All the fun of the fair
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The folk culture parade during the Longhua Temple Fair Culture Week. Photo: Lu Yun and Li Yuting/GT |
Against a backdrop of modern high-rise buildings to one side, and an expansive view of the Huangpu River to the other, a stylized dancing dragon twists and turns, supported by performers well versed in the deft manipulation of puppets placed on the dragon body.
Meanwhile, other actors on stilts re-enact tableaus and scenes from classic Chinese literature including Sun Wukong (Monkey King from A Journey to the West) and Wu Song (Tiger Killer from Water Margins).
The scene is the 2011 Longhua Temple Fair Folk Culture Festival, the city's largest and most influential fair of its kind, which lasts until April 10.
Because of safety concerns around nearby subway construction, this year the event has been moved from the site of the eponymous temple to a venue on Xuhui Riverside Avenue near Tianyaoqiao Road South and Binjiang Road, in Xuhui district.
Townscape scroll
The 400-year-old fair this year features a 50-meter-long scroll painting inspired by the nationally famous Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival. This ink-wash version took local Longhua resident Cen Xinguo 10 years to complete and vividly depicts a thriving scene from the festival, and from Longhua town in general, as it would have looked back in the 1960s and involving more than 10,000 people.
"I got the idea for painting the landscape of Longhua town back when I was a child," Cen told the Global Times. "In recent years, I realized the urgency of my mission as many of the old buildings from that time were quickly disappearing.
If I didn't record it, the younger generation would miss out on this history, and these traditions, for ever." Cen said that he chose the early 1960s in which to record his scene because "the old culture and traditions were better preserved before the Cultural Revolution (1966–76)."
Besides drawing on his own memories and photographs of famous Longhua town landmarks (such as the temple and the Longhua Pagoda) Cen also visited old neighbors and researched information for the drawing at the library. The highlight of the painting is the temple fair itself, with its vibrant scene of a huge crowd enjoying this annual folk pageant.
The actual parade is enacted three times a day, and the fair offers a wealth of attractions for visitors including stage performances, folk arts exhibitions, recreation facilities for children, an interactive sports area and rabbit-shaped colored lanterns.
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