Qilin Dance 舞麒麟 Workshop

Drawing on the ongoing co-produced research with New Vision Education Chinese School Unicorn Team (Hakka 客家communities in Leeds) in collaboration with Dr Xunnan Li, this workshop frames Qilin dance as living intangible cultural heritage—continually re-made through migration, participation, and shared practice rather than preserved as a fixed tradition.

This Qilin Dance workshop introduces a ritual and festival performance tradition rooted in Chinese Hakka migrant cultures. It is linked to communication between humans and the ritual blessing, embodied movement, and collective cultural imagination. The Qilin dance becomes a “third space” medium: shaped by human performers yet symbolically speaking on behalf of the wider community.

This is the third part of the session, a 30-minute participatory workshop where attendees can try basic movements and experience Qilin Dance.

Photo credited by New Vision Education Chinese School