The history and culture of Huadu District, Guangzhou

The history and culture of Huadu District, Guangzhou:

1. Gray sculpture

Gray sculpture, commonly known as "grey sculpture", is a traditional decoration of Lingnan architecture. A treasure of Chinese folk crafts. According to relevant records in Volume 18 of "The Biography of Eminent Monks of the Song Dynasty", gray sculptures already existed in the fourth year of Emperor Xizong of the Tang Dynasty (884). Later, gray sculpture became most popular in the Ming and Qing dynasties, especially in ancestral halls, temples, temples and wealthy mansions.

2. Pangu King’s Birthday

Pangu King’s Birthday is a traditional folk event in Huadu District. Every year, the 12th day of the eighth lunar month is the birthday, and the birthday activities are from the 12th to the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. The Pangu Shrine is a fixed place for activities.

In the early years of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1796), the scholar Qiu Maosong found a stone tablet halfway up the mountainside of Lushan Mountain in Shiling (now Pangu King Mountain), with the inscription "The first creation of heaven and earth, the throne of King Pangu and the holy emperor" was engraved on it. Legend has it that this stone tablet was originally erected in Pangu Temple in Timen, and was left here by the Yao people in Timen when they fled.

Qiu Maosong designated the 12th day of the eighth lunar month when he found the stone tablet as the birthday of King Pangu, and built a Pangu altar to attract people to celebrate. Since then, Pangu King's Birthday has gradually developed into a traditional folk event with rich content and lively scenes affecting the Pearl River Delta and northern Guangdong. All nearby villages organized lion dance teams to perform in front of the Pangu Shrine, and there were also folk activities such as singing operas, making lanterns, and grabbing fireworks.

3. Hakka folk songs

Hakka folk songs are the oral creative literature of the Hakka people. They are rich in local language characteristics and are a type of folk song genre. It inherits the style of "Fifteen Kingdoms" in "The Book of Songs", often using the traditional techniques of "fu, comparison, and xing", and is also good at puns, overlaps and other techniques.

In addition to love songs, Hakka folk songs also include labor songs, persuasion songs, industry songs, show songs, show off songs, Xuxuan songs, guessing tunes, minor tunes, bamboo board songs, etc. Singing forms include solo singing, duet singing, joint singing, opera sketches, etc. Hakka folk songs have beautiful melodies and implicit artistic conceptions, and are regarded as the sounds of nature inherited from the Book of Songs.

Its easy-to-understand, vivid images, catchy rhymes, diverse forms and rich content are deeply loved and spread by people. Since the Tang Dynasty, Hakka folk songs have been popular among the people and have a history of more than a thousand years.

4. Zhongcai Enamel Production Technique

Enamel, also known as "Folang" and "Falan", from 1979 to 1981, Huaxian Enamel Factory carried out technological innovation and organized Seven people including Yang Zhifeng, Lai Ming, Yang Zhijin, Huang Jianheng, and Huang Cuifang went to the Beijing Enamel Factory many times to learn the "cloisonné" filigree technique.

In 1983, Yang Zhifeng and others organically combined the "Cloisonne" process on the basis of the "Guangzhou Enamel" process, and innovatively invented a new process, named "Zhongcai Enamel". This process not only inherits the resplendent patterns and patterns of "Cloisonne", but also sets off the elegant, simple, meticulous and vivid large-scale color paintings and calligraphy of "Guangzhou Enamel".

The ornamental value of the product is greatly improved. "Zhongcai enamel" products include vases, snack boxes, plates, jars, dishes, bowls, clocks, telephones, lamps, buttons, etc.

We have participated in exhibitions organized by the Ministry of Light Industry and relevant provincial and municipal departments, and have won many honors and awards. On March 18, 2009, the Huadu District Government announced that the craftsmanship of winning lottery enamel was selected into the first batch of district-level intangible cultural heritage protection lists.

5. Huadu Lantern Festival

The Lantern Festival Lantern Festival is a traditional folk custom spread in the Lingnan area, and it is also a form of people praying for blessings in the New Year. The origin of traveling lanterns can be traced back to the Han Dynasty. With the development of history, the lantern tour activities continued and enriched, reaching their largest form and scale in the Qing Dynasty.

In the old days, the Lantern Festival lantern parade in Huaxian County was very popular. On the night of the 15th day of the first lunar month, most villages held lantern parades, and the scene was very lively. After the parade, people began to cast lanterns and pray for new year wishes such as honoring their ancestors, piety and filial piety, a smooth new year, and a bumper harvest.

After the founding of New China, the custom of traveling with lanterns stopped. In the early 1990s, some villages in Huadu (such as Shuikou, Shihu, Langtou, Hualing and other villages in Tanbu Town) gradually resumed the custom of traveling with lanterns. In 1996, after the Kanggong Temple was renovated in Shuikou Village, Tanbu Town, Ren Guangrong, a native of Hong Kong, initiated the establishment of the "Lantern Festival" to resume lantern tours and lantern throwing activities. It has been held for 12 sessions so far.

6. Southern Lion

Southern Lion, also known as "Lion Awakening", is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macao, and overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. It is an authentic Guangdong folk lion dance. Nanshi is a traditional folk art in Huadu and a favorite sports activity. It not only integrates martial arts, dance, music and other cultural elements.

Since the jumps, squats, horse steps, lunges, lunges, etc. of lion dance are all martial arts movements, lion dance must also practice martial arts and master certain martial arts footwork. During the Republic of China, martial arts schools were set up in many villages in Huadu, where martial arts masters were hired to teach their children martial arts and lion dance. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, martial arts and southern lion performances became more popular. During festivals and opening celebrations, lion troupes from each village went to the streets to pick young people and tour.

7. Cantonese Opera

Cantonese Opera integrates Haiyan, Yiyang, Kunshan, Bangzi and other tunes that have flowed into Guangdong since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and absorbs folk music from the Pearl River Delta, such as wooden fish, dragon boat, Nanyin, Cantonese music, Guangdong music, minor tunes, ditties, etc. form a major opera genre in southern my country, mainly Bangzi and Erhuang. It is also called Guangdong opera, Guangfu opera, etc.

It is a performing art that involves chorus, chanting, music by musicians, stage costumes, abstract shapes, etc. Cantonese opera was originally performed in Central Plains phonology, also known as theater Mandarin. It was not until the end of the Qing Dynasty that the singing language was changed to Guangzhou dialect.

8. Ruiling bonsai

Ruiling bonsai mainly originates from Ruiling Village, Chini Town, which includes Fengqun, Tianxin, Zhudong, Shanglianzhu, Xialianzhu and other villages. , as well as Tanbu, Shiling and other places where people cultivate bonsai. Ruiling Village in Chini Town is located in the western part of Huadu District. It has a vast territory, rich resources, and convenient transportation. It has a long history of more than 100 years in special agriculture such as planting bonsai flowers.

Ruiling Village is located below Sankeng Reservoir and Ailing Mountain Pond. It has convenient irrigation, and the soil and climate are very suitable for bonsai planting. Ruiling Village in Chini Town mainly produces and operates tree stump bonsai and potted bonsai, which are an important part of Lingnan bonsai. There are many types of trees cultivated in Ruiling Village, among which the mulberry and podocarpus are more accomplished in their shapes.

Gurixiang bonsai is the representative work of Ruiling bonsai. It has exquisite production techniques and extremely high attainments in modeling, making it unique. On March 18, 2009, the Huadu District Government announced that Ruiling Bonsai was selected into the first batch of district-level intangible cultural heritage protection lists.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Huadu District