Learning Blog 3: Teamwork on Dance Research

Writing, archiving, and performing are vital for the continued development of Chinese culture. Jazmin Llana, dean of liberal arts at De La Salle University, emphasized that utilizing [dance]performance as an empirical tool for advancing the growth of social remembering and historical understanding can be just as advantageous as the archive.

 

To perpetuate the Chinese tradition of using the Lion Dance to bring good fortune, dance performance ethnography might be used. Dr. Simone Krüger asserts that humanities researchers sometimes seek to learn more about various cultures through participant observation of various activities, events, and situations. When it comes to dance, drama, and music, ethnography offers the researchers even more opportunities. In this instance, ethnography might mean participating in real performances as a special approach to have a sense of embodied knowledge and shared emotion, both of which may culminate in performativity. Performance can evoke perception of the form and beauty of a musical, dance, or theatrical performance as well as sensitize the performer-researchers to elements that are either directly or indirectly connected to an artistic endeavor. Performance ethnography aims to fully engage oneself as a performer in a dance, theatre, or music culture in order to directly and intimately experience it. Through your own performance experiences, figuring out the creative activity here becomes tightly associated with understanding culture.

 

The findings of dance performance ethnography can be understood utilizing phenomenology, positive psychology, sociology, ethics, existentialism, theology, and so forth. 

 

Rather than addressing political, or economic issues, this dance research seeks to uncover and document a specific culture and performance that supports the safeguarding of the Chinese people's historical identity through the Lion Dance.

 

Performance ethnography alters it by using Entablado as a research setting... In the domain of lion dance, Entablado has evolved from a venue for battle and entertainment to a place for collaborative study that goes beyond the performance. Carlos Palanca Awardee and UP Diliman Professor Dr. Sir Anril Pineda Tiatco noted that Entablado has two goals. In this context, the word "entablado" is utilized to indicate its literal meaning of a stage where performances are regularly held. Instead of being restricted to the walls of an auditorium, a performance might take place in the Philippines on a river, a sidewalk, the lobby of a notable cultural property, or a school. The venue need not be used exclusively for a creative performance, either. It could be a place where devotees congregate.

In the theater, auditorium, and athletic field, the lion dance was rehearsed and performed. The Lion Dance on "Entablado" mesmerizes the audience.

The authentic identity of Chinese people is revealed on stage and reexamined by spectators and artists through replicated dance performances, enabling a transforming and receptive attitude toward Chinese culture.

 

1.  REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

 

Hybridization and Integration

 

Zhou (2022) stated that lion dances are one of the practices in Chinese folk religion. It exhibited the diversity and inclusiveness of its religious traditions, which included Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. Mazu traditional religion expresses this amalgamation. Their activities included Temple fairs, puppet shows, festivals, lion and dragon dances, journeys to holy places and weaved banners.

Ji (2020) shared that Lion Dance was performed in Hainanese Temples of Singapore to signify prosperity for all. The three main annual festivities celebrated at the Hougang Shui Wei Sheng Niang Temple were the Festival of Lantern, the Festival of the Hungry Ghost, and the goddess' birthday celebration during the Festival of Lower Yuan.

Identity Formation of  Chinese Migrants

Manzano-Munguia et al. (2022) believe that Chinese migrants (from foreign countries) underwent identity and cultural rebirth within and outside of their home nation as they practice ancestral customs that include the Dragon and Lion Dance.

On the final day of the 22nd fraternal conference of the Association of Lung Kong, which took place starting September 22 to September 25, 2019, in Toronto, Canada, Chen (2022) performed a staging of the lion dance during the lavish and exquisite feast. 

For Chinese immigrants who live outside of their traditional cultural realm, the clan association offers activities that give them a sense of purpose and identity.

Intangible Cultural  Heritage (ICH) Tourism 

Based on a study that looks at the structure and connections between the cognitive components of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) tourism using 9,074 blogs articles posted between 2011 and 2020 on Weibo.com, one of the most well-known social media platforms in China, Qiu et al. (2021) presented lion dance as high frequency words under Intangible Cultural Heritage and Inheritors Dimension.

This research's findings can help policymakers better understand how to strike a balance between protecting cultural heritage, the economy, and people's health and happiness. Such tactics may help ICH tourism become more industrialized. Additionally, this paper's content analysis supports the claim that social media can help people gain a deeper understanding of ICH tourism.

Wei et al. (2022) assert that scenes are essential carriers of cultural expression. One of the top 40 high frequency words when the researchers utilized the network text analysis method to look at cultural landscapes was lion dance.

Field research was carried out in the historic city of Qingjiangpu to further investigate the geographic makeup of the cultural environment, the placement and features of old structures, the aqua system, the residents, and the special events arranged. 26 lion dance performances were witnessed by the researchers at the Confucius Temple. 

The lion dance appears to be a part of the convergence of the sports and tourism industries in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), according to Yuan et al. (2022). This development strategy intends to strengthen the national identities of Hong Kong and Macao, support the coordinated expansion of industries, foster regional collaboration and exchanges, and build an outstanding social network.