Lantern Dance (Shatoujiao Fish Lantern Dance)

The Shatoujiao fish lantern dance is a men's open-air group dance from Shatoujiao in Shenzhen's Yantian and the adjacent Sha Tau Kok in Hong Kong's New Territories. It dates to the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty, giving it more than three hundred years of history as a folk custom handed down by the area's boat-dwelling and coastal people.

Dancers hold painted fish lanterns and move in a low crouching stance close to the ground, mimicking fish swimming and sparring in the sea, all driven by gong-and-drum rhythm. The lively performance is staged mainly at festivals and ritual occasions.

In June 2008 the fish lantern dance was approved by the State Council for the second batch of the national intangible-heritage list, one of the earliest Shenzhen items to reach national status, and a vessel for the beliefs and daily life of the coastal fishing community.

Shatoujiao in Yantian has a dedicated fish-lantern-dance folk museum and holds a regular fish lantern festival, the core place to see and learn about this heritage.