Located in South China's Guangdong Province, Foshan city is the famous hometown of Qiuse (autumn) arts, which refer to the activities held in celebration of the autumn harvest, also called "Qiuse contests" or a "Qiuse Tideng Gathering".

 Origin of Qiuse arts in Foshan

Qiuse arts in Foshan have a long history. It is said that one night during the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) after the autumn harvest, a group of children shaped the husk of a wild rice stem into a dragon, inserted a lit joss stick into its body and used a bamboo pole to wave the fire dragon around while roaming the streets and alleys and singing and beating their drums late into the night. This activity later developed into a fixed form of entertainment, which was gradually elaborated to become Qiuse arts, with an added local touch.

Known as one of the "four famous towns" in China since ancient times, Foshan is celebrated for its handicrafts and prosperous business; the town's Qiuse activities held every autumn are the epitome of the city's prosperous development.

Qiuse activities are strict in form and content and fall into two categories -- performing arts and handicrafts. Performing arts include lantern demonstrations, playing with dragon lanterns, acting out drama stories, lion team processions, walking on high stilts, etc; the handicrafts include sculptures, zhen ke ("needle carving"), nian tie ("pasting"), pi xiao ("paring"), zhi pu ("paper sculpting"), and so on.

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