The tenth day of the first Chinese lunar month marks the Nianli Festival of Tiaoshun Village, Chikan District, Zhanjiang, Guangdong. The day features a variety of folklore celebrations such as dragon dances and lion dances. The event attracted some foreign teachers from Guangdong Ocean University and Lingnan Normal University to participate and experience traditional Chinese culture.
The folk performances started at 9 a.m. with the festive sound of gongs and drums, presenting local lion dances and dragon dances. The foreign teachers also joined in to learn Tiaoshun Village's local dragon dance.
Later, these foreign visitors visited the village's history museum and ancestral hall to learn about the folk culture of Tiaoshun Village.
"Zhanjiang's Nianli Festival has colorful folklore with many kinds of authentic seafood. The lion dances and dragon dances impressed me a lot," said Dzmitry Smaliakou, a foreign teacher from Lingnan Normal University, after viewing the festive performances of the Nianli Festival.
"This is my first time seeing the lion dances and dragon dances; it's really wonderful!" Mohammad Babaei Soroor, a foreign teacher from Iran, marveled while recording the performance with his cellphone. The Nianli Festival allowed him to experience many Chinese folk activities that can only be seen in videos, and he wanted to share what he saw and heard in China with his friends in his hometown and invite them to visit China.
In western Guangdong, it is common knowledge that "Nianli Festival matters more than the Spring Festival." As early as more than 100 years ago, villages in western Guangdong such as Maoming and Zhanjiang would choose a fixed day to carry out activities such as lion dancing and lantern lighting to pray for good weather for the crops as well as peace and prosperity in the coming year. Currently, the Nianli Festival has been selected for the recommended list of provincial intangible cultural heritage of Guangdong Province.
Reporter | Nancy Ye
Video | Wing Heng
Editors | Nan, Abby, James
Photos and video provided by Zhanjiang Fabu
