Features of the Hakka Unicorn Dance

Although individual villages have their own unicorn dance traditions, they share nevertheless some common features. For instance, a unicorn dance team usually consists of a master or a veteran member as the leader; two members responsible for playing the head and the tail respectively; and three musicians playing percussion instruments such as the drum, the gong and the cymbals. When they execute the unicorn dance, they have to incorporate basic martial arts routines and steps into their moves. The Hakka people use the unicorn dance to animate happy occasions such as Chinese New Year, weddings, the inauguration of an ancestral hall, moving into a new home, welcoming guests, and festivals and celebrations, calling it the “The unicorn coming out of the shed”. Hakka villagers also participate in large-scale community functions by presenting the “The unicorn coming out of the shed”, with martial arts displays after the dance to add to the spectacle.

The Hakka people attach great importance to unicorn dance protocols. For instance, when the unicorn visits a neighbouring village, it needs to pay its respect at its temple and ancestral hall. Before it enters the ancestral hall, it has to pay its respect at the entrance by reading the couplet on either side of the entrance, and touching the door frame and door column with its head and body. Once it is inside, it dances around the “screen door”, the moves allegedly serving a “purging” function. Then the unicorn enters the altar hall through the courtyard and pays its respect at the altar. As its trail going into the ancestral hall forms a “knot”, after it has finished with the ritual, the unicorn has to come out in a retreating manner along the same trail – a move to untie the knot – to show its respect. When the paying of respect in the ancestral hall is over, the unicorn dance team will perform the dance and entertain the spectators on the front yard of the ancestral hall.