i have enjoyed you pictures and the infomation that is on the page. Would you have infomation on where to buy lion equipment such as lions with matching pants and instruments?If so could you send me a message if not it would be good to talk with fellow lion dancers.

Hi Layton!

[1]. Sticks that I use.

:) You are very observant. I used 5A / 5B drumsticks in these pictures, and actually in most of my performances. This is because of a few reasons:

- Traditional "short stub" sticks are hard to find in Atlanta;
- Since the drum(s) is/are shared among a few people & is available for check-out, our earlier supply of Short Stubs depleted very quickly. (little children & fascinated adults love to taken them away)
- Since I play both the cymbals and drum simultaneously, I need sticks that are quick, long-reach and highly durable. [see Topic#2 below on cymbals]
- Short Stubs have not been as "fun to play" for me. They seem to use more of a finger-squeezing, whole-arm movement which is neither familiar to me (I played a lot of symphonic, marching and set drumming) nor did it help me with creativity; longer sticks almost gave me more time to recover missed beats and do last second improvisation (more like "last FRACTION of a second.") But yeah, I am fully aware that Short Stubs look more authentic, and give better physical appearance during performance. =)

[2]. Cymbals.

I play cymbals very differently from other traditional performers:
o I do play the cymbals myself.
o I do use a pair of cymbals -- one Chinaboy, one splash.

This is because:
- I rather not work with some cymbal players that I have seen in the past: no rhythm, no creativity, does not show up on time, did not dress for performance, no showmanship (facial expression, body language, professional courtesy with client/audience), too much enthusiasm (show-off, constantly want to bang the drums to impress friends, criticize my playing), not always available...

For one person, things are much much simpler! *sigh* I wish I can find a good, dedicated, mature and creative fellow musician though. :)

p.s., one fewer person to take usually means one less person to drive to shows, one less to hold up schedule, and one less to split the pot of gold. ;D ;D

- Once again, there is no Chinese music store that I am aware of in Atlanta, so I did not get a 100% authentic cymbal. The Chinaboy came pretty close as far as sound quality is concerned. Plus, as result of the previous statment, the only way for one person to do both instruments is to hang them on a stand; authentic cymbals do not have "hanging holes" in the middle.

[3]. Drumming Style.

My music training did not come from Taiwan. I played & resided in U.S. for the past 15 years. However, this should not (I hope) discredit my playing style. My current collection of riffs and transitions and solos are difinitely from what I heard from numerous sources. So I intentionally do something a little different each time -- sometimes fast + exciting + upbeat, sometimes grand + cautious + deep, other times creative + solo-show + improvisational.

I wish I had a chance to see you folks perform! I enjoy learning from other fellow performers. To me, it is critical for mature drummers to recognize and admit that everyone has something to learn, and no one has reached the highest level of musician-hood in a vaccum. Please keep me posted where you guys are going and what you plan to play! In fact, do you have video tapes, cassette tapes, CDs or music sheets that you would not mind sharing with me?

*whew!* I surely said a lot. I hope you don't mind; I love drums! Stay in touch.

layton wrote:
> Hi Mr. Lin
>
> I am on the Lion Dance list. I have a troupe of drummers in San Francisco.
>
> I saw your web page and was interested in the type of drum sticks you use
> and the cymbals in the western style. Are your lion drum beats from
> Taiwan( Liang Guang). ?
>
> Or do you also do solo Chinese Drumming???
>
> Two years ago a part of my team went to Atlanta Georgia to perform in the
> Martin Luther King parade. Did you hear about them or know anyone who
> has? I heard it was storming during the parade and rained a lot.

Hi Nick!

Thanks a bunch for the compliment. :) I do want to quickly add more pictures into my webpage -- including the 40+ pictures that I took during the Chinese New Year 1997, and my performances in 1996 Olympics & Paralympics.

Source for costume: In Atlanta, the set of lion costume was sent here as a gift from the overseas government (note: I did not need to say China or Taiwan or Hong Kong.) It is already in their national budget (I think) to promote Asian culture, so they should be more than willing to work out some arrangement to sell/give some to you. (Same for drum & cymbals, too.)

Of course, the goverment needs to make sure this is not going someone's personal gains, or someone's attic. Therefore, it should be VERY helpful to have an organized entity. For us in Atlanta, USA, it is called "Chinese Cultural Center". It is the largest non-religious gathering place for all Asians. (The overall largest gathering place for Chinese people is Atlanta Chinese Christian Church, http://www.accc.org, where I am both the webmaster and main drummer.) So just as a reminder, goverment funding needs good proposals! I am sure you will agree that if the equipment comes free, then some proposal-writing is a good investment of time.

p.s., In Taiwan, "Wai-Jiao-Boo" (translates to: external diplomacy ministry) or "Jiao-Yu-Boo" (translates to: education ministry) are great starting points.

Stay in touch. :)

Nick Brown wrote:
> i have enjoyed you pictures and the infomation that is on the page. Would
> you have infomation on where to buy lion equipment such as lions with
> matching pants and instruments?If so could you send me a message if not it
> would be good to talk with fellow lion dancers.

In a message dated 97-05-01 09:34:01 EDT, larry@ (Larry S. Lin) writes:
>p.s., In Taiwan, "Wai-Jiao-Boo" (translates to: external
>diplomacy ministry) or "Jiao-Yu-Boo" (translates to: education
>ministry) are great starting points.

Would you happen to have contact information for the above organizations??

The Hammond Museum in North Salem NY is presenting a Lion Dance from Fujian on Sunday June 29th around PM. Can you help us get the word out? abigail @ hammond. Hammond Museum. Box 326. Deveau Road. North Salem, New York. (914) 669 5033.

There have been a lot of people asking about where to buy lions with matching pants. If you buy your lions direct from the factories, you can get pants to match any variety of colored lions you want. The factories are all over the place like HK, Singapore, Malaysia, Macau, and China-Foshan. The cheapest place would be from Foshan and they've been pretty good about matching the colors we specify. Here a trick. The Foshan factory claims they can follow a color scheme from a photograph almost exactly (about 90%). If you have pictures of nice HK of Malaysian heads, you can send them those pictures. What I do for our club is scan a photo of a lion into photoshop and modify the colors to whatever we want to order. I was pretty amazed how the lions came out. We even specify the type of fur on the lion head and also what kind of tail (our club always orders the long sausage-like animal fur tail). Of course you also have to specify the size lion. Most adlt lions are number 2 - 1 being the largest. Usually, 1, 2, and 3 are all the same price but shipping costs will vary. When you order the pants, you need to give them an outer seam dimension and waist size. They also have shoes if you want them. You'll need to specify your shoe size in centimeters. Most importantly, you'll have to order all this in Chinese. The Foshan factory even has a FAX but it needs to be turned on manually so you have to tell the guy who answers the phone to turn on the machine and then you press the start button. Also, the phone is shared by a whole bunch of people so only certain times of the day will you get the right person who can help you with the lion ordering and have access to the fax machine. I think the last time I Faxed orders, I called when it was about 2:30 AM in China.

Anyway, thats the cheapest way to go. They're also very quick because this factory is huge like a football field. All the other factories in HK, Singapore, Malaysia, Macau, are "hole-in-the-wall" operations. The China factory is continually producing lion heads so as soon as you specify the color, they can paint it in a week. Other companies don't usually have unpainted heads waiting to be painted. They are usually made to order.

I have the phone and fax number if anyone is interested - but I've got to go dig it up. If you want it, let me know.

--Sherman

On Tue, 6 May 1997, Sherman Wong wrote:
> There have been a lot of people asking about where to buy lions with
[snip]
> I have the phone and fax number if anyone is interested - but I've got
> to go dig it up. If you want it, let me know.

The info would be very helpful, a lot of people ask me for it.

TIA,

Greets, happy dancing!

Rob Teng

Here it is.

Address for the Foshan factory. They make lions, Cheelins, northern lions, dragons, and instruments. Pretty cheap too.

Foshan Musical Instrument Art Factory
Qing gong 3rd Road Foshan
Guangdong China

Phone numbers below show (country code)-(area code)-(PH. number)

Phone- Call there about 8:00 to 8:30AM China time. You might also be able to speak to someone at the fax number. 86-757-2210602

Fax- We got through the fax at around 2:30AM China time. Someone will pick the phone up so you have to tell him to start the fax machine. 86-757-2210690

Good luck. Phone lines in China are sometimes difficult to get through so don't get frustrated, just keep trying.

MAHALO,

Sherman

Does anyone know of other factories that make good quality lions other than Foshan Lion? Also how do they size the lion head and tail size?

There are several factories in HK that we've gotten pretty good stuff. Don't misunderstand me, the lion heads from China are not always that strong and durable. If you want really strong lions, I here the Malaysian ones are strong. The China ones are just cheap - the quality may not be very good.

Lion heads come in nine sizes. "1" is the largest. "2" is the most commonly used. "3" and "4" are about the right size for kids in their early teens. Then "5", I think, is the smaller ones for kids - the ones without the grab bars. I think "9" is like a hand puppet size. Anyway, the factories can "customize" your lions. You can pick the colors and type of fur and length of tail. Ordering through HK, we usually orders tails of 8-foot and 10-foot lengths. In most places though, it might be safer to specify the length in meters. The length depends on your style of playing. The acrobatic type of Malaysian lion dancing uses tails as short as 5 or 6 feet. In Hawaii, the lions have typically 10 foot tails. These lions are very versatile, they can be played on stage, in restaurants, and on the streets. Playing on the streets with fireworks is usually better with the longer tail because the tail is used to sheild the tails player from fireworks popping in his face.

Aloha

Sherman

Hi everyone. I'm looking for Tobias who subscribed to this list. Anyone know of his new email address?

IF ANY ONE IN THE NEAR PROXIMITIES OF VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA ,CANADA ON JULY 1ST THERE WILL BE A LION DANCE IN VANOUVER'S CHINATOWN AT ABOUT 12 O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON TO CELERATE CANADA DAY. ANYONE IS WELCOME TO WATCH AND THERE WILL BE APPROX. MAYBE 20 LIONS AND A 20 MAN DRAGON

ORIENTAL DRAGON