Zhanjiang's Suixi lion dance will be a featured performance on the stage of the Lantern Festival Gala broadcast by China Central Television on Feb 11.

The local publicity department said that they received the invitation from CCTV one week prior to the annual Lantern Festival event, a scaled-down version of the Spring Festival Gala. It will be the first time that a Zhanjiang folk art performance team will perform at the show.

Longwan Dragon & Lion Dance Troupe is in rehearsal for the Lantern Festival Gala performance on Feb 7. [Photo by Li Ming/Zhanjiang Daily]

The Longwan Dragon & Lion Dance Troupe from Suixi county will attend the Beijing gala on behalf of Zhanjaing, and rehearsals have already begun based on the gala crew's program schedule. Li Rongzai, head of the troupe, is excited for the chance to show off the folk performance from Leizhou Peninsula to people across the country and overseas audiences. "We will make proper innovations and improvements on the basis of traditional lion dance forms," Li said.

Suixi county in Zhanjiang was dubbed the "Hometown of Chinese Lion Dances" in 2003 by the China Society for the Study of Folk Literature. The county enjoys a long history of performing the dynamic and difficult acrobatic art which dates back to the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1840).

The 2017 CCTV Lantern Festival Gala will air at 8 pm on Saturday night.

A performance by Longwan Dragon & Lion Dance Troupe [Photo by Zhang Fengfeng]

A lion dance performance in Zhanjiang's Suixi county. [Photo/yinsha.com]