Anyuan Tea Basket Lantern (the fourth provincial level) The Tea Basket Lantern originated from Jiulong Mountain in Anyuan County. It is the first half of the dance performance of the original play "Big Tea Picking" of the national intangible cultural heritage "Gannan Tea Picking Opera". It is a folk song and dance that reflects the labor life of tea farmers at that time. As early as the Song Dynasty, the Jiulong Mountain area in Anyuan was a famous tea-growing area in the south of the Yangtze River. The nine particularly good red tea trees in the tea-growing area were famous far and wide. It was at its peak during the reigns of Kangxi and Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty. Jiulong tea was taken as a tribute. Every March, tea merchants from Jiangxi, Guangdong, Fujian and other places gathered here. When picking tea, tea girls like to sing "December Tea Picking Song" in chorus. Influenced by local folk lanterns such as horse lanterns and dragon lanterns, they added props such as tea baskets and paper fans. Therefore, the tea picking song was combined with local folk lanterns, and evolved into a folk lantern that combines song and dance - tea picking lantern, also known as "tea basket lantern". "Tea Basket Lantern" is the most primitive song and dance performance art created by tea farmers in those days. The hospitable tea farmers performed songs and dances with tea picking as the content to entertain tea merchants from all over the country. In the vast tea-growing area, "Tea Picking Songs" and "Tea Picking Lanterns" have become important cultural activities for tea farmers. After continuous interpretation by successive artists, and enrichment and improvement by absorbing external nutrients, "Tea Basket Lantern" has developed into a "Tea Picking Opera" with a simple storyline and characters. Because there are only two female characters and one ugly character in the performance, it is commonly known as the "Triangle Class". It is the earliest drama model of tea picking opera. This tea-flavored song and dance drama created by the people of the tea-growing area quickly gained the favor of the majority of Hakka people with its unique charm, and gradually spread throughout our county.