What is a "fire tiger"? As the name suggests, it is a tiger with dangerous fire all over its body. According to the recollections of old artists, the "fire tiger" performance was invented by the Zhou family in Pingyangsi Village, Zoucheng City, based on the comprehensive evolution of ordinary lion dance performances and folk fireworks performances. It has a history of more than 120 years. Later, it gradually developed into a unique, festive and exciting folk dance performance form. During its heyday, it was invited to perform many times from other places. The fire tiger performance has complicated props making craftsmanship. It is an exclusive craft that the Zhou family does not pass on to others. It has been passed down from generation to generation and has been passed down for five generations so far. The tiger coat consists of three parts: the tiger head, the tiger body and the tiger tail. The tiger head is made of white wax strips (a kind of flexible branch) and is a hemispherical shape with a diameter of about 75 cm. The five senses are complete and lifelike, with the word "king" on the forehead. The tiger's eyes are made of light bulbs or flashlights covered with red silk cloth (in ancient times, burning incense sticks). After being filled with fireworks, the tiger head weighs about 15 kilograms. The tiger body is made of 11 pieces of 100 cm long, 15 cm wide and 1.5 cm thick wooden boards, which are connected by leather strips into a semicircular shape. When unfolded, it is about 150 cm wide. There are hundreds of small holes drilled on the outside of each wooden board, about a thousand in total, and a 30 cm long firework tendon is inserted into each small hole. The tiger tail is about 140 cm long, made of white wax strips and wrapped with firework tendons. The whole tiger clothes are filled with firework tendons and weigh about 25 kg. The tiger-capping man wears a tiger clothes, holds a short crutch, walks with his body bent, and performs. The tiger-beating man wears wooden armor, with four "back-protecting flags" inserted on his back, wears a huge bamboo hat about 70 cm high and 65 cm in diameter, and has wooden armor on the outside and front of his calves. He holds a tiger-beating stick about 180 cm long. The armor and the tiger-beating stick are filled with firework tendons. The firework tendons are made of rough-edged paper rolls of gunpowder, containing sulfur, saltpeter, charcoal and salt, and sparks fly when ignited. More than 2,700 firework strips are needed to prepare the costumes of the "fire tiger" and the tiger-beating man. The performance of the fire tiger is grand and spectacular, and is usually held on the night of the second day of the second lunar month every year. Every spectator holds a lit candle, and the venue is as bright as day. Before the performance, other folk art performances such as stilts, two immortals fighting, dragon lantern dance, and moths are usually performed. When night falls, the finale "fire tiger" performance is performed grandly, and the atmosphere on the scene reaches a climax. The tiger-beating man and the tiger-beating man are dressed up, gongs and drums sound, and everyone comes forward to light the firework strips on the tiger-beating man and the tiger-beating man. The tiger-beating man appears first, holding a fire stick, majestic and imposing. After walking around the stage twice, he recited a line: "I am Li Cunxiao, the Thirteenth Guardian! I was ordered by my father to transport food and grass. When I passed this mountain, I heard that a big tiger was hurting people, so I delayed my entry. Suddenly, I heard the sound of wind in my ears! What a good tiger!" At this time, the "fire tiger" came on stage, and the candles held by the audience were extinguished at the same time. The "fire tiger" had eyes like explosions, bared teeth and claws, and was vivid. Suddenly, firecrackers rang, gongs and drums were loud, and people and tigers were fighting. Fire people and fire tigers, sparks flashed, light and shadow intertwined, reflecting each other. The fire tiger sometimes jumped up to fight, shooting sparks all over the sky, and sometimes rushed forward and scattered strings of meteors. The tiger-beating man danced the tiger-beating stick in his hand into a fire dragon, and moved quickly, fighting with the fire tiger. The performers were flexible, dancing beautifully, and cooperating tacitly. More than a thousand firework ribs are flying and spraying, like steel flowers flying and stars falling. The scene is dreamlike, strange, gorgeous, and thrilling, dazzling the audience and cheering one after another. Due to the short burning time of the firework ribs, the performance can only last for more than 10 minutes. When the fire is out, the "tiger" dies and the performance ends. During the performance, there should be 6 or 7 fire-fighting assistants with kettles in the performance venue with a diameter of about 20 meters. When the fire tiger runs, the firework ribs will burn with flames, which may ignite the tiger's clothes and hurt the actors. At this time, when the fire tiger runs in front of him, if the fire-fighting assistant finds that the tiger's clothes are on fire, he will spray cold water at the fire tiger. One is to extinguish the flame, and the other is that the water mist will turn into gorgeous sparks when it meets the fire tiger, making the fire tiger look more beautiful and majestic. The "fire tiger" performance is a folk dance form formed by the people of Zoucheng City during their long-term farming work. From the perspective of origin, the dragon and lion dances and festival fireworks performances of Zoucheng's traditional culture provide a broad stage and warm soil for the emergence of "fire tiger"; from a cultural perspective, the production of "fire tiger" props fully reflects the characteristic weaving craftsmanship of the southern Shandong region, and the lines, dances, and fighting movements during the performance also have the colors of local opera and dance; from the perspective of artistic expression, the "fire tiger" performance has strong local characteristics and high performance difficulty. Its unique creativity, vigorous and powerful movements, and beautiful and generous performances all reflect extremely high artistic value. It is a precious cultural heritage passed down from generation to generation by the Chinese nation, reflecting the wisdom of the working people in their working life and artistic life, as well as their positive, brave, courageous, and fearless qualities. The main characteristics of "fire tiger" are: uniqueness: Fire tiger performance has strong local characteristics and considerable performance difficulty. Although it has been performed in other places many times, this performance has not been popular in other places. Danger: As mentioned above, the fire tiger performance has certain dangers, and a considerable amount of manpower must be used to prevent fire during the performance. Someone once imitated Zhou's fire tiger performance, but due to insufficient fire prevention measures, the actor caught fire and had to jump into the river to put out the fire. Comprehensiveness: The dance movements and martial arts movements are integrated together, making the fire tiger performance vigorous and powerful, majestic and beautiful. Activism: The fire tiger performance is a unique dance performance formed by the people of Pingyang Temple in their long-term farming life. The dance reflects the heroic spirit of fearlessness and bravery in fighting beasts. Folk inheritance: It has been passed down for more than 120 years since the Qing Dynasty. The fire tiger performance, its dance movements are both civil and martial, beautiful and strong. It has unique artistic value. The fire tiger performance is the crystallization of the wisdom of the people of Zoucheng. This is not just an ordinary lion dance performance, but also uses shining sparks to decorate the tiger, making it more powerful and dazzling. The performance effect is by no means comparable to ordinary lion dance performances, reflecting the wisdom and spirit of excellence of the Chinese working people in their labor life and artistic life. The Fire Tiger performance shows a warm, festive, fiery and brave spirit, reflecting the working people's fearless sentiment. These are the excellent qualities and noble sentiments of the vast working people in our country. It is also a precious cultural heritage passed down from generation to generation by the Chinese nation. In order to protect and inherit the excellent traditional culture, the cultural department of Zoucheng City has excavated and sorted out the "Fire Tiger" since 1987. In particular, in 2006, the cultural department, together with the Party Committee and Government of Pingyangsi Town, established a special team and allocated special funds to carry out protection and inheritance, so that its performance has regained vitality. At about 7 pm on November 13, the "Fire Tiger" performance began at the Pingyangsi Town Cultural Square. This performing art that has been away from the folk for half a century has finally reproduced its former splendor! On June 9, 2007, at the Zoucheng City's celebration of the second "Cultural Heritage Day" literary evening, the "Fire Tiger" performance shocked more than 5,000 audiences on the scene and truly experienced the unique courage of folk art. (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)