweddings and commercials activities. For example, as for performance areas, smaller fields are better; asfor actions, shuttling, jumping, turning, rolling and playing are better. As for payment of performances,performers have to appropriately reduce the prices, laying foundations for expansion of the market, so as toattract more consumers. Fourth, universities and colleges in Kaifeng should open up courses of dragon andlion dance, enhancing the cultivation of talents in dragon and lion dance; elementary and secondary schoolsin Kaifeng should make efforts to introduce qualified teachers of dragon and lion dance, as well as toprovide more opportunities for the employment of talents of dragon and lion dance. Moreover, colleges anduniversities have to actively cooperate with elementary and secondary schools so as to change the current situation of dragon and lion dance in Kaifeng. Fifth, it is necessary to renew dragon and lion dance contestsin Kaifeng, strengthening the consciousness of Kaifeng’s dragon and lion dance groups for competition,enhancing the groups’ sense of honor, so as to make folk groups become positive and active as well as toavoid the great losses of related talents.Aiming at existing problems, the author combines the theories with practices, putting forward specificmeasures for the further development of Kaifeng’s dragon and lion dance, such as: enhance students’interest in dragon and lion dance, emphasize the commercial exploitation of dragon and lion dance, developthe industry of dragon and lion dance, enhance foreign exchanges, strengthen the promotion of nation’straditional culture as well as expand employment channels, etc, so as to promote the sound development ofdragon and lion dance in Kaifeng city. |
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