A Great Way to Kick Off 2023 l Chinese Lion Dance
2023-02-06
On 2nd February, 2023, WiWU Guangzhou flagship store celebrated its new beginning and Lunar New Year with a traditional lion dance. Such a fun moment to celebrate the Lunar New Year with our leaders and colleagues. The Lion Dance is a traditional Chinese dance performed on joyous occasions for good luck.
During the dance at the WiWU Guangzhou store, the lion fetched and ate the fortune and then returned the fortune to the store. The audience showed their respect by feeding the lions lucky money, Good luck with our work throughout the new year.
In Chinese culture, the lion symbolizes power, wisdom, and superiority. People perform lion dances at Chinese festivals or big occasions to bring good fortune and chase away evil spirits. The lion dance is one of the most important traditions at Chinese New Year.
It features highly skilled performers who are typically martial arts practitioners dancing to the beat of drums, cymbals, and gongs. Nothing short of a spectacle, each move builds suspense with their jaw-dropping, bewildering, and grandiose effects. The trained dancers’ movements mimic the fierceness and power of the lion, which include the way a lion walks and kung fu elements. The flamboyant lion costume features two parts – the head and the rest of the body – sported by two people on each end.
The head is normally oversized, sometimes weighing in at 5kg, and constructed using a bamboo frame or wood. The front portion is then plastered with sandpaper, gauze, and artificial fur. The rest of the costume is dressed in coloured cloth and artificial fur. Dancers wear complementing pants to blend in and finish the fully covered look. Overall, the look is shaggy, like the king of the jungle, yet vibrant in colour and texture.
It is said that Chinese lion dance originated in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, which were more than a thousand years ago. In ancient China, lion dance groups would dance from one village to another from the fourth day to the fifteenth day of the new year. The lion is composed of a head and a body. Each lion is performed by two Kung Fu martial artists who can only be allowed to perform if they have solid skills. The lion dance is accompanied by music and every expression and move of such a lion has its own rhythm.
The origins of the lion dance have been widely debated. Multiple stories have emerged in common discourse, one being about an emperor who dreamt of a creature saving his life, when describing its appearance, the emperor said that the creature resembled a lion. And from then on, the lion became known to spearhead good luck.
Nonetheless, there is a common denominator in the various narratives. Dating back to the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), lions were considered to be mythical creatures, as there was no known evidence of their existence at the time. It wasn’t until the great trades from the establishment of the Silk Road that lions were discovered in the Western regions of China and brought to the Central Plains as gifts to emperors.
From then on, lions became a significant part in the molding of Chinese culture. People began mimicking the appearance and nature of lions in performances, which then carried forward into the Three Kingdoms Period, the Northern and Southern dynasties when the rise of Buddhism took place, and into the Tang Dynasty when the lion dance was used as a court dance. Since then, the lion dance evolved into a lavish performance fit for big celebrations and holidays.
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