Hi

My name is Thuc Le.I'm Vietnamese, I live in Oregon. I very interested in Lion Dance. My group started about 1 year ago, we have two lion heads but we don't a Little Buddha. We don't know where to find it. I'm sure you know where to buy them. I really wish to hear from you soon.

Thank you

i am an ex member of my college lion dance troupe.i have since left the college but i wish to continue to learn the art.nice to meet u

junyi,singapore

> My name is Thuc Le.I'm Vietnamese, I live in Oregon. I very interested
> in Lion Dance. My group started about 1 year ago, we have two lion heads
> but we don't a Little Buddha. We don't know where to find it. I'm sure
> you know where to buy them. I really wish to hear from you soon.

Hi Thuc,

Welcome to the list. It's been real quiet on this list so I don't know what kind of response you will get.

(Hey all of you. Chinese New Year is coming up. What kind of shows are going on?)

I don't have an answer for you about the buddha in Oregon but most "Chinatowns" carry them. It's just a big paper mache head and you wear some traditional clothing.

>From San Francisco,

Brendan Lai's Supply Co.
2075 Mission St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 626-8850

or

Clarion Music Company or White Crane Martial Arts supplies.

(I don't have numbers for these places. Anyone out there have it?)

I can't say they sell the stuff or if you can mail order it but they are good guesses.

Stephen.

> i am an ex member of my college lion dance troupe.i have since left the
> college but i wish to continue to learn the art.nice to meet u

Hello Junyi,

welcome to the list. It's been quiet lately but hopefully it will pick up again. Singapore should be a good place to learn lion dance. Good luck in your studies.

Stephen.

You might also try Darwell Import on 25th Street in San Francisco.

Welcome!

Sherman

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 12:15:25 -0800
From: "Son H. Kim"
Subject: Looking for lion dance troops in SF and NY

Hello,

I just found your site through Yahoo and wanted to send out a message to lion dancer on your mailing list. I am looking for lion dance troops to perform at our launch parties in SF and NY. Could you please send this out to the Lion Dance mailing list?

Thank you!
Son H. Kim
Channel A
-----------------------------------------------

I am looking for lion dance troops to perform at Channel A launch Parties in San Francisco and New York.

Channel A is an award-winning Web site for Asian-related topics. The parties are on Feb 13th at the Asian Arts Museum in San Francisco and Feb 26th at the Information Technology Center in NY. We are expecting about 650 community & business leaders, celebrities, media and hi-tech people at each of the parties.

Please let me know if you know of any troops that would be interested in performing either in SF, NY or both. Call me at 415-948-3252 or e-mail me at son@channelA.com.

Thank you!
Son H. Kim
Marketing Assistant
Channel A

415-948-3252
son@channelA.com

www.channelA.com

Hi everyone!

My name is J. Minh Nguyen, I'm 23 years old, and I've been involved in Lion Dancing for about 7 years. I'm a member of J.K. Wong Kungfu Tai Chi Academy which is a subcorporation of America Chin Woo Athletic Association. We mainly perform around the Dallas, TX area (in the U.S.). We do mainly Southern Lion (Fat Sun, Hok Sun, Fat Hok Lions) although my Sifu just bought a pair of Northern Lions last December.

Back in January of 1995, I went to Hong Kong to participate in the World Lion Dance Championship. I saw some incredible Lion Dance performances there. In May of that year, we sponsored Pasukan Tarian Singa Kun Seng Keng in their first tour in America. Kun Seng Keng was the 1992 Hong Kong International Lion Dance Champions and the 1994 World Champions of the World Malaysia Lion Dance Competition (organized by Genting Highland Resort).

Although I've been participating in Lion Dance performances for 7 years, my knowledge on it is limited to what I've done and seen. I hope to learn more from this mailing list. Thanks for having me on the list. I look forward to reading and hopefully engaging in some interesting conversations/discussions.

J. Minh Nguyen

Black Sash Society member, J.K. Wong Kungfu Tai Chi Academy
Vice President, Chin Woo Martial Arts Club
Senior, School of Arts & Humanities
Bachelor of Science, Business Administration
The University of Texas at Dallas
minh@
http://www.utdallas.edu/~minh/ (Lion Dance photos in my homepage)

Welcome Minh,

I saw your web page. I liked the pictures. The list has been pretty quiet lately but maybe you can stir up some conversations.

My Si-Sook is in Dallas and teaches Lion Dance and Hung Gar. I can't remember the name of the school but his name is Sifu Gobert Yeung.

> Back in January of 1995, I went to Hong Kong to participate in the World
> Lion Dance Championship. I saw some incredible Lion Dance performances
> there. In May of that year, we sponsored Pasukan Tarian Singa Kun Seng
> Keng in their first tour in America. Kun Seng Keng was the 1992 Hong Kong
> International Lion Dance Champions and the 1994 World Champions of the
> World Malaysia Lion Dance Competition (organized by Genting Highland
> Resort).

This sounds great. The Malaysian Lion Dancers are great. Please share some of your experiences from the Hong Kong competition. Did your school perform? I think I have this on tape. I'll have to check.

> Although I've been participating in Lion Dance performances for 7 years, my
> knowledge on it is limited to what I've done and seen. I hope to learn
> more from this mailing list. Thanks for having me on the list. I look
> forward to reading and hopefully engaging in some interesting
> conversations/discussions.

We hope we can help. You'll find this list has some very experienced lion dancers but they all consider themselves beginners. Myself, I'm truely a beginner having only done it for a couple of years.

Stephen Chew

Hi everybody,

The following is a story that I wrote for the campus paper (The UTD Mercury, February 6, 1995 issue) about my trip to Hong Kong for the 1995 International Lion Dance Championships. I am retyping this by hand, so please forgive any typos that may occur. Hope you enjoy.

J. Minh Nguyen

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"UTD student travels to Hong Kong for an experience of a lifetime"

by J. Minh Nguyen
Layout Editor

Did the last issue look a little different? Maybe a little better? Well that was because Suzy Soo took hold of the layout reigns for me while I went on a trip to Hong Kong.

America Chin Woo Athletic Association was invited to represent the United States by the Hong Kong Urban Lion Dance Council at the 1995 International Lion Dance Championships in Hong Kong. The tournament began on Friday, Jan. 20 and ended Monday, Jan. 23. The US Lion Dance team included Michael Reighard (lion head), Bee Dao (lion tail), Jennifer Wabin (drummer), Heidi He, Angela Shu, Dinh Wong, David Chien, Krystina Pham (cymbal players), Richard Matteson (flag bearer), Wilson Chan (team manager), and myself (gong player). Our teacher, Sifu Jimmy Wong, also went, but he was a judge, not part of the team.

The team left for Hong Kong Wednesday morning. After seventeen hours of flight, we arrived in Taipei and checked into the Baguio Hotel.

The next day, we flew to Hong Kong, and a tournament representative took us to the B P International House in Kowloon. Michael and Bee went to the training grounds to try a few simple jumps to see if Michael's foot had healed (he injured it earlier that week while preparing for the tournament). We were bussed that evening to the opening banquet. Sifu Wong was officially certified as an international lion dance and dragon dance judge. He was the only judge from America. We met Mr. Siou from Malaysia, who was the trainer of the 1994 World lion Dance Champion.

The next morning, everyone got up at 7:30 and went for a quick breakfast before going to the training ground so that Michael and Bee could rehearse their routine.

We set up the stilts and went through the show a couple of times. But when Michael fell off the stilts and aggravated his injured foot, he could barely walk. The tournament would begin in a few hours, and we did not know what we were going to do without Michael. Sifu Wong was in a meeting, so we could not consult him. Several officials tried to fix Michael's foot. Unfortunately, it did not help. We left the training ground without any idea of what to do for the competition.

Bee told Michael that we should just do a courtesy floor show without any stilts or dangerous jumps to let the other competitors know that we still had the spirit, even though we could not compete. Michael stubbornly refused and wanted us to trust him. He claimed that he could still do the show, but we were concerned that he might injure himself even more severely. Besides, this competition was not as important as the shows we would be doing in celebration of the Lunar New Year at home.

The competition rolled around. We prepared ourselves and set up the stilts. I was anticipating disaster but nervously hoped that we would succeed. We were all told to keep our eyes on the drum so that we would not become distracted.

The next ten minutes was a blur. I remember the tension, anxiety, and nervous sweat as we marched out in front of the judges, bowed, and picked up our instruments. Jennifer began to bang on the pig-skinned drum, and we were off!

I concentrated on the drumming, worried that Michael might fall at any moment. The next thing I knew, the drumming stopped ... I did not want to look up. Did they fall? Would I see a crowd forming around two motionless bodies on the ground? I slowly looked up--and it was over!

Michael and Bee did the show without falling over or injuring themselves. We were so happy and relieved. Wilson later told us that he had tears in his eyes. Sifu Wong told us that he was thinking, "Just don't fall...just don't fall." He showed us his hands, and they were cold as ice!

We then watched the evening portion of the tournament. The team from Singapore put on an awesome show with high stilts, benches, and a balance beam. The two Malaysian teams were equally spectacular. Unfortunately, the Brunei team fell off their stilts at the height of their performance, and the tail was seriously injured.

The finalists who would compete in Sunday's extravaganza were then announced. We did not make it into the finals, but I was satisfied that we were able to put our best foot (injured or otherwise) forward. It was now time to relax and do some shopping!

Sifu Wong took us out to eat. Afterward, Wilson showed us around Hong Kong which is where he grew up. He took us to Temple Street, which is a night time shopping district. It is famous because it used to be a seedy place where prostitutes hung out. It has since cleaned up its act. I finally got to experience some of the night-life. It was a little different from the day time; there were still a lot of people around, but there was not as many cars in the streets trying to run us over, and the noise level was a bit subdued.

The next morning, I woke up to Wilson's phone call. After breakfast, we split up into several groups and explored the streets of Hong Kong. I found several trinkets of interest and some Japanese CDs. I noticed that all the toys were Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, and Slam Dunk related merchandise, from watches to toys to comics to backpacks to clothes.

We saw a Hong Kong newspaper, and it contained photos of our team as the lion perched on the top stilt. The caption read, "Even the American team showed spirit."

Richard, David, and I wandered into an arcade. We spent the next hour trying out many of the games in there.

That night, we went back to the coliseum to see the finals, which was recorded for videotape release. There were over a thousand people in attendance. Although we were not competing, we could still feel the tension in the air.

The first team to compete was the Austrailian team. They fell off their stilts, but luckily they were not hurt. Next all three Hong Kong teams competed. They were followed by the Chinese team. One Malaysian team went up, but they fell off their stilts. The Singapore team performed next, and they dazzled the crowd with their gravity-defying jumps and leaps. The last team to compete was the other Malaysian team. This was Mr. Siou's team, and I was sure they would win. Their show was spectacular; they seemed to be flying at times.

Before the winners were announced, we were treated to a performance from a Chinese team who performed in a Northern Lion, which was shaggy compared to the Southern Lions in the competition. The Northern Lions did a slew of tricks including flips and seemingly impossible leaps. I was astonished later to find that the performers were in their thirties! When I saw the level of skill that they had achieved and maintained, I realized that it was possible to do anything at any age. (Don't worry. I'm not saying thirty is old!!)

The judges announced one of the Hong Kong teams as the winner. I thought that the Singapore team or Mr. Siou's team should have won, but I later realized that they did have a few minor mistakes in their show. It did not really matter because I knew that Mr. Siou and his Lion Dance Troupe was going to coming to Dallas in the summer, and we would all be in for an awesome treat then.

The next day was a shopping day for us. Among the crowds and the car dodgings and dirty streets, we managed to procure a few gifts and personal items.

That night, there was a closing banquet at the same restaurant. Every team went up on stage and sang a song for the crowd's enjoyment. None of the guys from our team knew how to sing anything, so the girls came to our rescue and sung a song from Miss Saigon while all the other teams sent photographers to capture the girls in the only way they could ... on film.

After the banquet, several members of the team went for a walkabout, and we saw the latest Jackie Chan film, Rumble in the Bronx. When the movie ended, we left the theater and entered into the smoggy air outside. I realized that Hong Kong was a wonderful place to visit but that I would not want to live there.

The next morning, we left Hong Kong for Taipei and then returned to the States.

I have learned several things from this trip. (Oh no, epiphany time!) First, when in a foreign country, sometimes you don't want to look left before crossing a street. Second, the pedestrian does not always have the right of way in a foreign country. Most importantly, I learned about the value of being a team. When we performed at the competition, nothing else mattered. We set aside all our prejudices and put our hearts and soul into it. At that moment, we merged into a single entity.

Hi Layton and everyone,

I believe Singapore was one of the runner ups. I'm quite sure that in the 1995 tournament, one of the HK teams won. That's what was announced at the tournament. I'm not sure which, though. If memory serves (& it is fallable), there were three teams from HK, two Malaysian teams, one team from Australia, one from U.K., the U.S. team, one China team, a Japan team, and possibly a Phillipino team (not too sure about this last one). I'm sure there were more, though. Just can't recall.

Minh

Minh,

Was there another tournament just last month in HK again.. If my report is right from the chinese news paper... Singapore won and other HK teams. Anyone have any other details????

I am looking for videotapes of the performances at the World Championships in Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Can anyone help me locate some?

Thank you,

John Gallagher

Hello everybody,

Having been awfully busy for quite a while (still am), has hindered my active participation here on the list. I hope to be able to engage more henceforward.

Some Lion Dance performers that I have seen (mainly from Singapore and HK) seem to have an almost magical ligthness, also when performing routines on the ground (i.e. when not jumping on the stilts). The effortlessness with which they dance is very impressive and, IMHO, contributes a lot to the impression of animal-like grace. The moves are in spite of their lightness not at all sloppy, but on the contrary extremely solid and crisp. As everybody who has trained Lion Dance will have sensed, this isn't something that comes automatically just with taking on the Lion costume, but rather a skill that has to be painstakingly cultivated. Now, I wonder, would anybody on the list be willing to share with me some training methods that you use to develop this ability? In our club we try to train this aspect. Apart from ordinary leg strengthening exercises (squats and the like), we do different stepping and moving in very low positions, as well as various jumping into, in and out of a low ma bu-position. However, I feel that I am lacking in training methods on this kind. Of course the different stance work and the jumping onto the stilts do strengthen the legs, as does the Kung Fu training, but I am looking for more "isolated" exercises, designed to increase the Lion dancers "springyness" and agility. It would be fun to be able to vary this part of the training a bit more. I am really looking forward to any reply!

Best Wishes

Pontus

Hey guys,

As for training methods, I can try to explain some of the original beginner level methods that I used. When I first started, I had a heck of a time trying to hold up the lion head. I always got tired after about five minutes. So to build up some strength and dexterity in holding the head, I would walk around the house with two telephone books, one in each hand and keep my arms outstretched as if I were holding the head. After about a month, I began to feel more comfortable in handling the head, instead of letting the head handle me. But it's still nice to think that the spirit of the lion is in you. (=

As for jumping and developing lightfoot, there's not really any shortcut. Just keep training and training, and it'll come. With your partner on the stilts, benches, pots, etc. jump, fall. Jump, fall. Then one day, when you two jump ... Wow, you haven't fallen! Now try it with the lion on. Jump, fall. Jump, fall. Jump, fall. Then one day ... Blam! You bite it real bad. Don't give up. Try again. And finally one day ... You're up!

That's basically the nitty gritty. Nothing really special that we do.

J. Minh Nguyen