Fengxian rolling lantern originated in the western area of Fengxian District, Shanghai, and has a history of more than 700 years. According to Fengxian Chronicles, when the Taiping Army arrived in Fengxian, the people of Fengxian were jubilant and expressed their welcome to the Taiping Army by dancing "rolling lanterns". There is also a folk legend that when Qianlong ascended the throne, the people celebrated by lighting lanterns. The traditional Fengxian rolling lantern performance forms are: 1. "Nuo" is an ancient Chinese cultural phenomenon of spiritual exorcism and blessing to avoid disasters. Fengxian is located at the mouth of Hangzhou Bay. Historically, floods have been frequent. Every year, dancers wearing Erlangshen (the god of water conservancy) masks dance rolling lanterns in order to subdue floods. 2. Since the Ming Dynasty, Fengxian has also been an important town against Japanese pirates, with a large number of troops stationed there, and militias have also been organized locally. Dancing rolling lanterns is used as a training carrier for them to strengthen their bodies and advocate martial arts. In order to increase the difficulty of training, a hammer or stone is hung in the inner ball of the rolling lantern and wrapped in black cloth, which is called a "martial lantern". The troops often hold rolling lantern competitions to reward the winners. 3. Fengxian rolling lanterns have evolved from worshipping gods to entertaining gods, and from entertaining gods to folk entertainment. Whenever there are lantern festivals, festivals, or celebrations of harvests, or celebrations of promotion in various towns in Fengxian, the celebrations are all proud of dancing rolling lanterns. The rolling lanterns are large in size. In crowded places, as long as the rolling lanterns dance, the onlookers will immediately move to both sides, opening a smooth path for the lantern team behind. They are called "the first of a hundred lanterns" and "the king of lanterns" by the people. Fengxian rolling lanterns have three sizes: large, medium and small. The large rolling lanterns have two diameters of 1.2 meters and 1.5 meters, the medium rolling lanterns have two diameters of 0.7 meters and 0.95 meters, and the small rolling lanterns have three diameters of 0.26 meters, 0.34 meters and 0.45 meters. They are all made of twelve bamboo strips, and the outer shape is composed of two balanced patterns of hexagons and triangles. The large and small rolling lanterns are composed of two parts: the outer ball and the inner ball (also known as the inner liner). In ancient times, there was a distinction between civil lanterns and military lanterns. The inner ball wrapped in red cloth was called a civil lantern, and the inner ball wrapped in black cloth was called a military lantern. The inner ball was fixed to the center of the outer ball with hemp rope or lead wire, and the two ends were connected with iron rotating pins, which could rotate freely. A candle was installed in the middle of the inner ball for lighting during the performance. An iron rotating pin was installed at any place of the big ball to facilitate the "spider to release silk". Men's popular clothing includes ancient costumes, military short-sleeved clothing, folk green (black) opposite-fronted tops and lake blue pants, white towels on the head, and old cloth shoes on the feet. Women's clothing is a blue-printed collarless short-sleeved pullover, blue pants or short skirts on the lower body, blue cloth shoes on the feet, hair wrapped on the head or flowers and other accessories. Gongs and drums are the most primitive music of Fengxian rolling lanterns. The various movements and routines of Fengxian rolling lanterns have formed their own unique performance style after several generations of creation and development. The traditional big lantern has fifteen difficult movements, such as wrapping the waist, white crane laying eggs, carp rolling water grass, spider releasing silk, and harmonious rabbit, which focus on various human body language such as jumping, climbing, running, turning, spinning, leaping, jumping, and swinging; the medium rolling lantern also has colorful clouds arching the moon, Chang'e panning her head, and wild geese stretching their waists; the small rolling lantern has small flowers, large and small hand shaking, hitting flowers, double fork throwing balls, big knife flowers and other movements, adding various dance steps to make the performance more colorful. The various routines of large, medium and small rolling lanterns are combined into various forms of folk rolling lantern dance. The traditional performance techniques are not only the embodiment of artistic images, but also symbolize the wishes of the working people of all generations for good weather and prosperity of people and livestock, and embody the simple national spirit of the ancestors. Men and women perform on the same stage with multiple lanterns, accompanied by drums and music, which is a perfect combination of innovation and tradition. It is a new art form of ancient lantern dance integrated into modern society, and is gradually infiltrating into the daily life of modern people. The rise of various rolling lantern exercises and the love of the masses have confirmed its new style and social value. The inheritance and development of Fengxian rolling lanterns cannot be separated from the efforts and innovation of rolling lantern artists. From Wu Yougen, Wu Xiaobing to Chen Bomin, Wu Boming, etc., they all had their past glory. Since the 1980s, Fengxian rolling lanterns have embarked on a high-speed development track with the support of the district and town governments and the efforts of Fengxian mass workers. Folk dance Fengxian rolling lanterns frequently appear on the art stage of the district, city and even the whole country. Every year, there are no less than 40 large-scale art performances, and each town has built a rolling lantern team. It has won gold medals in national cultural and sports competitions many times, and the first-class central leaders have also watched the Fengxian rolling lantern performances. Fengxian Huqiao Town was rated as the "National Folk Art Hometown" by the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China. Although Fengxian rolling lanterns have formed their own development model, with the impact of the market economy, the number of rolling lantern dancers has decreased. The rolling lantern team has also declined. A group of old artists have passed away one after another. Some high-difficulty rolling lantern skills are on the verge of being lost. This requires us to increase the efforts of rescue, support, sorting and innovation.