Hi guys and gals,

Lion Dace update, in the recent lion dance competition in Shenzen, China, Kun Seng Keng received a minor fault and did not win anything. The champion is the team from Malacca, Malaysia.

I have just seen the World Champs VCD and it is quite enjoyable. It is professionally done, with some interviews and commentaries (by Master Siow) on the all the teams. Unfortunately, only those who understand Mandarin and Cantonese will get all the dialogues. Anyway, it is still very good , much more professional than any lion dance tape I've seen, quite educational and entertaining.

I've talked to the supplier here and he is willing to help me send some of them to the US. It is in the form of a set of 3 VCD or 3 VHS. I think it will be easier if I sent them to one of you in the US and let him/her distribute them to all of you. So, it will be good if you all can arrange it among yourselves, however, I would like to get an idea on how many videos or VCD that you all want. I will get back to you guys on the price for them, so hope to talk to you guys later.

Regards,

George Chan,

hi george,

I would be interested in a copy of the video, let me know the details when you do.

Thank you,

Tim

To George: I would volunteer to be the US distributor of the tapes but I don't think I am able to handle that job right now. I suggest that you send it to the Chinese Performing Arts Foundation in San Francisco (the ones arranging for Master Siow to do that conference in March). I think you should contact David Lei or Johnny Chan. I hope they don't mind!

To Dr. Neil, Geoff, et al: sorry guys, I cannot make copies of anything until I get home in December. I'll be sure to do everything I can when I get there.

Have a happy Thanksgiving to you guys in the US!

Willy Le

This is a response to George's questions about distributions of the vcds and tapes of the liondance championship 1998. I am willing to volunteer my time if no one else has enough time to do it.

Please let me know if anyone else has some suggestions to it.

I will make up sorta like a order list and just respond to it filling with appropriate information like name, address, quantity, etc.

 James

You can count me to purchase a set of tapes.

John Wai

Hi, I dont know if this would help anybody, but some lion dance master in my city, (Edmonton, Canada), is going to Malaysia (Singapore and the surrounding area)soon. He can bring back tapes for people if they want.

Thanks

Paul Skrypichayko,

Sounds like a good plan. It would be good to know how much it would cost for either format. I'd wait a week or so to get all the orders, get the checks, then do the order from the distributor. That way you would be covered. If you get enough orders, you might ask the distributor to throw in a free copy for yourself for organizing the order.. or something else fun like that.

Geoff

Can anyone help this person out? Please contact her directly. Have a nice day,

Rob

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1998 11:08:31 -0800
From: Ruth-Ann
To: teng@ljouwert.et.tudelft.nl
Subject: (no subject)

Dear Sir,

Are there any Lion Dance troups in the San diego area? I am interested in having such perform at a local event. Thank you!

Ruth-Ann

Hi all,

A couple of questions...possibly really weird ones...

My first question is...how do you guys keep your pants on when liondancing? When we hold the head in the air, we give the guy in front a wedgie. When our tail jumps up (kicking hind legs in the air), we almost pull the head's pants down. We've been guessing that we should wear really strong belts but other than that we're stumped. Can anyone shed some light on this technique?

My second question is...what exactly is that furry stuff on the furry lions? You know...the puffy ones. Since we're making our new lion a competition type lion head, we found that the puffy-furred lions are not just better looking, but just goshdarn cute. Oh, our new lion-head is coming along slowly. We're still attempting to lighten the frame. PVC is just so much heavier than bamboo.

Oh, and the third question...what material are those "bamboo forest" platforms that I see so often in these competitions made out of? I'm assuming plain wood?

Now for some content...for those looking to "re-skin" parts of the head, I found that newspaper is a very, very heavy paper-mache medium. I've searched for this oat-bag/potato sack material but haven't been able to locate any. Weird. Tried toilet tissue...too fragile when wet. I still haven't been able to figure out what do they use for the skin.

Ah well...thanks for the great list.

-Paul Hung

Hey Paul,

>My first question is...how do you guys keep your pants on when
>liondancing?

Most of our costume pants have drawstrings. We also have general uniform pants that are REALLY really tight around the waist. You could thread some elastic string through your pants if you don't want to buy new ones. I recommend any of the martial arts satin pants that either have drawstrings or tight elastic waists.

>My second question is...what exactly is that furry stuff on the
>furry lions?

I think it's rabbit fur. It's the puffiest stuff out there. I love those cute Malaysian lions, too.

>Oh, and the third question...what material are those "bamboo
>forest" platforms that I see so often in these competitions made out of?
>I'm assuming plain wood?

They can be made out of wood. All of the stunt sets I've seen in the Bay Area are made of wood. I have some friends in Australia (Chung Wah of Perth) who had an all-metal set made by an engineer. I assume Kun Seng Keng also has metal ones, too.

>Now for some content...for those looking to "re-skin" parts of the
>head, I found that newspaper is a very, very heavy paper-mache medium.
>I've searched for this oat-bag/potato sack material but haven't been able
>to locate any. Weird. Tried toilet tissue...too fragile when wet. I
>still haven't been able to figure out what do they use for the skin.

I don't know how the lions are originally made, but we repair ours with newspaper on both sides of the skin. If we're reconstructing a head from the skeleton, I've seen some of our guys use light cloth material as the first layer and then newspaper to harden it. It seems to work okay.

Willy Le

most lion heads are made with a paper called 'grass paper' (cho-ji)

--nga chot so

The oat sack material can be found at any local B.J.'s wharehouse buy in bulk store, even SAMS club. Also you could try a fancy gourmet store. The reason I send you to these places is because the cloth is meant to dry your dishes and not leave any lint on you wine glasses. Now to get the stuff to harden up and stick to your lion use something called, Stiff Stuff. You can find it at any craft store. It is meant to harden ribbon for art projects. It will dry and harden with in 24 hours. I like to dip the fabric into a bowl of the stuff squeeze out any excess liquid and just lay it over any holes.... It works especially well behind the ears where they bang against the head ....

Now to water proof the head once you have repaired any paint problems all you have to do is seal it with any collage clear sealant. For anyone who does not know what I mean. Do you remember in school cutting out pictures and then sealing them to a piece of wood? This is the same stuff. Coat it on and let it dry for a couple of days.. It will come on white first and dry clear so don't worry.

Now to do the final seal use clear Krylon spray. FOR THIS TAKE THE HEAD OUTSIDE TO A PARKING LOT WITH LOTS OF FRESH AIR !!!!!!!! Spray the head in two light coats. I take the ears off and do them seperately at this point. Let the head dry . It will take about an hour before you can move it. Let it sit for about 24 hours. Do not do the spraying in the sun it does strange things to it then... I have been caught outside in downpours and the paint on my heads don't run at all!!!!!!!

To repair the rabbit furr " fuzzy stuff on the heads" Native Americans use this material in many of their things. If you go to a pow wow they will have it for about $2.00 a pelt.. Otherwise for those of you who are fortunate to live in the southwest most of your indian own stores will sell them there as well. Just cut the stuff into strips and hot glue them onto your lion head......

I am willing to repair heads for you guys if you want. I have done it for my school for about three years now. I have saved some heads that they thought could never be danced again. It is an art I think...... I am a craft person who is currently studying Northern Dragon style.... Please feel free to e-mail me if your interrested in me doing some work for you or if you have any further questions.... =-) Yes I know I have given away many secrets just now but hey some people just won't want to be bothered with all the work involved.... Also you all have given so freely back to the rest of us....

Try model airplane 'skin'. You can find it at a hobby store.

Chris
Wah Lum Kung Fu - Pasco

Hey Paul,

I haven't made a lion yet but I've been thinking that I would try tracing paper instead of newspaper. It should be light and hopefully, not tear too easily. Let me know how it works if you decide to try it!

Janine A. Lee
ride2995@ride.ri.net

It's even worse with the fold-over kind of pants. A couple of Chinese new year's ago, I was dancing in the tail of our head lion and when I was going up the stairs to return to our school, my belt came loose and my pants almost came down.. Luckily I felt it going, and dropped into a low horse stance and was moving by shifting into a low forward stance to horse stance, etc. When we did the 9 bows to finish the dance, I thought I was a gonner! Somehow the golden rooster stance (gum gai) worked ok though, the leg that went up was high enough to block the pants from comming down! I think I'll look for a good pair of elastic pants eventually. It can also get pretty loose when the tail does a horse stance and the head jumps up on to your legs. That really pulls the pants down!

rgds
Geoff