Nanhai is the birthplace of the southern lion. Since the Ming Dynasty, lion dance has become an important folk custom in Nanhai. Almost every large natural village has a lion team. Every time there is a festival, temple fair or celebration, each village will hold a lion dance event. The lion dances with large scale and traditions include the Pingzhou Lion Dance on the first day of the first lunar month, the Lishui Lion Dance on the eighth day of the first lunar month, the Xiaotang Lion Dance on the tenth day of the first lunar month, the Yanbu Lion Dance on the eleventh day of the first lunar month, the Songgang Lion Dance on the twelfth day of the first lunar month, the Dali Lion Dance on the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, the Guanyao Raw Vegetable Club Lion Dance on the twenty-sixth day of the first lunar month, and the Huangqi North Village Raw Vegetable Club Lion Dance on the twenty-sixth day of the first lunar month. Nanhai Lion Dance has cultivated a large number of lion dance talents through various methods such as family, master-disciple, hall, and social training. It has won many championships in international competitions and is famous at home and abroad. In October 2002, the China Dragon and Lion Dance Association named Nanhai as the "Hometown of Chinese Dragon and Lion Dance". In 2006, "Nanhai Lion Dance (Guangdong Lion Dance)" was listed as an intangible cultural heritage of Guangdong Province and the country. Lion dance requires routines and basic skills. Therefore, every village has a martial arts hall and invites martial arts masters to teach martial arts. Those who learn martial arts are all young people. They start with basic skills, such as boxing, stick, knife, gun, sword, halberd, and drum. Each routine has a fixed program, which is determined by the needs of the performance occasion. In front of the martial arts hall, there is usually a hall name named after the place name, boxing style, village name, and master name. The lion drum, combined with gongs and cymbals, becomes the command system of the lion dance and plays a role in setting off the atmosphere. There are various routines for lion dance, such as "Lion Out of the Cave". "Cai Qing" is the essence of lion dance, which uses three-star drums (small steps, small movements, steady and steady), five-star drums and seven-star drums (big steps, high movements, big ups and downs) with different rhythms. In order to make it loud and exciting, the seven-star drum is now more commonly used. Lion dance requires a solid foundation in martial arts, and the fists, feet, waist and horse must be steady and fast during the performance. The lion dance routine is usually "lion head fist, lion tail knife". The lion head dancer performs a fist technique, and the lion tail dancer performs a double knife technique. Before the 1950s, although lion dance was very common, not many people could perform difficult movements. So at that time, a small person was often used to dance the lion tail. Later, when it developed to difficult movements, such as jumping, a small person would dance the lion head, and a solid and strong big person would dance the lion tail. Because many times, the person who danced the lion tail had to lift the lion head dancer and jump to another pile. There are southern and northern lions, and the routines and shapes are different. The southern lion's shape is characterized by a high forehead, a pillow, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and a wide mouth and bright teeth. The thick eyebrows and big eyes are majestic enough, and the wide mouth and bright teeth allow the lion dancer to move freely. The southern lion is divided into two categories: civil lion and martial lion. The civil lion uses Liu Bei and Guan Yu as the face makeup, and the Guan Gong lion is mainly red; the martial lion uses Zhang Fei as the face makeup, and the main color is black. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the lion head production and lion quilt embroidery industry in Nanhai were both very prosperous. The production of large and small lion drums was also very common. The big drums and big lions were used by adults, and the small drums and small lions were used by children to play. Some families with many children and grandchildren had a lion team. The lion dance routines were summarized by the predecessors as follows: seeing things must be suspicious, seeing green must be happy, seeing red must be surprised, seeing pillars must bite, seeing water must play, seeing bridges must explore, seeing platforms must look. According to this "rule", later generations performed various graceful and flexible movements. The general routine performance process on the stage is: the lion comes out of the cave, two people stand on both sides with wooden sticks, and put the wooden sticks upright as the entrance of the cave. When the lion comes out of the cave, it performs the movements of "seeing things must be suspicious" and "seeing pillars must bite". Then the lion goes down the mountain and crosses the bridge, using a long bench as a bridge, performing the posture of "crossing the bridge must explore", and after crossing the bridge, it also performs the movement of "there is water must play", and the posture when drinking water is very vivid, it really seems to swallow the water into the stomach. After that, it is time to pick the greens. Generally, a bunch of lettuce is placed on the stage, and the lion dancers perform the action of "seeing greens must be happy". Chewing the greens, getting drunk on the greens, looking dazed and sleepy, then spitting out the greens, pretending to be sleepy, and pretending to be sleeping with the low sound of gongs and drums. After a while, they scratch their ears and cheeks, and with the high sound of gongs and drums, the lions turn over and roll to the edge of the stage, jumping up and pretending to wake up. Some lion teams also introduce a special "leather ball" to let the lions perform the "lion rolling ball" routine, while others send out a "big-headed Buddha" (an actor wearing a mask) to perform lion dance, with tacit cooperation, which is very beautiful. Finally, the lions are led up the mountain and the performance ends. The performance off the stage is generally to watch two lions meet and pick the greens. When two lions meet, they must be very polite, bow and nod, and give way to each other. The gongs and drums cannot be beaten loudly. If it is not handled well, and they are not forgiving or giving way, it will cause trouble. The most exciting part is picking green. There are two types of picking green: picking low (ground) green and picking high (hanging) green. Picking low green is also called picking water green. The host uses a basin to carry water, and puts lettuce (or banyan leaves), red envelopes, citrus and the like on the basin. If a wooden basin is used, the lion dancer must skillfully step on the edge of the basin and slowly move around to pick the things in the basin. Some hosts cover the basin, put a citrus on each side of the basin, put two pieces of sugar cane under the basin, and 4 bamboo chopsticks on each side. This is called "crab green". When picking crab green, you must first disassemble the crab, and the movements and procedures are very particular. First, the lion dancer stands on the edge of the wooden basin (crab shell), then puts away two citrus (peel the crab eyes), because the crab cannot see without eyes, and then peels the crab claws and claws. Finally, the lion dancer stands on the ground and lifts the wooden basin (peel the crab shell), picking green and taking the red envelope. If it is a festival or the birthday of a god, the lion dancer will arrange the two pieces of sugar cane and eight bamboo chopsticks just picked up to form the word "good luck". If the host is celebrating his birthday with a lion dance, then he should use eight bamboo chopsticks and a tangerine to form the word "longevity" to express his birthday wishes. The host will be particularly happy and add more red envelopes. Gaoqing is when the host uses a bamboo pole upstairs to hang a string of red envelopes and a bunch of lettuce with a rope. Generally, the richer the red envelope, the higher it is hung. At that time, the "human ladder" method must be used to pick the green. Some people use a long bamboo pole, and the lion dancer climbs up the bamboo pole to pick the green. It is wonderful. In the early years of the Republic of China, Huang Feihong, a native of Nanhai, once caused a sensation in Hong Kong with his flying trolley to pick Gaoqing. On the Mid-Autumn Festival in the 15th year of the Republic of China (1926), Guangzhou Daxin Company held a lion dance competition on the rooftop. 18 lion teams participated. Pingzhou Sanshan participated with the boy lion team and won the championship. For a long time after the founding of New China, lion dance activities fell into disuse. After the reform and opening up, it was redeveloped. During the Spring Festival of 1987, more than 700 lion dance teams from all over Nanhai went out to celebrate the New Year in villages and countryside. After the 1990s, lion dance teams from all over Nanhai went out of Nanhai and participated in lion dance competitions at home and abroad, winning many awards.