ABSTRACT
In Kwangtung Province two villages, Ho Lung and Lotus Pond, in the Chung Shan district have fal centuries been in keen competition to the more elaborate performance, and the ritual has reached a high stage of perfection with teams of twenty-three men to operate a dragon one hundred and seventy feet long. In other provinces there are variants of the dance which savour of pure buffoonery, and evidently stem from the same origin as the Lion dance, mounted to amuse a rustic population. Historically the tradition dates from the Sung Dynasty, when the image was made of straw covered with black material. It had some connection with the Lantern festival on the 15th of the First Moon which takes place during a period when all self-respecting dragons are in hibernation. The stuffed monster was merely used emblematically as a lantern bearer to lend tone to the proceedings.
