>Am trying to find the relationship between traditional lion dances and the
>popular practise of "painting in the eyes of a lion" at significant events
>(Hong Kong hotel openings, etc.). The latter "painting in eyes" is a known
>Japanese practise associated with Daruma...but what the relationship is
>with Chinese lions before a Chinese lion dance, I remain unsure of. There is a
>Chinese tale of a painter of unsurpassed talent who made a dragon come alive
>when he painted in the eyes. Could this be the point of evolution? It would
>tie in with the notion of the "sleeping" lion being awoken at the beginning of
>the dance. Any help much appreciated; am involved in a research project for a
>little handbook I am writing for Oxford U. Press' "Images of Asia" series on
>Chinese New Year customs and this is proving a stumbling block.

There was a lion dance seminar held July 13 and 14 in Sunnyvale, California at the Wing Lam Gung Fu School. The instructor was Sifu Gobert Yeung, and the topics covered were lion dance terminology and Hung Ga lion dancing and drumming. How did those who attended feel about the topics covered and what they learned?

> From: Corey Chan
> There was a lion dance seminar held July 13 and 14 in Sunnyvale, California
> at the Wing Lam Gung Fu School. The instructor was Sifu Gobert Yeung, and
> the topics covered were lion dance terminology and Hung Ga lion dancing and
> drumming. How did those who attended feel about the topics covered and what
> they learned?

Unfortunately, most of the attendees are not on this email list. I was pleased that a few did attend. I'll let them Identify themselves if they care to.

As one of the organizers (though Juff Hung did almost all of the work) I was very pleased with both the content and participation of the seminar. Our number was goal was to bring our Si-Sook (Sifu Gobert Yeung) to Mountain View in order to move our team up a level. This goal was accomplished.

Our second goal was to open the forum to other lion dancers in the area so we could share ideas and generally increase the knowledge and traditions of Southern lion dance. We did a poor job of advertising outside but do appreciate the support we received from this list. I also believe we achieved this goal in a small way.

Following is a high level summary of the Seminar.

The Seminar started late because Si-Sook's plane was delayed. This was a blessing in disguise as it allowed the people to mingle and meet each other. We had 16 people attend in total though some only made it for one of the 2 days.

The seminar started with a brief history from Si-Sook. He spoke of his training in Hong Kong and some of the things he has done both in SF and Dallas. Maybe others can fillin some details here. He is strictly a Hung Gar practioner.

Next we went into the different drum beats. In a future email I will list the names and usage of the beats. He has "patented" a naming convention for the beats to make them easy to name and hand signals to use to conduct a show. As a class we decided that we wanted to see how the beats tied into the head movements so he went on that way. He spoke of some training aids he had developed and how to train new students so they can remember and have some consistency.

Every class of beats has it's purpose and associated movements. It was good to see how it all fits. Sometimes we just feel when movements work with certain beats but knowing this information is invaluable for co-ordinating lion and music.

The basics pretty much took all of day one.

Day two was the same with more detail in variations and advance patterns. I won't go into all the patterns but it was very informative. HE set up scenarios and asked the class what would we do to address them. For example, you are walking by and noticed that a restaurant not on your plan put up a chang for you. How do you signal the team and what do you do?

Intersperse through the seminar were a multitude of stories and examples. Si-sook is truely a lion dance resource and I wished more of you had a chance to attend. He is also a very experienced drummer and showed us some (to me) truely remarkable drumming. Realize that he he was doing this only for examples. I would love to see/hear him drum for a real show.

That's a summary of the seminar. Whew that was longer than I wanted. some of you have asked if we will do the seminar again. It depends on our Team. We need to show Si-Sook that we have progressed to the point he wanted us to go to during this seminar. Otherwise, it's a waste of his time to come out. He didn't do theseminar to make money. We feel we can do it.

The next seminar will start where this ended. If we open it up to those who didn't attend this one, we would have to work out something to get people up to speed. (not impossible) Our estimated time is in November before Thanksgiving. Disclaimer: This one may not be available to people who did not attend the first one.

Also, some have asked if there is a video version. Again, as Si-Sook's purpose is to grow our team and not to create a money making enterprise, he was not comfortable with any taping of his instruction. He is concerned that the teaching will get spead to wide and watered down. He is only marginally comfortable with us teaching others who did not get the full scoop from him.

Feel free to ask specifc questions though.

Stephen.

Hey whats up everyone here is my permemnet screename Crazyguy1@, please send me all the mail that i missed, You to COREY CHAN!!

Hey all you lion dancing fans!

Sherman Wong here from Honolulu, Hawaii. I've been a lion dancing member of the Chinese Physical Culture Association in Hawaii for over 18 years. I started when I was six years old. I was the first "little drummer boy" in Hawaii(my Mom carried a stool to all the performances so I could reach the drum.) I'm 24 and an assistant instructor in the club which is the oldest one of its kind in Hawaii. We are celebrating this year our 63rd anniversary. We are known in Chinese as Jeng Moo Tai Yuk Oui (Ching Wu in Mandarin) Our Kung Fu styles are very diverse. We have original stuff originating from Siu Lum and the original Jeng Moo school in Shanghai. We also have a professor whose studied various northern systems as well as southern. He even knows some Moslem styles. The Jeng Moo school is one that has expanded throughout many areas in Southeast Asia and China. In Hawaii, we do mostly the Southern Lion Dance. Our club also does the Unicorn (Kee Lun) and the Northern lion too. However, we don't do the Northern too often because its so HOT in Hawaii.

Some interesting notes about our Lions:
Since we are the oldest club in Hawaii, we have the right to play the eldest lions. This is where the significance of color comes in. Our lions should always have white fur. The younger clubs use black fur. Also the colorful (rainbow tailed) lion is only played by the eldest club. Here in Hawaii there are three original lion dance schools. We are the oldest, Lung Kong Kung Shaw is the next oldest, and Kuo Min Tang(KMT) is the third. KMT's lions always have the black fur. In the begining, the founders of the other two clubs all originated from our club. These clubs broke away from CPCA because, as typical Chinese history goes, Chinese guys like to argue with each other. Today, though, the three clubs still play together as brothers in various new years and other special occassions. There is an understood protocal that the eldest club is always in the center and always leads. I don't know if the lion dance clubs respect each other in your cities the same way.

Also interesting about our club is the fact the Dr. Hu was a member of our club when he lived in Hawaii. He was a very studious person and a fine teacher. He also mentions us in a few pages towards the end of the Lion Dance Explained book.

I also know of a good place in San Fran to get decent looking Lions at a pretty good Price. If you ever heard of Darwell Imports on 25th Ave (I think) talk to Corine Lai. She usually brings in a whole container load in the later part of the year. Tell her I referred you. They have the boring Fatsan heads but they also have a line of "Neon" Fatsan Heads. Check out some of the pictures on the CPCA Homepage and look at the Black and Green lion and also the Red lion. Those were from the Darwell Neon line. We slightly changed the tail and fur but they look pretty good "as is".

Wassup, I just wanted to say "Hi" to everybody that does Lion Dance and Martial Arts of Any kind. I gonna get you guys a brief description of myself.

I'm 18 years old and I come from New York. I belong to a Athletic Association that is call Hung Ching, They are also called The Chinese Freemasons. I'm have been with that club about 5 or 6 years. Our clubs kung fu is mostly Southern Mantis.

I have to go to school now... Talk to people laters.........

BYE

> From: Joseph Lam
> I belong to a Athletic Association that is call Hung Ching, They are also
> called The Chinese Freemasons.
> I'm have been with that club about 5 or 6 years. Our clubs kung fu is
> mostly Southern Mantis.

Hi Joe,

welcome to the list. Is your lion dance based on the Mantis style or is only the Kung Fu. I ask because we had a Mantis style sifu visit our school and showed us his lion dance. Same basics but more jumping and bouncing around. (similar to the style's stances and compared to our Hung Gar style lion.)

Whatcan you tell us about Mantis Lion Dance.

Stephen.

Joseph Lam wrote:
>Thanks, We have two different style that we use for lion dance. One of
>them is really Kung-Fu Style and the other one is Hung Gar Style of Lion
>Dance. I seen a Mantis Style lion dance before but it really don't look
>so good. Sorry, I can't tell you much on mantis style lion dance.

I assume when you say one is Kung-Fu style you mean Mantis Style as Hung Gar is primarily a Kung Fu style :-) Is that what you meant?

The traditional Hung Gar style lion dance is very Kung Fu oriented. As opposed to the going trend of lion dance that is "Southern Lion in the Northern Style." This is where you see a lot of running, tail shaking and high stances instead of low stances and powerful head movements.

After saying that, I'd like to hear how other folks on the list would describe different styles of lion dance. Most lion dances I see today are a combination of both styles with an emphasis on one or the other. Realize also, that I've been playing lion dance for less then a year and don't really have the nuances down.

A question for anyone. Does your lion dance have any identifiers? Things that mark your style? We just learned that 3 things mark a traditional Hung Gar lion dance.

The Hoi Jong - a short Form of Kung Fu moves done before getting into the Lion.
Triangle Step - a pattern that goes left, right, center in a triangle shape.
Starting Beat - we start our low dance with click-dum-dum, click-dum-dum. (we really need to get a email way of describing beats.) Click is hitting the side and dum is hitting the center.

Stephen.

Since we're on the topic of style, I'd like to mention that the style my school practices generally includes four sections. First is the bow to three sides accompanied by a drum roll (not just a drum roll but for the sake of reading e-mail, that's what it basically is). The second is called "dai gooi" in cantonese. This is when the head is raised and both head and tail walk in a steady almost up right position. The head is looking downwards and left and right at the same time. The third section is when the head is rested on the back of the head person and here is where the eyes are incorporated into a lion "dance." The fourth section is the finale. This is hard to explain so all I'll say is that it consists of 3 head thrusts upward, a leap, a lion scratch, and a final thrust standing on one leg. I hope my fellow lion dancers out there can take some time to talk about their styles as well.

Welcome new guy Sherman:

You wrote:In Hawaii, we do mostly the Southern Lion Dance. Our club also does the Unicorn (Kee Lun) and the Northern lion too. However, we don't do the Northern too often because its so HOT in Hawaii.

Can you still get Unicorns made or is this an old fellow? What is the dance like and is anyone else still doing it.. I've just seen it once , but never performed... Does the unicorn have the same traditions as the lion. I guess Dr. Hu's book must have the answers but this(e-mail) method of research is a lot more interesting.

Over 20 years ago I got to go to Hawaii for the first time to Perform with my teacher(Lai Hung). We were invited by a Sifu Jey Tong( spelling?). He was a Choy Lei Fut and White Crane teacher. He invited a Grandmaster from HK to come to Hawaii to perform.. His name was Hong Lau.( I think he was 75 or eighty at the time) He is gone now. But I always wonder is Sifu Jey Tong is still active?? Any Idea if he is still active. Sifu Tong had relative or an uncle who had a herb shop in Chinatown...

Anyone see the pictures of the White lion's use for Quan Duck Hing funeral. He was the Wong Fei Hung of the from the old chinese black and white movies and tv. He passed away a few months ago. He was over 90.

layton

Hi, I'm wondering if there are any lion dance contest coming up. If you know any that's near New York, please let me know. Laters

Joseph Lam
Hung Ching Athletic Association