At the age of 15, Zhang, who became a farmer after primary school, learned the skills of making dragons with rice straw and performing dragon dances from his father.
He has dedicated himself to the promotion of the folk activity and teaching the skills to others. One of them is the city-level inheritor Li Guangsheng.
"Performing the dragon dances used to be a shared hobby among villagers of different ages," says Li, 67, a machine repairman at a brick factory in Longwan town. "Audiences would set off firecrackers and follow the dragon wherever it went. Now, it's more like a public-service activity, as our aim is to promote the intangible cultural heritage. It becomes a responsibility."
When he was a teenager, he looked forward to watching the dragon dances and, in his early 20s, he started to join the folk activity.
"It's believed that the rice-straw dragon dances can expel evil spirits, avert pestilence and is a prayer for rain," he says.
He recalls that, in the past, when medical care was limited, if someone was afflicted with an infectious disease like smallpox or measles, locals would invite the dragon dance team to perform, hoping that they would drive away the illness.
Longxin village has 22 performers, including Li－that's just enough to organize a dragon dance team－and they range from their 50s to their 70s.
A straw dragon consists of 11, 13 or 15 segments, each one with a length of about 1.6 meters. Li says it takes two or three days for six to seven people to make the body.
They dry rice straw in the sun, cut it into the same length, grab a handful, then rub, twist and step on it to make it firm, before tying it to a long string. They repeat the steps to finish the dragon body segment by segment.
"Only a skillful master can make the exquisite dragon head and tail, which are made separately and then connected with the body," he says. "It takes several years to master the technique."
