Feng Shui Study

The origin of the Chinese Lion Dance is an obscure subject, there are so many versions on its origin. Some are based on fiction and stories brought down from generations, some have facts and history to back their version. In gathering all these versions, could be derived that the Lion dance will have had a very long history.

One version had its origin in 'Ning Nan Guangzhao' which state there was a monster which the Chinese called 'Nien' that would appear every Lunar New Year's eve and attack the crops of the farmers in the village. The people armed themselves with weapons and gongs then chased it away but it reappeared the following year. On one occasion, the 'Big headed smiling Buddha' met this 'Nien' and managed to subdue it and brought it back to his temple and tame it as a pet. People began to name it the 'Tame Lion'.

Another version states that there is a book 'Tang Soo Chai Tai Ping Ler' during the Five Dynasties which is a few hundred years old, having the record about the Lion Dance. It states that there is this beast which is about 8ft in length, big headed, jutting teeth, eyes like copper bells, a green face and a horn on its head. Similarly, it states that this beast will appear on every 'Lunar New Years' eve and destroy the crops. The villagers then, on the instruction of their elders start to make an imitation of the beast using colour papers and colourful cloth. When the beast appears again, they use the imitation together with the gongs, drums and cymbals and managed to frighten the beast away. From then on, the beast does not appear again. However, the people started to celebrate the New Year with this and it was later known as the Lion Dance.

Three of Nam Yang's Lions perform in front of a crowd in London's West End

Still another version state that it started during the reign of 'Tang Ming Wang'. One day the emperor dreamt about a colourful lion dancing with all sorts of movement and actions. He was so captivated that he summoned his choreographer to recollect the features of this lion and create the dance. It is said that the lion dance was later modified and improved.

Lion Dance is traditional to the Chinese culture. It involved martial art, acrobatic and stage performance skills. According to Chinese sayings, the spirit of martial art is to valour and stage spirit of retaining the good and discarding the evil.

According to the research on the lion dance, the introduction of Lion Dance to South East Asia is more than a century old. It is still flourishing till this day because it holds good value in Chinese culture, the practice of lion dance is not affected by political, racial or religion. It also enjoys a wide circle of patronage. You can always see lion dance whenever the Chinese people celebrate an occasion, like the opening of a business concern, birthdays of Chinese Gods, New Years day and so on.

There are mainly two types of Lion Dance with their origin on the North and South of the 'Tai Change', therefore there is the Northern and Southern lion. The feature and the way the dance is performed are different. The drum and cymbals used are also different. The Northern type imitates the action of a real lion eg. in rolling on the floor, jumps and so on.

To perform well, the Southern type has to be very symmetrical in its movement of the head and body. It is important to show its behaviour. The dancers must have good foundation in martial art. Both the Northern and Southern type have the variation of the fierce and calm.

The calm type should show its tameness, gentle and playful character, while the fierce type should show that it is the King of the Jungle.

When the lion eats, it is called 'Plucking the Green' as it is usually that vegetables are placed together with a 'red packet' and placed in different ways for the lion. Skill is an important factor in the lion dance, it includes the tactical effort of the dancers and can be varied, the more difficult, the better the sill should. Sometimes, there are people who would hang the 'green' high up and the dancers have to climb up a pole, this is not an easy task as the dancer must be well trained and daring.

Master Iain Armstrong and members of the Nam Yang Lion Dancing teams - strong, disciplined and well trained

A good performance depends on the moral and mind, strength, artistic and co-operation of the team. In a performance, gaiety is added to join in whatever celebration; this includes colourful flags and so on. Movements of the lion must bring out the character of the lion.

Presently the Southern Lion comes with the following features:- The Rainbow coloured, the white faced, red faced and the black faced depicting the three heroes of the 'Three Kingdom' era.

1. Lieu Pei type - with yellow head, white hair, white eyebrow and white beard and the drawing of an eagle on its' head representing the gentle quality. The body is made of rainbow coloured cloth cut in triangular shapes with rabbit fur trimming. This is a tame lion.

2. Guano Gong type - This lion has a red face, black eyebrows, long beard, green nose and a purple horn. The body is of red, black, and green cloth cut into triangular shapes.

3. Zhang Gei type - This lion has a black face, black eyebrows, green nose, iron horn, red eyes and rugged ear. The body is of black and white triangular cloth. People called this the awakened lion.

Other types include the yellow multi-coloured, yellow middle line yellow black green and Chow Hoon Lian. These five categories described above are from the Fushan type. Another type of Southern lion is the Hesan, the difference in feature is mainly its head. The Hesan has a mouth like a duck's beak and the horn is rounded instead of pointed. Although there is a difference in the features, there it is not of separate sect.

A lion dancer should be artistic enough to use his mind in incorporating the action and movement so as to be able to bring out the characteristic of a lion. There are eight basic moods of the lion namely joy, angry, sad, happy, frightened, suspicious, greedy, inquisitive and mischievous. A dancer should be able to understand these moods and depict it in performing the dance. An instructor must always be available to guide the dancer in his training; otherwise he would not be able to know his mistake.

For a dance to be complete, the drums, gong and cymbals are as important. A drummer should always be attentive to the movement of the lion. A drummer group consists of a big drum, a gong, and five cymbals. The gong and cymbals follow the drummer. The mode of the drum, gong and cymbals are the rolling, fright, normal steps, 'half scissors', 'middle scissors', 'botMisae scissors', 'straight scissors', 'upper scissors', leap steps, seven segment, walking, climbing, running and fierce steps.

Leg movements of the lion dance include; cross legged straddle, single legged stand, over lapping jumps, cat stance (one foot flat on the ground the other on tip toe), tiger run (two legs close together in swift movements).

Body movements include fright, greed, washing ear with leg and waist movements. The dancers should also learn to interchange from the front to the back and also shoulder stand.

Patterns for lion dance performance can be basically listed as follows:-

1. Praying to the four directions
2. Lion coming out of the cave
3. Lion coming out of the jungle
4. Lion brisking under the moon
5. Lion taking his drink from the river
6. Lion crossing a bridge
7. Lion playing with the big headed Buddha
8. Lion playing with a ball
9. Lion climbing a mountain
10. Lion climbing up a stage & etc.

'Plucking the green' and fix formation:-

1. Basin with 'green'
2. Bridge with 'green'
3. Under the bridge
4. Plough and the moon
5. The poisonous snake
6. The five elements
7. Coconut 'green'
8. Inside the well
9. High type 'green'
10. Broken bridge 'green'
11. Centipede 'green'
12. Crab 'green'

Fixed Formations

1. Azure Dragon And White Tiger
2. Gold Ore Formation
3. Buddhist Heavenly Gate
4. Eight Trigram formation (Bagua)
5. Meet The Heroes Under The Moon
6. Buddhist Heavenly Gate With Three Joss Sticks
7. Confucious Lamp
8. The Eighteen Lohan
9. Snake Head With Scorpion Sting
10. TWin Dragon And The Pearl
11. Nine Segment Snake Formation

In 'plucking the green' the dancers must be able to distinguish the formation and prepare themselves for the dance. The poisonous snake for example is formed by placing a whole length of sugar cane on the floor and using two oranges to represent the eyes, and a red packed with vegetables on the front.

The lion must first use the different moods of fright, joy, sad, inquisitiveness and happiness in performing this set. Then using the feet to step on the sugar cane and breaking the oranges in sequence. This means that the lion will first blind the snake and when the snake is blinded, the lion will grab hold of the snake's head and slowly swallow the whole body (ie. The sugar cane), the dancers will then have to smash up the sugar cane into little bits. They would be doing all the smashing inside the lion. After that the lion will do the drunken steps and ends the dance by throwing the bits of sugar cane out of its mouth.

The formation of the eight trigrams have various versions using different things to form the trigrams. Oranges, joss-sticks and shaolin weapons are some of the examples. The dancers must have good knowledge of the eight trigrams. The lion should go around the formation and familiarize the cardinal points. In the end, only four cardinal points will be left.

There are some traditional rules in lion dancing that should be observed:

1. When a team happens to come across an association or a temple, they must apply the greeting drum beat as a respect for each other.

2. When a team meet another on its way, greetings must be exchanged in a form of a greeting card. The lion must not kick their legs or sweep the head and they should keep their mouth closed.

3. During Chinese festival seasons, there are always lion dance teams meeting a dragon dance team, the lion dance team should always show their respect, otherwise when the dragon attacks the lion by surrounding it, the dancers would have to be very skilful in order to jump clear of the dragon's hold.

The above articles are collections of materials from old masters and books written on this subject. It is our aim to promote the art of Lion Dancing to its limit and would like to research this further on this subject.

A translated article of
Mr. Tan Lian Hup.
Lion Dance Advisor, Nam Yang Kung Fu