Hawaii's Choi Chang, merchants burn them by the millions. Dancers need to get Gum Chao from a local herb shop that helps clear the lungs.I forget the english word but it comes in slivers of bark ang twigs. Sherman or Ernie help me with this one? Henry

In a message dated 3/1/99 12:12:09 PM, ching2@gte.net writes:
>clear the lungs

i always wondered how hazardous our jobs are, breathing in that firecracker smoke. is there a doctor or an expert in this field that can advise us?

jyuyuhk wing

hey man.... our job isn't hazardous.... what about cops? or firefighters?? besides... what is lion dance without firecrackers?? It's that distinctive smell... I love it...

Yeah, I love the smell, too. At least I miss it since we don't use firecrackers very often anymore. But you do have to wonder - even cigarettes have filters...

Did I ever tell you about the time my "shock-proof" watch got totally destroyed because I was playing the head in a string of firecrackers? Fun!

Chris

Here is my take on firecrackers:
-They're dangerous
-They're loud
-They screw up your respiratory tract
-They're messy and a bitch to clean up after
-They burn holes in your costumes and equipment
-They burn holes in YOU if you're not careful
-They ruin your hearing (goes along with their loudness and Doc's eardrum problem)
-They drown out your instruments (also goes with loudness)
-They screw up your planned liondance performance
-They raise too much unwarranted involvement by the fire dept. in our art

If you don't know by now, I hate firecrackers. I don't care either way if I have to dance in them or not - that is up to the business, my troupe, and the local fire codes. But I definitely appreciate not using them if it's possible.

Willy

In a message dated 3/1/99 5:12:03 PM, chrislow@fuller.edu writes:
<>

i'd just like to say for myself that in 23 years ago a firecracker exploded on contact on my ear lobe. it completely blow my eardrum. since then i've had to operations to repair the eardrum and still has a hole in it. it constantly rings. and i can hardly hear out of that ear. so aside from worrying about the hazards of inhaling gunpowder smoke, always wear ear protection! Those spongey ones work great and inexpensive. in the meantime....have FUN!

are the firecrackers from china getting cheaper? or is it my imagination? they don't seem to pop as loud, a lot of them are duds and the don't pop as fast. last year there was a restaurant here that had a big long string of firecrackers. it seemed like the powder was mixed with a lot of sand as there was a lot of sand on the floor afterwards.

by the way, firecrackers are illegal in hong kong and singapore and a number of other countries. lion dancers have been dancing for many years without them. just for the sake of debate.....do we really need firecrackers in our lion dances?

DOC DOONG CHANG

sorry to bug everyone again...but does anyone know when Yau Kung Moon is going to be doing their lion performance in front of the Lee Association in San Francisco Chinatown? It's usually a pretty good performance. Let us know.

Doc. Doong Chang

I've heard that china is now making firecrackers by machine! Mud is used to seal each firecracker and have you notice that the rubbish is now firecrackers broken in half and not fluffy bits of paper like the hand rolled ones. Henry

By tradition firecrackers are the lions favorite play thing. Small packs of firecrackers are lit to call attention to the lion to the store. Long strings are to scare bad spirits, but loose pack should be offered to the lion for a job well done. Vietnamese believe the more firecrackers the more money they'll make in the new year. In hawaii we were raised with lots of firecrackers. A total ban is now in the works except for cultural and religious use. Firecrackers are a big part of the chinese culture. It's sad that places like New York just put a ban of them. In my opinion they're telling us you can only be part-Chinese not whole Henry

Hi guys & gals,

A belated Happy CNY!

Anyway, I think during this same period for the last 2 yrs I have express my view on firecrackers, which is similar to Willy's. I hate them!

Here in Malaysia, firecrackers are illegal but that still quite a bit around. The ban was actually lifted for 2 yrs about 8 yrs ago, and that was one of the worst yrs for lion dancing. Bundles apon bundles of 1000 sticks fire crackers hurling down on us during performances. It is lucky that we suffered no serious injuries(except our lungs and ears).

Personally, I think firecrackers is good for bringing a bit more excitement and loudness to such a loud festival, but as always people tend to abuse it. I don't mind people burning a token amount of firecrackers at the appropriate time during a performance, but in Malaysia this is so very rare. It is as if that the LD was paid to used as targets for their wild firecrackers buring sessions.

To me, sometimes the burning of firecrackers brings out the worst in the Chinese character and this will not help in the promotion of our art. As far I see it, the only benefit of firecrackers is just to bring additional loudness, excitement and 'nostalgical' Chinese New Year feeling to the crowds. The harm, however, is just too great.

Anyway, is there a safer alternative? This year I saw a family used balloons filled with golden paper and i think it is a good alternative. Our lion was suppose to burst them using sharp objects with the lion's mouth (the balloons were about 5-6 ft high)but the lion tail then tought of another idea. He lifted the lion head and the lion head used his legs to 'clap'and burst the balloon. The owner was so impressed and happy with it that she jumped and clapped her hands(very, very rare for Chinese people here to do that!:)).

I don't think firecrackers is an essential part to LD, though I don't mind if it used sparingly and considerately!

George,

>Malaysia this is so very rare. It is as if that the LD was paid to used
>as targets for their wild firecrackers buring sessions.
>To me, sometimes the burning of firecrackers brings out the worst in the
>Chinese character and this will not help in the promotion of our art.

This reminds me of a dance we just did. Some other school had their lion heads rolled up on the sidewalk, we went by, and one of the businesses threw a brick of firecrackers *into* the rolled up head. You know what happened next. That was really stupid. I hope they paid to replace the head for that other school.

g

Does it sound like Gum Cho in Cantonese? Then it's probably Gan Cao (Mandarin) - Radix Glycyrrhizae - Licorice. Should be yellowish colored and sweet tasting. Good for moistening the Lungs, clearing Fire toxins on the skin or in the throat and other things.. (I'm in the second quarter of my chinese herb class.. only 250 more to go!! ;-(

g

Good luck Goef...may you succeed in your studies!

DVo

This has been a very interesting and informative discussion. In San Diego the problem of firecracker overload wasn't really an issue. Since we had the permit and the insurance we controlled the firecrackers. The fire marshall would even show up at some of our performances to make sure we were using them responsibly.

I think that part of the appeal of firecrackers for us was that they are so rare in San Diego that they drew the crowds' attention to watch our dance. Of course there were a few businesses that got their own illegal firecrackers to throw *AT* us, but they were so rare that they are the ones the older lion dancers tell stories about to impress the younger lion dancers.

There was one vietnamese restaurant where so many strings of firecrackers were burned that the lions couldn't even be seen and the music couldn't be heard for a few minutes. It's places like these that made our insurance rates go up so high. After the insurance rates went up we've had less problems with places like this, but overall I miss getting to use firecrackers.

This probably won't work in Asian countries where firecrackers are so easy to get, but for cities in the US there should be some way of regulating firecrackers.

Chris

>By tradition firecrackers are the lions favorite play thing. Small
>packs of firecrackers are lit to call attention to the lion to the
>store. Long strings are to scare bad spirits, but loose pack should be
>offered to the lion for a job well done.

We were always taught that when firecrackers go off the lion should be "surprised" then curious and go investigate the noise. Of course this is much easier to do when there are only a few packs going off and not a rainstorm of them. Some of the groups I've seen totally ignore the firecrackers as if the firecrakers weren't a part of the performance but something going on "on the side." I wonder what traditions other groups have about firecrackers.

> Vietnamese believe the more firecrackers the more money they'll make
>in the new year.

Ah-ha! That explains that restaurant trying to kill us... :)

>Firecrackers
>are a big part of the chinese culture. It's sad that places like New
>York just put a ban of them. In my opinion they're telling us you can
>only be part-Chinese not whole.

I agree to a point - there's also safety issues and things like that. I think that people need to be taught to use firecrackers (and other things) more responsibly instead of regulated by law not to use them. Banning things isn't a good answer because it doesn't teach people why or why not to use them. Laws are easy to pass, but education is much better in the long run.

Chris

In a message dated 3/2/99 10:34:19 AM, ching2@gte.net writes:
>It's sad that places like New York just put a ban of them. In my
>opinion they're telling us you can only be part-Chinese not whole

so how's New York doing with the firecracker ban? a lion dance without firecrackers is kind of boring despite my injury. usually the climax after the greens are eaten is the firecrackers. the rush of adrenaline with the firecrackers exploding all around brings out the best lion dancing in all of us. just like someone shooting at your feet and telling you to dance. of course firecrackers will not work while lion dancing on the high wires or poles. anyone throwing firecrackers AT you at that time is definetly 'pek yau' time. in san francisco, people seldom throw firecrackers at the lion dancers nowadays, instead on the ground or to the side. i prefer having a big chicken wire ring around the burning firecrackers myself. it keeps the firecrackers from flying all over the place where bystanders can get injured.

Dr. Doong Chang

the lion dance conference in san francisco is coming up fast. due to the high costs to fly in so many international speakers and demonstrators, it is doubtful that such a conference with workshops will ever be repeated.

march 21/22 and march 27/28
chinese culture center in san francisco

for details and registration: www.liondancer.com

>Good luck Goef...may you succeed in your studies!

Thanks... I hope my brain can hold out!

g

We noticed these low quality crackers too. The firecrackers seem to be lower quality lately, with lots of duds. The big firecrackers on the top of the string were duds on almost 50% of the strings we did dances for lately. We watched in eager anticipation when some dummy stood right underneath the big bundle and lit it with his cigarrette.. ;-) I guess that would teach you about smoking.. Also, they seemed to be bigger, but we don't think they were as loud as they used to be.

g

Our boys use ear plugs,safety goggles,and face mask. Gum cho is sucked on and chewing when flavor is gone then spit out. Henry

Dr. doong chang

Yau kung moon big show is in the fall (.aug or oct ) birthday time for them .. i have one of the birthday books. i will check the date for you and post it. check with bill lee at the flower store on waverly.

Squid

Hi Chris,

Thanks for replying to my questions...there has been many other of you who replied, I thank you too.

I am new to the area and so I do not know how to set my price for a performance. We are a nonprofit organization so we also operate on a donation basis. Most often when we do our lion dance during new year for local shops and they donate anywhere between $20 to $200. It is not great but doing the dance for many stores and businesses helps.

I ask the questions about prices is because we do get requests from private parties and because they are private and uses our dance for their own benifit, so we charge them. Usally I set the price to $250 per performance....some will take that price and still some lowered it to about $200.

Now my next question about prices is...how do we justify our charges? How come some group can charge $500 to $1000(or $2000) for a performance? Why are they charging so much and why do business still hire them over to perform? These are just curious thoughts, anybody can chip in what they thing is the cause. ;-)

Thank you and lets keep the discussion going! :-)

DVo

Hi,

Eventhogh I do love firecrackers and especially the combo of firecrackers and Liondancing, I also believe that we should take care of our health. I do not know how damanaging firecracker smoke is to our body but the loudness of it can damage our lungs. My group is composed of middle and high school students and I don't want them to have hearing or breathing problems in the future from doing Liondancing. After all, we want to have fun now, but we also want to enjoy liondancing and firecrackers in the future too!

It is true that liondancing is not so fun without firecrackers but too much of it is not good either.

Cheers,

DVo

P.S.: I started out not caring about firecrackers, infact I love it and so I did not have any preparation for it...now at age 21, I found myself to have a hard of hearing...maybe I am blaming on the firecrackers, but it is the only source for this problem. Sory guys, but I do think too much firecrackers IS HAZARDOUS!

Hi Chris Low,

I and many other members of my team have had firecrackers pop in front our face, eyes, ears, and neck...but lucky for us, non was seriously hurt. Recently, we just began to ware ear-plug to protect ourselves and I found it to be very helpful.

> are the firecrackers from china getting cheaper? or is it my imagination?
> they don't seem to pop as loud, a lot of them are duds and the don't pop as
> fast. last year there was a restaurant here that had a big long string of
> firecrackers. it seemed like the powder was mixed with a lot of sand as there
> was a lot of sand on the floor afterwards.

Well, there is no rule for burning firecrackers here in Seattle during our newyear (or am I just assuming...do you happend to know the real fact Geof?). So every store burn on the average of 500 pieces each.

> by the way, firecrackers are illegal in hong kong and singapore and a number
> of other countries. lion dancers have been dancing for many years without
> them. just for the sake of debate.....do we really need firecrackers in our
> lion dances?

I do believe firecrackers add excitement to our dances but don't over use them....and if they're used, make sure you know how to protect your self and your team. Does anyone have any experience in this area?

DVo

>Now my next question about prices is...how do we justify our charges? How
>come some groups can charge $500 to $1000(or $2000) for a performance?
>Why are they charging so much and why do business still hire them over to
>perform? These are just curious thoughts, anybody can chip in what they
>think is the cause. ;-)

Because our group is made up of volunteers and we are not "competition quality" lion dancers the way we usually set the price is first determine how many people we will need for the performance. Usually this is around 15-20 people. Then we charge the business $10 per person. $5 goes to each performer and the rest goes to our organization.

Other groups can charge more because they are in greater demand. More prestigious groups are more in demand (they give longer shows, better stunts...) and so they can charge more and still get business. We were always taught the more you spend on a lion dance the more blessing it brings. In traditional Chinese custom it wasn't such a business thing - it was more of an offering to the gods. If you pleased the gods with your offering (made it big enough) then they would bless you in return.

Just my thoughts,

Chris

>I do believe firecrackers add excitement to our dances but don't over use
>them....and if they're used, make sure you know how to protect your self
>and your team. Does anyone have any experience in this area?

As far back as I can remember our team has always used earplugs - the small foamy cylinder kind that you squish and put in your ear and they expand nice and tight. Our group leader always has a big bag of them in his van in case anyone forgets to bring theirs.

If playing the head near a string of firecrackers keep the mouth closed and over your head to protect your face.

The worst thing is if you are playing the tail and someone throws a pack under it right by your face. In the old southern lions with the long tails we could wrap the tail across our face. In these lions we could also flap the tail to clear firecracker smoke out of the lion - lift one side of the tail and fan the smoke out with the other side. I don't know what to do if playing the new lions with the short tails.

I've never heard of using Gum Cho - how do you use it?

Chris