Cangxian farmer Yin Shaoshan teaches lion dance for free, passing on traditional culture
According to a report in Cangzhou Daily, Yin Shaoshan is a representative inheritor of Cangzhou lion dance, a national-level intangible cultural heritage. In 2007, he founded a lion dance training institute, teaching young people lion dance for free. In addition, wherever they perform, they pass on their skills. So far, more than 5,000 person-times have learned Cangzhou lion dance, and they are spread across Gansu, Shandong, Shanxi and other parts of the country. Next, Yin Shaoshan also plans to build a heritage base so that Cangzhou lion dance can be better passed on.
Yin Shaoshan is a farmer from Liuji Village, Huangdipu Township, Cangxian. He grew up watching "lion dancing". Yin Shaoshan said that "lion dancing" is a folk dance, also called lion dance. According to historical records, Cangxian lion dance originated as early as the Han Dynasty, was already widely popular by the Ming Dynasty, and once flourished in rural areas.
Yin Shaoshan not only especially loves lion dance, but also likes to organize and is willing to take responsibility. In 1980, at the age of 21, he pulled together a lion dance troupe - the Liuji Lion Dance Troupe - with more than 20 people, all farmers.
In those days, there was no cash payment for performances; often the host would give a pack of cigarettes, a few strings of firecrackers, and sometimes steamed buns or stuffed buns. As for these, Yin Shaoshan and the performers gladly accepted them. They were reluctant to open the cigarettes, and always sold them for money, then bought props and costumes.
Yin Shaoshan thinks they - or rather his generation - were somewhat foolish. Put in today's terms, if you calculate the input-output ratio, with no money to be made, people would certainly leave. But that was not how his generation thought. During those days when they made no money, they still lived faithfully alongside their passion. Yin Shaoshan said that in winter it was cold and people wanted to stay in bed a little longer, but Xiao Jun from the troupe got up early every day and shouted around the whole village until he had called all the performers out of bed. He said it was simply because they loved lion dance. Through sheer hard work, the reputation of "King of the Northern Lion of China" resounded across China and even the world
The turning point came in 2000. That year, the Ministry of Culture held the 10th National Qunxing Award competition, and the Liuji Lion Dance Troupe won first place in one stroke.
After the competition, performance orders kept coming. Excited, Yin Shaoshan and his wife Lu Chunling devoted all their energy to the troupe. They began to think about how to improve their lion dance skills and invited experts from the martial arts, acrobatics and literary and art circles to guide them. While performing, they also pondered their skills, and the Liuji Lion Dance Troupe successively created and recreated nearly 20 highly difficult moves, including "stacked lions shaking their might", "three-dimensional straight spin" and "chair-kicking tease".
Through creation and constant practice, in 2003 the Liuji lion dance won the gold award in the national North-South "Lion King" championship and was awarded the reputation of "King of the Northern Lion of China" by the General Administration of Sport of China. From then on, on more and more occasions, Liuji lion dance became the representative of northern lion dance. The return of Hong Kong, China, the Beijing Olympics, the Shanghai World Expo, the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China, the guard performance for the torch relay of the Paris Olympics in France... They also went abroad to perform on stages in the United States, South Korea and other places.
It is worth mentioning that after the opening ceremony performance of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, chief director Zhang Yimou commented on the lion dance performance: "The lions from Cangzhou have always been good. As the first program of the Olympic ceremony performance, their cheering and excitement brought out the Olympic momentum!" Founding a training institute gives lion dance heritage more hope.
As the years passed, Yin Shaoshan developed a more proactive awareness than before. Perhaps related to age, he especially wanted to influence young people, and especially strongly wanted to train more successors in lion dance. He trained his own daughter, son-in-law, son and daughter-in-law to all be able to perform on stage. That was not enough. In 2007, he founded the "Liuji Lion Dance Training Institute". With the institute, Yin Shaoshan opened the door to everyone. He said that no matter who it was, as long as they wanted to learn lion dance, he was willing to teach them, and tuition, food and accommodation were free.
In 2009, the Ministry of Culture announced the third batch of representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, and Yin Shaoshan became a national-level inheritor. With intangible cultural heritage inheritance funding, Yin Shaoshan became even more proactive in "going out". He often went to schools to teach children, and his wife Lu Chunling even went to prisons to teach inmates serving sentences. Yin Shaoshan said that if he and his wife were busy, other coaches from the institute would go out to teach in their place, charging no fees at all, teaching wherever they went, only hoping to find more people worthy of entrusting this skill to. Relying on the institute, they have so far trained more than 5,000 person-times of students, spread across Gansu, Shandong, Shanxi and other parts of the country.
In recent years, Yin Shaoshan has encountered difficulties. "With the development of society, ordinary people's lives are getting better and better, young people have more career choices, and fewer and fewer children learn lion dance. Old artists pass away, and new people cannot fill the gap. The inheritance of lion dance skills is becoming more and more difficult." Speaking of this, Yin Shaoshan was somewhat disheartened. Looking at the various honorary certificates, trophies, medals and pennants displayed in the institute, Yin Shaoshan was unwilling to give up. He said that in the past, going out to perform was to make money and support a family, but now that he is a national-level inheritor, what rests on his shoulders is mission and responsibility.
Yin Shaoshan is exploring and seeking a way out for Cangzhou lion dance, and has never given up. "I want to build a lion dance heritage base, just like the Wuqiao Acrobatics World, which can not only provide a learning place for students, but also provide performers with a venue to perform and earn income." Now, the site for this heritage base has been chosen, and Yin Shaoshan has more expectations.