The completed dragon boat by Lin Shunkui, a seasoned handicraft artist living in Dongcai village, Beibaixiang town, Yueqing, Zhejiang province, will be burned on the village grounds on the night of the Lantern Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar.
The colorful wooden dragon boat will burn in a huge fire — a climactic ritual during Spring Festival celebrations — when villagers will wish away bad energy and hope that good luck will arrive.
The dragon boat, standing several meters in height and length, is called the "decorated dragon head", a handicraft traced to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Yueqing.
Lin, a national-level inheritor born in 1956, is the fifth generation of his family to carry on the intangible cultural heritage.
It takes him several months to even a year to make the heavily decorated dragon as villagers commission these works from him.
The multistoried boat displays layers of bright colors and is richly decorated with engraved gates and windows, and mythological and folk tale characters are installed on each level. They are connected with hundreds of gears and move in different directions controlled by a handler at the bottom of the dragon.
The dragon is not built for sailing in water and, after it is complete, will be transported to the village's ancestral hall the day before the Lantern Festival for worshipping.
The next day, villagers will push the wheeled boat for a parade and dance past every household to drive away evil spirits, bid farewell to the past and anticipate good fortune, prosperity and harmony in the new year.
