Dragon Lion Club of Shanghai Petrochemical Academy was set up in October, 2011. There are 240 members in the club at present. It has been appraised as Shanghai Three-Star Club and it adds new elements to the campus life. In May 2014, the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, the Shanghai Municipal Sports Bureau and the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League, jointly issued the“Notice on Holding the First Shanghai Student Dragon Culture Competition”, Shanghai Education Commission (2014) No. 23. After that, the Shanghai Student Dragon Culture Competition was held in the Oriental Green Boat in Qingpu District in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively, and the Dragon Lion Club of SPA won the first prize in Dragon Lion Traditional Routine High School for the third consecutive year.
The training process was extremely difficult, for most players were completely new to the dragon-lion dance. First of all, the new team members must learn the basic movements, and then some difficult ones. After that, they must learn the routines of the whole game. The key to success lies in the teamwork of each player. In view of the fact that the first-year students need to participate in the comprehensive quality assessment, the training can not take up the normal class time. The coaches and the class teachers had to use a lot of spare time to train and the students overcame various difficulties and devoted themselves to the training.
In order to achieve good results in the first Dragon Culture Competition in 2014, SPA organized an excellent coaching team for the competition. Shao Zhe, deputy secretary of the Youth League Committee of SPA, took charge of the relevant issues of taking part in the competition. Zhuge Yunguo, Yin Jiling and Li Qianli, three P.E. teachers of SPA, were chosen to train the students. All the students of Class 5 and Class 6 of 131 Chemical, Liu Zule from 111 Electromechanical Class 3, Yang Tao, Luo Yong from 131 Electronics Class, Zhang Bo from 131 Electromechanical Class 3, and Wu Xuhui from 131 Electromechanical Class 4 constituted the main force of the competition. Zhang Qin, the class teacher of the 131 Chemical Class was responsible for the management of the team. In order to achieve good results, Lu Dajie, the executive vice president of the Shanghai Dragon Lion Association, was invited to give professional guidance. After more than 100 days of hard training, they made great progress.
On June 20th, 2015, the Dragon Lion Club of SPA won the championship again in the high school group competition of the traditional dragon lion event in the second Shanghai Student Dragon Culture Competition. 72 students from 131 Chemical Class 05 and Class 06, including 17 girls participated in the competition. In order to get good result in the competition, the players had high-intensity training. Every week they trained 5 times, making full use of their spare time. Some students were injured in the training, but they still overcame all the difficulties in the competition and showed their best performance to the referee and the audience. In the third Dragon Culture Competition in 2016, the old team members faced graduation or further studies, new players must be added to this team. At this moment, the Chemical Engineering Department shouldered the heavy burden and organized the new Dragon Lion club. Some students of the 151 Chemical Class 01, 04 and 05 joined the new team.
With the guidance and encouragement of all teachers, the students made remarkable progress. A few days before the game, the coaching staff comprehensively evaluated the performance of the students. They all believed that as long as the students play stably, they would have the chance to win the first prize. At the same time, the Student Affair Department and the class teachers also did a lot of work, giving their great support to the training and competition.
The competition was particularly fierce on June 9, 2016. Each team came up with new routines, new movements, and various innovations. Our school was the last team to enter the playing ground. After watching the other teams' game routines, the players felt a little nervous. The coaching staff adjusted some tactics in time , added some elements that benefit us, and made our entries more in line with the requirements of the competition.
In the competition, our players performed perfectly. The elements that the teacher temporarily came up with were smoothly added to the original movements, and finally the routines of the game were completed perfectly. In the face of fierce competition and strong opponents, our players proved themselves and won the first prize of the event.
In fact, our school started the dragon lion dance activity in 2011. At that time, there was no such platform for us to have the opportunity to compete with other schools. Since 2014, the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and the Municipal Sports Bureau and the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League have jointly organized the Student Dragon Culture All-round Competition. For the students who participate in the competition, in order to achieve good results, their sweat and efforts are indispensable. On the other hand, the coaches have been giving the students encouragement and professional guide, so that they can finally defeat their opponents and at the same time conquer themselves.
In October 2016, recommended by the Youth League Committee, the Party committee of SPA agreed that the Youth Dragon Lion Team of our school declared the “Shanghai Youth May Fourth Medal Collective” award. After a series of evaluations, they were finally among the final list of winners. It is six years since the team was set up. The first batch of players have already completed their studies and entered the society, and the new players are still joining the group. We believe that such an experience will become a most valuable part in their life.
