Jinzhou Dragon Dance

Jinzhou dragon dance is a traditional folk dance of the Jinzhou area of Dalian, inheriting central-plains dragon dance and blending in southern-Liaoning local colour; put forward as a Dalian representative item to the provincial ICH list in 2005, it later entered the national ICH register under traditional dance.

Its dragon body is built of bamboo strips and covered in coloured silk, light and nimble, with dancers wielding poles to leap and roll it through many set routines to the accompaniment of gongs and drums, brought out on the streets of Jinzhou for Spring Festival and temple fairs in a heated atmosphere.

Jinzhou dragon dance represents the folk dance of southern Liaoning, carrying the festival custom and collective memory of the Jinzhou area, valuable for the study of how dragon dance spread and localised in the northeast.