CCTV News: In the Lingnan region of China, folk activities during the Spring Festival are almost inseparable from lion waking. In 2006, "Guangdong Lion Dance" was included in the first batch of national representative projects of intangible cultural heritage.

At 9:30 in the morning, a drum sound awakened the morning in Honggang Village, Nanhai District, Foshan City. Because we have to prepare for the competition on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, the lion dance team trained very seriously.

During the competition, a lion dance team often includes a total of 8 members, including lion head and lion tail, one drum, one gong and four cymbals. A complete game takes about 5 minutes. If you practice several times, the players must slow down.

It's winter vacation, and the Lishui Honggang Xinyitang Shiwu Training Base is very lively. Head coach Master He introduced that lion dance mainly interprets the lion's eight expressions of "movement, stillness, surprise, joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness" through movements, and with the cooperation of the "band", the performance will be like a tiger.

The lion dance culture is prevalent in Lingnan, and there are lion teams in almost every village in the South China Sea. Honggang Village provides a venue for Xinyi Hall, and the performance equipment of the Shiwu Team is temporarily stored in the village history museum.

The three lion heads in the traditional southern lion dance represent three personalities. Xinyitang inherits more of the black lion representing Zhang Fei's brave and aggressive. The lion dance skills come from the family heritage, and Master He teaches students step by step. Most of the students of the Shiwu Team are elementary and junior and senior high school students from surrounding villages and communities. Some students come here specifically from Zhaoqing, Guangzhou and other places to learn lion dance during holidays. He is serious and responsible and professional, and the students recognize Master He very much.

This group is friends from Shenzhen. During the summer vacation of 2024, Master He was invited to teach lion dance in Shenzhen and received a good response. This group of students formed a small group during the winter vacation to Foshan to continue their "study". Although it was only 12 days, the students' progress has been quite large.

There are now 13 national third-level athletes among the students of the Xinyitang Shiwu Team. Master He’s son is 10 years old this year, and is one of them.

The training base is in Hongying Park in Honggang Village, which is completely open to the public. The grandmother in the village dances square dance, and the little grandson is watching the lion dance next to him. The three generations of Xinyi Hall have been passed down, and they have accumulated a wall of medals and trophys in competitions of all sizes. Like Xinyitang, many lion martial arts teams in Lingnan have grown up through repeated competitions and performances.

In addition to lion dance, the Lion Martial Arts Team also teaches Hong Quan. For Master He, facing the new generation, it is more important to pass on the kung fu in innovation. For the teenagers, it is a natural process to make friends and inherit culture through lion dance.

On this day, the Xinyitang Lion Martial Arts Team was invited by Master He in Guangzhou to attend the finishing ceremony.