As China strides towards modernization, the traditional dragon and lion dances are accompanying the transition.

Among skyscrapers, the age-old lion and dragon dances, dating back more than a thousand years, are as popular and lively as always.

They are the same dance in China's biggest and most advanced metropolis, Shanghai, and anywhere else in the country.

"Some may think that since Shanghai is becoming more modernized each day, young people will leave behind our traditional culture," said a Shanghai dragon dance coach Tang Yongqing, who led his students in the on-going Fifth National Farmers Games here in the East China province.

"Many young people in Shanghai feel it a great thing to learn it. We have many young lion and dragon dancers back home," he said.

Tang and his dragon dance team are from Shanghai's Sancun town known as the "town of dragon dance," where even school children form their own dragon dance teams.

Zhang Jiaxun was also pleased to see the younger generations catching up. "It is my second and last tour to the Farmers Games. The competition of the dragon and lion dance is getting better each time and now I am considering retirement," said the 66-year-old dragon dance team drummer, the eldest player in this event.

Even women are now joining what was once an all-male event. Ge Li from Tianjin was the only female player to hold the lion's head at the competition.

The 17-year-old, who competed in taekwondo before, fell in love with the lion dance and formed a team with several other girls in March.

Coach Sun Wenqi was very proud of his protegees.

"There are more and more women competing at the Olympic Games for China. As China's traditional performance, the dragon and lion dance should have its own female dancers," said Sun, also an international referee with the international dragon and lion dance union based in Beijing.

"We are going to interest as many women as possible in the sport as we do in Tianjin," Sun added.

In the West, the dragon has been portrayed as evil while the Chinese believes that the dragon represents prowess, nobility and fortune.

The dragon dance was already a popular activity during the Song Dynasty (AD960-1279) while the lion dance, which also has a long history in the Chinese tradition, was originally used for worship and to pray for rain.

Both are so popular that they are considered an indispensable part of most Chinese festivals and sometimes on special events.

(China Daily October 22, 2004)