The Culture of Daping Town

Lantern dance, commonly known as "playing lanterns", is a traditional dance in Daping, which has a history of hundreds of years and is also the earliest and most widely circulated dance art treasure in Xingning Daping. During the prevailing period, many rural communities had their own light groups. The red and white lanterns of Lantern Dance are made of bamboo and are about 2 meters long. They are wrapped in red or white cloth and decorated with other colors, lines and decorations. There is a hole in the middle of the horse, which can accommodate a person's waistline. The performer put the horse around his waist and put it on his shoulder with a piece of cloth. The part below the waist is hidden in the horse. On both sides of the horse, there is a canvas hanging and boots on the legs, which looks like riding a horse. The Lantern Dance is mainly composed of Miss Lantern (Hua Dan), Jiro Guan (born), clown with wave umbrella (ugly), coachman (unfinished), maid (green) and old man holding lanterns. There are paper horses, umbrellas, floats, carp, roosters, flower fans, scarves and other props, as well as gongs and drums and dulcimers. The Lantern Dance consists of four parts: "Ancient Chinese prose in December (spinning around), singing and mending jars". The whole program talked, sang and danced, and the tune was a unique lantern tune. In the process of communication, a happy, peaceful and lyrical pattern is gradually formed. The songs and languages of Lingdong dialect are easy to understand, and they are quoted and sung from the first month to December. They are called "December ancient prose", praising and praying for peace all the year round, abundant crops and good weather, reflecting the entrepreneurial spirit of farmers working hard and struggling for land year after year. The performance of "Song of Decoding Chinese Characters" eulogized the situation of people working day and night in Hengheng. "Filling the cylinder" embodies the entrepreneurial ambition of Hengheng people to go out to make a living and seek development. The four links of lantern dance are a portrayal of real life, with lively and charming forms of expression, which is a folk traditional art loved by Daping people.

According to legend, Ma Xingshun Lantern Dance originated in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. It is a folk inheritance dance with a unique performing art form formed by Xunheng ancestors to commemorate, carry forward and inherit the Central Plains culture. During the period of 1905, students and farmers led by Mero Baizhang of Pinghan village in Daping first took materials from folklore and choreographed a lantern dance: "The jade emperor in heaven inspected the sufferings of the people, the princess rode a float, four guards rode two war horses, the princess's two maids, and a wave umbrella clown who took care of the princess's umbrella. When they arrived on the earth, the local elders would hold it at night.

Daping Town is a mountainous town in Xingning. Lantern dance is the busiest performance during the Lantern Festival every year because it bodes well for people to get rich. With the migration of years, this art has developed to the surrounding areas; Daping Lantern has basically never stopped performing since liberation, except for the interruption of the Cultural Revolution for more than ten years. /kloc-in the winter of 0/958, Daping Lantern Dance participated in Shantou (Meizhou belonged to Shantou at that time) and won the first prize. In recent years, the lantern dance has re-entered the stage after excavation and sorting, and has been welcomed and loved by the masses.