The people and the dragon : the social connection between the Tai Hang community and its fire dragon dance

Abstract

The Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance is a famous example of Hong Kong’s traditional culture that forms a main part of the celebrations of the Mid-Autumn Festival. For three nights during the Mid-Autumn Festival, the 67m long fire dragon, with some 70,000 burning incense sticks on its body, winds through the streets of Tai Hang as an act of ritual blessing. This is a spectacular performance carried out by over 300 participants, all of whom are members of the Tai Hang community. Given its significance, the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance was successfully inscribed onto China’s third national list of intangible cultural heritage in June 2011, under the category of “social practices, rituals and festive events” set out in the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. In addition, the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance was selected as one of the Remarkable Examples of Good Practice for Safeguarding the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Items by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism in June 2019. While there is much published research on the various cultural aspects of the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance, surprisingly not much has been researched on its social aspect, specifically in terms of the involvement of the people in the Tai Hang community, such as, who are the responsible organisation for organising the event, how is the event organised, and who are the participants. This community aspect of the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance is the focus of the dissertation, and the research aims to complement other research that has been done on this important and unique intangible cultural heritage of Hong Kong.