A Farmer and a Dragon

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Cheng Xing used to be a farmer and now he is an artist on the government payroll. This change in his personal status does not change what he does. Though he now receives a regular salary from the government, he still lives in his home village in Lin’an, a rural suburb of Hangzhou, the capital city of eastern China’s coastal Zhejiang Province and he is bent on creating village shows.

The water dragon created by Cheng Xing testifies to his originality and deep roots in rural folk art and tradition. A team of villagers has staged the water dragon show in Beijing and Nice, France. The dragon show wowed the audiences at home and abroad, for it can not only do incredible dancing steps and movements but also spew tiny streams of water and produce atomized water.

The water dragon is Cheng’s latest invention in a series of dragons he has made and choreographed. It was preceded by some equally successful village dragon shows. He has won many awards for his original creation and choreography.

When Cheng hit on the idea of a water dragon, something no one had ever tried before, he was totally obsessed. In working out his choreography at home, he often experimented on steps and movements like crazy, thinking about the problems dancers as a group would encounter and the instructions he would give once the rehearsal was under way.

However, the choreographic part was easier in comparison with the design, experiment and manufacture of the water dragon. The making of the dragon was a big challenge. Cheng Xing bought materials for the body of the dragon with 2,000 yuan out of his own pocket. When it came to the dragon head, Cheng Xing would not entrust the delicate work to others for fear of the waste of material and time. So he decided to make it himself.

With the materials ready, he began to work at the head. The head structure was very complicated to put together. He dismantled an old sofa and used the fabric to wrap up the dragon mouth. It took him five days and seven nights to make the dragon head.

Then the rehearsal went on for a good month in the summer. The rehearsal usually started in the evening. Cheng would have supper at home around five o’clock and then ride a motorcycle to the rehearsal ground in a neighboring village. If the rehearsal took too much time, he would spend the night at the village. For the whole month, he slept 22 nights away from home. If a rehearsal went smoothly and could be wrapped up early, he would ride back home. He had an accident on his way back one rainy night and his wife forced him to stay at home for three days. The rehearsal went on without him. On the fourth day he came back. To his great delight, the rehearsal showed all the majesty and force he had choreographed to express. That year, the water dragon became a national and international success. The team participated twice in an Asian carnival at Nice.

Cheng Xing has firm belief that rural folk art, which traces back to ancient times, provides delightful possibilities for original innovations. And he reasons that if his ancestors could come up with something artistic and original, he sees no reason why he can’t. He feels happiest at loud cheers bursting out for his shows.

The water dragon is now listed in a key provincial program for conservation of folk art. Cheng Xing is fully confident that he can work out the next big thing. It is more than his promise. It is both his dream and dedication.