Hi folks,

Sorry for not writing earlier as I just got home recently. I will give you my review on the World Champs in Genting.

I will try to give the actual name of the participating teams, but since some of them is in Chinese I will try to 'pronounce' it as accurate as possible.

The Teams:
The teams that went to the World Champs were:

China
1. Chinese Dragon & Lion Dance Troupe (A team) [CHN 1]- (team from Fatt Shan)
2. Chinese Dragon & Lion Dance Troupe (B team) [CHN 2] - (Shun Tak Girls Lion Dance Troupe)

Chinese Taipei
1. Jin Hong Tang Lion Dance Troupe [TPE 1]
2. Fei-Hong-Goan Dragon & Lion Dance Group [TPE 2]

Hong Kong SAR
1. Hong Kong Dragon Lion Unicorn Pai Yau Dances Sport Association (A team) [HKG 1]
2. Hong Kong Dragon Lion Unicorn Pai Yau Dances Sport Association (B team) [HKG 2]
(Sorry, but I don't have the teams' name as yet..)

Japan
1. Japan Shin Chuan Lion team [JAP]

Macao
1. Macau Chinese Martial Art Association (A team) [MAC 1] - Lo Leong Sport Association

Malaysia
1. Wen Hua School PTA Lion Dance Team, Melaka [MAL 1]
2. Wei Wu Martial Art Association Lion Dance Team, Kota Tinggi [MAL 2]

Singapore
1. Long Tian Pugilistic Dragon & Lion Dance Troupe [SIN 1]
2. Sembawang Community Center Dragon & Lion Dance Troupe [SIN 2]

Vietnam
1. Doan Lan Su Rong Nhon-Nghia-Duong, T.P.H.C.M. , Hainoi [VIT]

Defending Champion
Kun Seng Keng Lion & Dragon Dance Association, Muar, Malaysia

Two teams, namely Macao Martial Art Association B team (Macao Worker's Welfare Lion Dance Team) and Japan's Yokohama Oversea Chinese Youth Association Lion Dance Team, could not compete due to injuries.

MAL 1 & 2 are the champion and 1st runner up respectively of the 1997 Malaysia National Champs.

The Judges:
Just a brief note on judging. The judging was done by 10 judges, and there were another 15 judges involved in the various aspect of the competition (i.e. measurement, time keeping etc.) For the first time all 25 judges are qualified International Lion Dance Judges [by the International Dragon & Lion Dance Association]. The 10 'points giving' judges consisted of judges from China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan. For the first time too (in international competition) the method of 'point showing' is used. This method is where by points given by the 10 judges are shown directly to the main panel of judges and the audience after each performance. The final point from the panel of judges is then shown directly to the audience too. From the 10 separate points, the highest 2 and the lowest 2 points are eliminated.

The Competition:
The competitions were held over a period of 3 days, 2 days for the preliminaries and 1 for the finals. Only 10 teams are in the finals, and as MAL 1 and the Defending Champ automatically enter the finals, the remaining 12 teams have to get in the top 8 to get into the finals. VIT, HKG2, TPE2 and JAP were eliminated in the preliminaries. HKG2 was eliminated because they lost their 'cheng' on their way up from plucking it (medium fault/fall -1.0) and also went over the time limit ( -0.5). TPE2 suffer a major fall which they fail to recover, this is a real pity as I heard from some body who saw their training that they were real good too. JAP also suffer a major fall (-2.0). VIT lack experience but they did extremely well for their first world champs. The all girls team, CHN2, cause a real stir when they showed up. All the audience were on their side with their impressive performance. I think the girls are age from about 12 - 16 yrs old. They were furious when the points they got was relatively low (8.3) and started booing the judges. This is unfortunate as the audience did not realize that the lion tail had use her hand to push herself up the first pole. Other than that, this team was impressive, especially with several outstanding maneuvers.

The judging was done very professionally. However, the scores from certain judges varied 'wildly' on the first 2 days. Fortunately, after various discussion/reviews, the scores on the final day were consistence.

The Finals
7 thousand odd audience crowded into the 6000 seated arena for the finals. However, the start was not good. SIN2 had a minor fall, HKG1 and MAL2 had a major fall each. MAL2 could not continue as both lion head and tail were hurt in the fall. MAL2 was very good on the start, its form and steps were much better than when they were in the preliminaries. The loudest cheer was when it broke the whole 'bridge' perfectly in the 'broken bridge' part of its performance. Unfortunately, not long after that, while doing a single-leg stance, the lion tail could not balance and try to step on another pole. He failed to find it and fell. The lion head hurt himself sliding down the poles. The newspaper here all did a spread on that. Fortunately, he is OK now. SIN2's poles was very high (2.5 m?), and as they used relatively thin pole it shaked a lot. Final score: 8.215. HKG1, similar to HKG2, arranged the poles similarly to Kun Seng Keng's 1996-7 poles (ie. with the slanting wires at the beginning of the pole arramgement). Final score: 6.700

MAL2 was next. Its specialty is called the 'Upturned Golden Bell'. This was done on a specially modified wire poles, whereby the lion head hangs upside down from the wires supported by the tail. It is very hard to explain, so I guess you will all have to see to understand it. Unfortunately for them, while recovering from the upside down position on to the poles, the lion head mis-balanced and had to lay a hand onto the pole. This was counted as a minor fall. Final score: 8.555

MAC1 was very good too, out performing themselves during the preliminaries. Their pole arrangement is similar to the Kun Seng Keng's 1996-7 arrangement. Their performance was well balanced, and had just that extra bit of difficulty to make them score 9. Their repetitive jumps were good, there were no unnecessary moves, and they did not repeat any of their maneuvers throughout their performance. There were difficult maneuvers before and after the cheng picking. Final score: 9.005

The Defending Champion, Kun Seng Keng only performed once in the whole competition and that was a real pity as their performance was so impressive. They have manage to modified and improve from their moves their 1997 performance in the nationals (in which they had a minor fall). Their form, especially at the 'looking' and 'testing' part was most impressive. The added maneuver at the final cheng picking part was modified from 1996 1st runner up team's (Malaysia Malacca Xuan Wu Dian) 'upturned golden cup', where by the lion head went over and down steping on the sides of the poles. This time, instead of stepping on 2 poles, Kun Seng Keng stepped on only 1 pole and turned. Unfortunately, by the location of the cheng, most audience was obscured from seeing this part clearly. All parts of the performance ( floor routine, difficult maneuvers, etc) was well arranged and flawless. No repetition, no unnecessary moves. All parts of the performance was well balanced. I can say that nobody that saw them could deny that they deserved to win. Final Score: 9.30

CHN2 came on and gave a flawless performance. This time the lion tail did not touch the first poles, and subsequently got a higher score. Final Score: 8.725. SIN1 manage to improve in their scores too, and was inventive in having a 'swinging' cheng to use in conjunction with their 'upturn golden cup' cheng picking maneuver. Final score: 8.975 CHN1 however, was less lucky and suffered a minor fall. Final Score: 8.30.

TPE1 also gave a outstanding flawless performance. The pole arrangement is similar to Kun Seng Keng's 1996-7 arrangement. One part that I like is the lion's thirsty expression before it went for a drink. Also interesting was the use of a young drummer (8-10 yrs?). That drew surprise and many applause for the team. Final Score: 8.85.

Conclusion:
The standard of competition was definitely higher this time, and the judging went very well. The whole event went very smoothly and professionally. However, judging and the arrangement of the poles were a bit slow, although it was a marked improvement over the last World Champs. The size of the new venue, the Arena Of The Stars, did help a lot. It is now highly possible that there will be a Genting 2000, and hopefully it will be even better.

Well, that's about it. I hope it was informative, and hopefully the list will get some feed back/input/corrections/question from the people on the list, especially those who went to the champs. Hopefully we will get some discussion going, and if needed I'll try to answer any inquiries the best I can.

Bye for now,
George,

Is there a video copy available for those of us who could not make the competition

Neil McRitchie

Hi Folks,

Just some updates....

For those who wants to get a video of the recent World Champs....The 'video' will be sold in the VCD form. The video guys said that it will be out in September, and I will tell you guys when it is out...If you prefer, you can contact Master Siow as he will be one of the first to know.

The International Dragon and Lion Dances Association will be moving its HQ from Hong Kong to Beijing later this year.

There will be a International Lion Dance Competition in November held at Shenzen, China. For next year's world championship, Macao is planning to hold it as part of their hand over celebrations. It is also rumored that Hong Kong will not hold it next year because of the economical crisis. The Malaysian National Championships (organized by the Selangor and Federal Territory Liom Dance Association) will be held in December.

Malaysia will hold a International Lion Dance Judges training camp from 10th - 14th October this year. It will be held in Kuala Lumpur. This involves training and a qualifying exam at the end. These camps are not held regularly (the last one was about 3-4 years ago). Those who are interested or need further information please contact me or Master Siow.

Master Siow's Address:

H.P.Siow,
No. 32, 2/29. Old Town,
46000 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor,
Malaysia
Tel/Fax: 03-7922968
Handphone: 012-3346458

Bye for now,
George,

Hi everyone,

I was also able to attend this year's World Champs at Genting. George, whom I was very fortunate to have met, has provided a very detailed description of the competition (better than I could have done!). Some additional comments about the competition:

Yes, the standard of lion dancing is definitely getting higher. I have to admit that even the ladies team from China had moves that were better than those I've seen at lion dance competitions in San Francisco. Some of the teams had very elaborate setups. Flashing drums and complete flower beds are just some of the ways the teams try to get .5 point in the prop design aspect of the judging. Even the instrumentalists are now standing on platforms and poles, although they're not doing long jumps on them (yet).

The team referred to as MAL2 by George was indeed very good until the head and tail fell. All of the teams made performing on poles look easy, but the falls remind one that performing on poles can be quite dangerous. I'm glad to hear the head is OK.

Also, I believe MAL1 (from Melaka) was the team that performed the "Upturned Golden Bell". The part where the lion head hangs upside down from the wires supported by the tail occurs after the head dives over the poles with the tail catching him. The tail player then backs up onto the wires, still holding the head player. (At least this is how it looked from my angle.)

Kun Seng Keng definitely deserved to win the competition. Although I didn't have the best viewing angle during their performance, I could tell that their moves were most impressive.

After watching the competition, I can say that Malaysia is definitely setting the standard and starting new trends when it comes to lion dancing.

At the end of the finals, while the judges were making their final decisions, there was a superb performance by a group of young children performing a drum and cymbal set. This was followed by another superb performance by a dragon team from Muar I believe. This dragon dance was truly spectacular, as the dragon was fluorescent and thus glowed under special lighting. Also, the movements of the dragon were the twisting type of motions (something that's not seen often, if at all, here in the States).

I was also very fortunate to have met Master Mak and Master Siow after the competition. Both were very friendly and Master Siow provided me with a set of instrument beats of the Hock San 18-style drumming, which was used by many of the teams at the competition.

Well, that's all from me for now.

Cheers,

Greg