Two foreign exchange students from Zhejiang Ocean University (ZJOU) perform the local "Flea Dance" at the "Intangible Cultural Heritage China—2018 National Folk Art Performance" in Xi'an, Shaanxi province. [Photo/ mobile.zhoushan]

A "Flea Dance" performed by foreign exchange students from the Zhoushan-based Zhejiang Ocean University (ZJOU) won the gold award at a national intangible cultural heritage art performance event recently in Xi'an, Shaanxi province. 

"Flea Dance" is a traditional local dance that originated as a way of celebrating the harvest among Zhoushan fishermen, and later developed into a dance for worshiping the kitchen god and welcoming the new year. It received its name because of its flea-like dancing postures and movements. 

The dance has come under spotlight and gained more popularity since it got listed as an intangible cultural heritage in the city in 2006.

Sun Liang the guiding teacher from ZJOU established a "Flea Dance Team" at the university in 2013 to promote the dance among college students. 

Thanks to the "Dream Trip in Zhejiang", an annual talent show organized by the provincial authorities for foreign exchange students to perform Chinese culture and art, the popularity of the dance gradually spread to foreign exchange students. 

Over ten foreign students from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Tanzania and other countries had joined the "Flea Dance Team" by 2017. 

They devoted large efforts to learning the traditional Chinese dance, overcoming language and cultural barriers and practicing persistently to perfect it. 

ZJOU plans to promote traditional Chinese culture to more and more foreign students, and encourage them to help promote Chinese culture via dance and other art forms, according to the school's international exchanges and cooperation department. 

The "Intangible Cultural Heritage China—2018 National Folk Art Performance", co-hosted by the China Overseas-Educated Scholars Development Foundation (COSDF), the United Nations World Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Foundation (UNWICHP), and other units, aimed at promoting traditional Chinese culture and the inheritance and development of intangible cultural heritages.

Over 300 performers from more than ten regions in China presented their local intangible cultural arts at the event.