| （Institute of Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage，Sun Yat-sen University，Guangzhou 510275，China） Abstract: Traditional folk lion dances originated from western regions, being developed into southern and northern schools after introduced into central plains. Lingnan Lion Dance is the primary representative of southern lion dances therein, including 10 plus independent types, all of which are cultural heritages worthy of studying. If these dances are studied from the perspective of social functions and folk custom functions, it can be found that they are at least provided with such functions as celebrative entertainment, physical enhancement, sacrificing and mourning, plague driving away, etc., in which the sacrificing and mourning function is highlighted in Meizhou Lion Dance, seems to never appear in northern lion dances. In addition, the plague driving away function has almost entirely disappeared in northern lion performances, but can still be seen in dances such as Guangdong Waking Lion and Dapu Golden Lion.
Key words: traditional folk sports；functions of Lion Dance；Lingnan |
