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Thread: Types of Lion dance.

  1. #1
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    Types of Lion dance.

    My Sifu was recently telling us about the different types of southern lion dance. Now he can sort of be hard to understand at times (not the best english which is really a bad sign), he was talking about how most groups don't do real lion anymore that it usually consists of duck or Buddha-Crane style. He explained how back then there was crane style which the lion head had more of a crane shape, sort of pointed, and then buddha style with a more round head, but then they fused the two to get a more moderate in between.

    We also recently started training in some odd lion style which the lion heads look almost like a cross in lion and dragon, and they scoop their heads from side to side. I think the name for them started with an L, and even a few people who were raised in Hong Kong had never heard of the style because it's so uncommon. I was wondering if you guys knew what style this was?

    Also my sifu mentioned an even more uncommon style starting with a P like Paq something of the other, though I didn't retain it, he said he'd show us it some time.

    Basically I was just wondering if you guys knew of all the different lion styles there are still currently existing today.

  2. #2

    Mo Si

    I know of only . Hok San, Fat San and Key Lung or Chi Ling Plus of course Northern
    Kune Belay Sau

  3. #3
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    Types of Lion dance.

    Two of the more popular Southern lions are the Fut San (Foshan-Buddha mountain) and Hok San (Heshan-Crane Mountain). There are other types of lions from other provinces, but because most of the Chinese that emigrated from China are from Guangdong (Kwangtung) province these are the lions that are most seen around the world.

    The Fut San’s head is rounder in shape and has a curved mouth while the Hok san’s face is longer and its mouth is flat and shaped like a duck’s bill (hence its nick name the duck bill lion).

    The selection of which type of Southern Lion a school chose was dependent upon the style of Kung Fu taught. As an example, practitioners of Hung Gar Kung Fu-would use the Fut Shan Lion, while practitioners of Choy Li Fut and White Crane would use the Hok Shan. It should be noted that this was a general association and not a rule etched in stone. In areas such as Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan the Hok-San Lion are more prevalent. While in Hong Kong, the United States, Canada and other countries the Fut San Lion was more prevalent.

    Traditionally, the lion head’s frame is made of rattan, wicker and bamboo while the shell is layered with gauze like paper in paper-mache fashion followed by gauze and more gauze like paper. This step is repeated several more times, upon which the head is then painted with various colors and patterns that are symbolically auspicious. The head was then adorned with many ornaments and decorations. Moving parts allow for the movement of eyelids, ears and mouth, all to make the lion more animated and life like. The eyes are made of wood with a hole bored in the center and a piece glass/plastic covering it.

    These heads were heavy, a full sized Lion head may weigh any where between 30-50 pounds depending on the amount of ornaments and decorations. The dancers were not fully covered (unlike the Northern Lion) while the body/tail was long and made of various colored cloths. This Lion was not only used for religious purposes but for martial arts training as well. The weight of the Lion head helped strengthen the back and upper body. The footwork closely followed a school’s Kung Fu style. While the stepping patterns (7 star, 5 star, and 3star) mirrored the constellations. In essence it is like aerobics training with weights.

    Thru modern technology, aluminum, PVC, colored laser paper and other materials are now used. Along with the removal of many ornaments and the lessening of layers of paper, the Lion head has become extremely light. The newer Lions also sport a shorter tail (It is said, that a Sifu whose team had lost a lion competition ripped the tail in half out of frustration. After regaining his composure, he realized his mistake and repaired what was left of the tail. From this he realized that there were many advantages to the lion sporting a shorter tail. At the next lion competition, his lion team used these changes to come out on top.). These advent or changes was partly necessitated because of the growing popularity of Lion Dance competitions, particularly on high poles known as jongs. The players also wear pants that match the body/tail of the Lion. Another difference between the modern and traditional is that the modern Lions are friendlier looking while traditional Lions tended to be fiercer looking in part to scare away would be evil spirits and bad luck. These newer hybrid of Lions are known as Golden Lions and their movements are more like that of its Northern counter part the Beijing Lion. Thus people will often use the phrase Southern Lion, Northern Dance or doggy lions. The new lightweight Lion heads and shorter tails allow for more lifelike realism and afford the dancers to execute breathtaking acrobatic maneuvers.

    cheers,
    mk
    Last edited by monkeyking168; 01-23-2007 at 09:23 AM.
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  4. #4
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    nice job-well said .

  5. #5
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    The "P" one is the Pei Yao. I've only seen a little bit of one on tape. It is unasthetic compared to the lion, but still very difficult from what I understand.

  6. #6
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    Most CLF I've been in & experienced use Futsan, not Hoksan. Especially since most CLF I've done is from Futsan.

    Some of the schools that get all up for playing the jhongs may use Hoksan, but at least most I've seen & been around play Futsan.
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  7. #7
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    There's a lot of weird lions out there

    Funny you should ask. We have an article on closed-mouth lion dancing in our next issue (Mar Apr 2007, on newsstands in two weeks or so). You'll have to check it out. I'd tell you to subscribe, but subscriptions are being sent out right now and I don't think you'll make it, so you'll just have to hit up your local newsstand.

    There was an exposition of exotic lion heads in at the First Traditional Chinese Martial Arts Exposition in Taiwan, which we covered in our 2005 March/April issue. Taiwan's Wang Hung-Lung has an outrageous collection of lion heads, a little of which we showcased in that article. Actually, we only showed a tiny bit of that. We shot the entire thing so it's in our libraries. We showed a little more in this current closed-mouth lion article.
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  8. #8
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    Started messing around with the Okinawan Shisa dog a few weeks ago.
    It's kind of a distant relative of the lion.
    O MAN is that thing different....

    First off, the head's made of solid wood. The player doesn't go in the head, instead holds bars on the top and bottom (palms facing grip)- clacking the wooden mouth closed becomes kind of a nuisance because it's so loud, and the standard motion is more of a spin than the dipping done in lion dancing. The tail is really thick and heavy, in the case of the one i used, it was made up of hundreds and thousands of individual shreds of plastic to act like fur. The pants are made of the same material, thus more heavy & constricting.

    It was amazing to me how something could look somewhat similar but be soooo different.
    What would happen if a year-old baby fell from a fourth-floor window onto the head of a burly truck driver, standing on the sidewalk?
    It's practically certain that the truckman would be knocked unconscious. He might die of brain concussion or a broken neck.
    Even an innocent little baby can become a dangerous missile WHEN ITS BODY-WEIGHT IS SET INTO FAST MOTION.
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  9. #9
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    Smile Lion Dance

    There are different dances:

    Dragon Dance: this one involves hundred of people.

    Lion Dance: the Fut Shan style lion heads are mostly for schools that are more "courageous" and younger Sifu (not afraid to brawl); while the Hok Shan style heads are more for peaceful club usually headed by older Sifu. Traditional lion dance is pretty much the thing of the past because the old protocol (ie dedication of the lion heads, coming out of the cave, paying homage to Heavan and Earth, entering the temple, crossing the bridge, picking the green, etc) is not taught in many of the Kung Fu kwoons anymore. It is more of a Cantonese tradition.

    Unicorn dance: Kei Lun is the one that has the head "scoop" (figure 8) side to side.
    It's more of a Hakka tradition.

    Pei Yau dance: It is pretty rare these days. Hong Kong and Taiwan still have of these dances. Pai Yau is a very fierce animal.

    Mantis108
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  10. #10
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    mantis108
    i know a lot of people on the east coast that still practice those traditions
    not quite dead yet, just not getting the coverage of the pole jumpers.
    What would happen if a year-old baby fell from a fourth-floor window onto the head of a burly truck driver, standing on the sidewalk?
    It's practically certain that the truckman would be knocked unconscious. He might die of brain concussion or a broken neck.
    Even an innocent little baby can become a dangerous missile WHEN ITS BODY-WEIGHT IS SET INTO FAST MOTION.
    -Jack Dempsey ch1 pg1 Championship Fighting

  11. #11
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    "Pork Chop mantis108
    i know a lot of people on the east coast that still practice those traditions
    not quite dead yet, just not getting the coverage of the pole jumpers."

    Yeah. My school does the old routines still, but sometimes we have trouble getting big shows because people just want to see the competition lion. Oh well, at least we don't have to carry around huge posts everywhere to do a show.

    My favorite routines are the seven stars, lion eats the crab, lion comes out of the cave, and the lion eats the snake.

  12. #12
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    That issue is on the newsstands now

    See our March April 2007 issue for the article The Roar of the Silent Lion By Jacob Fitisemanu with Master Cheng Tsang Lu. It's about the rare closed-mouth style of lion dancing. There's also some pictures of Wang Hung-Lung's collection of closed-mouth lions. A closed-mouth lion head is one solid piece, unlike the typical Northern or Southern lions, which has a movable mandible.

    We always like to get a lion dance article in the mag around Chinese New Years.
    Gene Ching
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  13. #13

    Lion,Dragon, etc.',...

    I love 'Lion eats the Snake' routine! We got to do it 'once' on Chinese New Year,(She'-Nien) year of the Snake! Usually we don't have enough room or time to do other routines except 'Lion eats Greens'. The 'Snake' is set-up with oranges for the eyes,butterfly-swords for the fangs,& a spear for the body. The lion eats the oranges,..spits them to the restaurant owner,..then eats the butterfly-knives,..gets out of the costume & performs short butterfly routine,...back in costume & eats the body,(spear),...then the rear-guy shoots it out the back-end! Whole routine takes like, 20mins.'! It's Great! I also saw a Hong-Kong parade with guys' in Big Carp costumes and Pheonix,(lao Fung),..it kinda' reminded me of the Jet-Li movie where they fight the big Centapede costume with the Lion,..lol'! Li Ma-Keh

  14. #14
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    ttt for 2018!

    Chinese lion dance reinvented: can it end Hong Kong’s ‘identity crisis’?
    Choreographer Daniel Yeung’s multimedia performance – part of New Vision Arts Festival – hopes to use contemporary dance to cultivate national heritage and end city’s post-colonisation struggles
    PUBLISHED : Friday, 28 September, 2018, 5:20pm
    UPDATED : Friday, 28 September, 2018, 8:24pm
    Vivienne Chow
    http://twitter.com/VivienneChow



    Hong Kong-born and locally trained choreographer Daniel Yeung has a mission.

    As a home-grown artist, Yeung believes the arts have a major role to play in helping the city find its identity – something it has struggled with since 100 years of colonisation ended in 1997.

    Why dark Irish reimagining of Swan Lake ballet ditches the tutus and Tchaikovsky’s music

    He says that role involves cultivating works of art that inherit China’s rich cultural lineage while maintaining a personality that is true to Hong Kong.

    “Hong Kong is in a unique position,” Yeung says.


    Hong Kong choreographer Daniel Yeung – here performing ‘Bipolar Bodies’ – believes the arts can play a major role in helping Hong Kong find its identity.

    “The stratosphere of our performing arts scene has long been very Westernised, rather than developed from our cultural roots.

    Hong Kong is in a unique position. The stratosphere of our performing arts scene has long been very Westernised, rather than developed from our cultural roots DANIEL YEUNG, CHOREOGRAPHER
    “As contemporary artists, we should transform and elaborate our traditions and heritage, presenting them to a global audience in contemporary ways.”

    Yeung will put his words into action in his forthcoming show, Guan Yu’s Ride of 1,000 Miles, as part of the New Vision Arts Festival.

    A multimedia experience running from November 9 to 11, Yeung’s show is a contemporary dance performance that reinvents southern lion dance, a long-standing Hong Kong tradition.

    To create the choreography, Yeung is collaborating with Kwok’s Kung Fu & Dragon Lion Dance Team, with the troupe’s head coach Andy Kwok Man-lung as the lion dance theatre consultant.

    Lions have long been considered auspicious symbols of power, glory and protection in China – a tradition derived from Buddhist India.


    Hong Kong-born choreographer Daniel Yeung has been working with Kung Fu & Dragon Lion Dance Team to reinvent wushu and lion dance by infusing them with contemporary dance. Andy Kwok, head coach of the martial arts troupe, says the collaboration has helped his team improve their performance skills.

    Stemming from the dramatic reimagination of the lives and stories of this powerful creature, lion dance is divided into southern and northern styles.

    As contemporary artists, we should transform and elaborate our traditions and heritage, presenting them to a global audience in contemporary ways DANIEL YEUNG
    The two styles are distinctly different from each other, in everything from appearance and technique to footwork and storytelling.

    There are two main schools of southern lion dance, Fut San (or Fo Shan) and Hok San (or He Shan), and their techniques have their origins in a form of kung fu that began in Guangdong.

    Both blossomed in Hong Kong in the second half of the 20th century, as people fled from southern China during the second world war and the Cultural Revolution, when it was banned as a superstitious ritual, says Yeung, whose own version of lion dance stems from the southern schools.

    These days, southern lion dance is mostly performed to bring good luck, woven into festivities such as Lunar New Year celebrations, site openings and parades such as the Cheung Chau Bun Festival.

    Often absent from these celebratory performances are the storytelling and performative elements that were part of the original tradition.

    As Hongkongers, we have a mission to regenerate lion dance DANIEL YEUNG
    One of the most common performances involves “plucking the green” – choi cheng in Cantonese: this auspicious ceremony sees a lion pluck a green lettuce from atop a pole outside a shop or doorway

    Kwok, who inherited the martial arts troupe from his father Kwok Wing-cheong, says this performance, in fact, symbolises a physical and emotional journey the lion has to go through.

    “The performers’ task is to keep the lion alive and demonstrate not only kung fu techniques, but also the lion’s character – he can be suspicious about his surroundings, wondering if he should step forward, while putting on a strong face and being feisty,” Kwok says.

    “The performance is a story about a lion’s adventure, and how he finally succeeds in reaching the goal.”


    A lion dance practitioner from Kwok's Kung Fu & Dragon Lion Dance Team, which has teamed up with Hong Kong choreographer Daniel Yeung in experimental performances that combine lion dance with contemporary dance.

    For Yeung, meanwhile, lion dance is highly theatrical.

    “It’s total environmental theatre work,” he says.

    “Performers adapt to their environment and they improvise. This is our very own Cantonese Chinese dance, but it was never introduced to students at dance schools.

    “Lion dance was imagined in a contemporary way in Hong Kong cinema during the 1980s and ’90s, in films such as Tsui Hark’s Wong Fei Hung series [which includes Once Upon A Time In China], but the follow-up was lacklustre.

    “As Hongkongers, we have a mission to regenerate lion dance.”

    Seeing the potential for a contemporary form of lion dance, Yeung collaborated with Kwok’s team in 2016 on a Hong Kong Dance Company project, 8/F Platform X – A Decade of Creativity, which brought contemporary dance and traditional lion dance together in an avant-garde artistic experiment.

    Inviting artists from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taiwan, Korea and Japan to learn about Cantonese lion dance, the project translated the traditional performance into the language of contemporary dance.

    Yeung’s collaboration with Kwok went a step further last year when he staged ContempoLion at the launch of Swire Properties’ new ArtisTree in Taikoo Place, Quarry Bay.

    Combining aerial arts, contemporary dance, and interactive and live electronic music with the traditional Chinese dance form, the performance was well-received – and Kwok says it enriched his team’s performance skills.

    “Our team members have great techniques, but they lack experience in stage performances. It helped us go further in the theatrical arts,” he says.


    In ‘ContempoLion’, a performance created by Hong Kong choreographer Daniel Yeung in collaboration with Kwok’s Kung Fu & Dragon Lion Dance Team, wushu is infused with contemporary dance. Photo: Swire Properties

    With their forthcoming show at the New Vision Arts Festival, Yeung and Kwok take the experiment to the next level, using contemporary dance to showcase the origins of southern lion dance.

    Yeung – who is artistic director of the show – says its title comes from a significant chapter in the Chinese literary classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms, an epic war novel set in the Three Kingdoms period (220 to 280AD), when China was divided into three states called Wei, Shu and Wu.

    The lions of southern lion dance are said to draw their forms from Liu Bei, the warlord who founded and ruled Shu, and his oath brothers, generals Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.

    This show is the story of Guan Yu and his unshakeable faith in Liu Bei: despite not knowing if Liu is still alive, he determines to rescue Liu’s wives from the enemy, bringing them home again.

    “It’s a story about brotherhood, loyalty and perseverance,” Yeung says.

    However, he warns that the arts festival performance is not a straightforward narration of Guan’s journey.

    “It’s a contemporisation of lion dance,” he says.

    “We’re redeveloping this heritage that is uniquely Hong Kong and bringing it to the theatre.”
    Fascinating. I'm eager to see what this might become.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  15. #15
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    ttt 4 2020!

    This is slightly OT because Xushui is a Northern style of Lion Dance and this thread begins discussing Southern styles. But we don't have a thread dedicated to Northern style Lion Dance so here you have it, on the Southern Sub-forum.

    There's an embedded vid
    10:02, 20-Jan-2020
    Xushui lion dance: This is how to become a lion dance master
    Yang Meng, Li Yimei
    Share
    03:44
    "Lions" pranced to the rhythm of drumbeats as crowds gathered around to watch. The weather was cold, and the snow had not yet melted, but the enthusiasm of the crowd continued unabated, erupting into cheers from time to time.

    Today, I visited the hometown of lion dance in Xushui District, Baoding City, north China's Hebei Province, to enjoy the lively, local celebration.

    Lion dance is a traditional activity on festive occasions, not only for people in Xushui but also across the country. It is also considered to be an iconic form of Chinese celebration for many foreigners.

    Although lion dance was no stranger to me, it wasn't until I got to Xushui that I realized that there were many different kinds of lion dances.

    Wang Zhenshui, the provincial-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor of the Xushui lion dance, told me that there are two types of lion dances – the northern lion dance and the southern lion dance. But the lion dance in Xushui District is known as the king of the northern lions.

    "The southern lion is powerful and fierce, the northern lion has a smiling face, bringing joy and happiness to people," said Wang.

    Established in 1925, Wang is the leader of the lion dance troupe in Xushui. As a provincial-level inheritor, Wang said that lion dancing is not an easy task for anyone alone. Only by practicing with a partner numerous times, one can fully understand what to do and what not.


    Five lions, consisting of 10 performers, stand together on a large rolling ball in a lion dance show in Xushui District, Baoding City, north China's Hebei Province. /CGTN Photo

    Blink eyes, tweak ears and scratch cheeks – the vivid movements of the lions amused the crowd with laughter. Five lions, consisting of 10 performers, stood together on a large rolling ball, exciting the crowd.

    It takes a lot of practice to make these impressive and sometimes dangerous moves.

    "We love lion dance in the heart and practice it throughout the year, we practice so hard that every time we sweat all over and our legs hurt," Master Wang said, smiling as he recalled the long hours spent practicing with his partner.

    The hard work of the masters was not in vain. The festive lion dance brought a lot of excitement and happiness to the town before the Spring Festival.

    Reporter: Li Yimei
    Scriptwriters: Yang Meng, Li Yimei
    Editor: Yang Meng
    Cover image designer: Du Chenxin
    Executive producers: Zhang Xiaohe, Ai Yan
    Producer: Si Nan
    Supervisor: Pang Xinhua
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

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