Thank you for the story George. It reminds me of a show we did with firecrackers...

Similar story but no real antagonist. The poeple throwing firecrackers didn't know what to do and were also very scared of them. As a result, many packs ended under the lion and most of us got holes in pants from the firecrackers.

I had alot of fun. The sound and all really pumped us up and made for a great show. To top it off, the people throwing the firecrackers had decided to unwrap all the packs and lie them on the floor so it would be faster to throw. At the climax of our show, one of the people accidently dropped the incence onto the pile on the floor.

The result was a tremedous explosion perfectly on cue. All of us doing the show were amazed at how it was timed so well. When we later asked the people, they said it was an accident and, in fact, they all ran once they saw the incence drop :-) Needless to say, the crowd thought it was planned and loved it.

Stephen.

Great Picture Layton!!
Which one are you?

At 02:55 PM 9/21/96 -0700, you wrote:
>A question about Hawaii lion dance at wedding.....???? Is it true the lions
>that perform at wedding goes around to the tables for the greens(money).
>An if you do does the money go to the Lion Dance Club or the bride and groom????

It's really funny you shoul ask. In Hawaii, we've really got a mixed pot of ethnic backgrounds. We've got Filipino's, Japanese, and Chinese as well as a whole bunch of caucasions crowded onto these little islands. there are many mixed marriages and all kinds of mixed traditions. I don't think there is another place in the world where people feed the lions as much as they do in Hawaii. Whether it is wraped in a red laisee or not, people love to feed the lion with the belief that it will bring them good luck. Our club performs at two to three weddings every weekend and the average performance lasts about twenty minutes. We first pay respects to the bride and groom. They have the "Main Chang" which is the donation to our club. (We are non-profit so it is considered a donation.) Then we circle the table where the bride and groom's parents are sitting - always counterclockwise in order to trap the evil spirits. The parents will feed laisee and then our lions will make their way through the crowd back to the same door that they came in - of course, collecting money from the guests at the same time. Funny note: when its a rich Chinese party, there is very little money picked up. I think Japanese and Filipino parties feed the lions better. Vietnamese parties also love to feed the lions and often times with ten and twenty dollar bills. They also like to make us work hard though. I remember one time when they tied money to ballons and let the ballons float up to the ceiling. We were not happy at that. Sometimes, people don't realize that its fun and good luck to feed the lion, but on the other hand, if a lion dancer falls and hurts himself or breaks the lion head, it could mean bad luck too.

Anyway, sorry to drift, but to answer your question, the main laisee from the bride and groom goes to the club, and the other money picked up from the guests and parents go toward refreshments for the dancers after the performance. At leatst thats how it goes in our club. I'm not really sureof how the other Hawaii groups handle the money, but I know they don't give any money back to the bride and groom.

Sometimes, the bride and groom request that we not take money from the guests but in Hawaii, often times, the guests will be disappointed if they are denied the chance to feed the lions.

We also do the same thing at birthday parties and all kinds of other events. We have problems when we do parades because the parade organizers always yell at us because we go to slow. We can't help it if so many spectators want to feed the lion. After all, when a Chinese person sees money, he can't pass it up - its in our blood!

Good Question. Feel free to ask me more.

Hi peter,

you wrote:-Great performance (big improvements) by the Philippines as I expected 'coz they looked good in '95 (HK). They had the same idea as us doing the 180 degree jump on the steel ropes. They had the luxury of using their own prop which they were able to tighten the ropes to maximum tension. Important in doing jumps. Loose ropes is better (nicer) for just walking. We were using shared props and have less control over various things...rope tension for one (we made that jump though!).

I live in San Francisco and have never seen Lions walking on Steel ropes. How far apart are they and what distance do they have to walk?

I know a video will answer most of my questions. But I am amazed**** Thanks for the insights to the Lions new feats.

Is there any truth that the top Lion Dance schools in Malaysia are supported by oil barons? Can we call them semi pro.

And are the roots of the Japan team from China or Taiwan??

thanks

>I live in San Francisco and have never seen Lions walking on Steel ropes.
>How far apart are they and what distance do they have to walk?

Hi Layton,

Walking on steel ropes is a performance I believed to have been started or at least popularised by the Malaysian Kun Seng Keng troupe ('96 champion plus a whole lot of other winnings under their belt). In competition, there isn't a fixed construction of steel rope that one must perform on. However, the set up commonly used is 3m (~10 feet) in length, and the steel ropes are 2m high from the floor. The structure consists of two steel ropes which are parallel and 26 inches apart. The steel rope itself is 0.6 inch (does this make sense?!) in diameter, this is in turn mounted on steel poles with a pulley on one side to allow adjustment of tension. Getting the picture? Try and get a 94 or 95 world championship tape. There must be a few floating around. George from NZ has offered to get copies out to people, so you may be able to get one for yourself.

>Is there any truth that the top Lion Dance schools in Malaysia are
>supported by oil barons? Can we call them semi pro.

Due to their success in recent years, the Malaysian teams have been able to get good sponsorship from various people. However, I don't believe there is any truth in the oil barons part of the story. It is important to realise that doing lion dance in Asian countries is vastly different to that in the western world. Firstly, people in Asian countries truly believes in these sort of rituals - - bringing good luck, scare away evil spirits etc. However, this may not always be true in the western world. Sure, one still get migrants who are very superstitious, but often, it's more of a novelty or cultural show. As such, people are not willing to pay much. How much are you getting for a performance? The Malaysian troupe talks thousands of dollars (this is for a big performance. Japan is again in a different league, the Japan team charge a phenomenal amount, but the society structure, standard of living is different!). Secondly, most associations there have "honorary" presidents, whose job is to do not much apart from giving money to support the association. In return, these people get to boast that they are "honorary" president of such and such kung fu school, which works well both ways. I guess you can call these "sponsorships" by rich people. Anyway, these are some ways in which they get their funds from. As to being semi-pro, again many people think so, but I can't say I agree to that. How would you classify semi-pro? Getting paid any amount of money? Or getting paid reasonable amount? I would have thought to call them semi-pro, they'd have to get reasonable amout of money from lion dancing. They do get paid some bonuses, but these money would not come close to allow them to be able to live on it. They all have other jobs as far as I know.

>And are the roots of the Japan team from China or Taiwan??

The Japanese teams comprise of many overseas Chinese and a number of Japanese. I think it would be safe to say that more of these overseas Chinese came from Taiwan.

Good luck in your lion dancing!

Peter