Introduction
1. The Essential Element of Chinese Cultural Festivals - Lion Dances
Taishan, since the early days, has the tradition of doing lion dances in the famous 3rd grade historical site - Ding Taishan Temple and Xia Taishan Temple to bring good fortune as well as parading down every street of Taishan and ask for red envelopes from the local store owners which constitutes a lively, crowded and noisy scene of the famous "lions begging for food".
2. Coordinating with Taishan folk belief
The 18th day of the ninth month in the Lunar Calendar is the birthday of the Xian Ying Master and is a big gathering for Taishan residents. The Taishan Lion King Cultural Festival has been held annually since 2007. It is a festival that combines the quest for good fortune pilgrimage and the fun and crowded lion dance activity, thus, it has become a pillar of strength for coherence of local Taisha culture and an activity everyone in Taishan looking forward to every year.
3. Creating a lion dance culture that belongs to the Taishan people
In addition to holding a lion dance competition that centers on "lions", the lion king creative fair and the Taishan local food fair and a series of "photography competition" activities are being held to demonstrate the creative "Lion" Culture Festival.
4. Spotlight focuses on professional and exquisite lion dance activities in order to bring out the characteristics of the Lion Culture Festival
2012 Taishan Lion King Culture Festival, in addition to inviting world-renowned performing groups, will include a lion king competition focusing on "picking the green" and "standing on high poles" in order to fully demonstrate the lion's emotions of "joy, anger, sadness, happiness; state of being asleep, awake, moving and resting", and further upgrading the lion king competition to be more professional and wonderful in order to promote the development of Taishan local culture and tourism.
About the activity
1. Taishan Lion King Dance Competition
The organizer has invited world-class lion dance groups to participate in order to promote the cultural exchange of the lion dance culture. The audience, in addition to enjoying the wonderful lion dance competition, will be able to further understand the culture of lion dance through introduction to lion dance craftsmanship on-site and to help them to see past the surface of lion dance culture.
2. The "Lion" Fun Carnival
Activity of crashing 5 lion king barriers adds diversity and boisterousness to the activity.
(1) "Lion King Art": the audience may enjoy the competition and go through a cultural baptism of the lion dance.
(2) "The Lion King Fists": Participants may challenge the winner to a game of lion king fists.
(3) "The Lion King Roar": Participants roar from the top of their lungs at the lion head microphone decibel meter.
(4) "The Hungry Lion": The lion king is hungry. Participants throw balls into its mouth.
(5) "The Lion Jigsaw": Kids work with parents to finish the lion king jigsaw.
3. The Pilgrimage of the Birthday Ceremony of Xian Ying Master
Xian Ying Master is the major belief for Taishan people and a pilgrimage will be held on the 18th day of the 9th lunar month every year; thus, this activity will be followed by the "Do lion dances for celebration and pray for good fortune". The pilgrimage is organized by the local groups and lion dance groups.
4. Taishan's Art World - International Photography Contest
Pictures of people and the landscapes of Taishan are taken to record the beauty of Tishan.
5. Community Theater and Art Workshop
Outstanding drama troupes are invited to do shows, arrange courses in theater etiquette and introduce stagecraft allowing students to get to know drama and theater and inspiring them to develop their abilities in art appreciation and creativity.
6. Lion Dance Groups Interacting with Students on Campus Tours
Shows arranged by professional performing groups are provided for students of a certain age to appreciate and to discuss. With their attention and interests engaged, the students may think and feel more clearly the theme of shows. Through interaction among teachers and students as well as teaching, students are shown an art world that is creative in its own way.
