Anren Bench Dragon

Anren Bench Dragon is a folk dance with a bench as a prop, which was brought into Anren Township, Dachuan District, Dazhou city by Hunan immigrants during the period of "Hu-guang filling Sichuan". Influenced and integrated by Chu-ba culture, Anren villagers used and performed it in the New Year celebration and other activities. After more than 300 years of continuous evolution, it is a folk dance with a bench as a prop. In 2007, it was listed in the first batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage list of Sichuan Province. In 2021, it was listed in the expanded list of the fifth batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative projects. 

Anren Bench Dragon, also known as "Caoba Dragon", spreads in more than 20 villages and towns around, such as Maliu, Tanmu, Huahong, Dongxing and Datan. It is a folk entertainment activity of the Han nationality with the bench as a prop. It is different from the common dragon, dragon lantern, fire dragon and water dragon. It is also different from other types of bench dragon. The binding, materials and performance of Anren Bench Dragon have symbolic significance: it is made entirely from five local common crops, such as straw, corn husk, wheat straw, sorghum stalk and ramie, which means "five grains are abundant". Usually, bamboo strips are used as the keel, bent into the dragon head, and the embryonic form of the dragon body and tail, and then wrapped into dragon whiskers and scales, and bound into the dragon body with straw. It is fixed on the bench with ramie silk (now mostly with iron wire). The process is primitive and simple. The shape is simple and strange. It looks like a dragon but not a dragon, like a lion not a lion. It is gentle and naive. The four legs of the bench are used as dragon claws, implying "peace in four seasons" and "wealth in four seasons"; it is performed by three men, which means "auspicious times".