Subject: Tai chi men in SF

Any one see this group from Taipei in union square today.

I would love get feed back from others who saw this group.. lots of flash .. i love their big drum and props.. the horns are cool .. any one on the list see them at Seattle's sea fair???

Some wild looking unicorns. lot of yells.

Layton

Layton,

How are you doing? This is Thuan Nguyen from Tacoma, Washington state. Met you at the SF LionDance conf. I saw them at the Seafair and in alsoperforming at the Seattle center also. We did some recording on them. Wow it was great on the drumming. My niece and nephews saw them perform at the Cheney Stadium in Tacoma and said that they were wonderful/excellent. Well, they give my nephews goose bumps all over : ). Unfortunately we were unable to record that portion of it but we got the performance in Seattle center. Would you like a copy of it ? If so please send me your street address. Yeahh, I think they were druming the Wong Phi Hung them or so and the yelling sounds prety much like the 1998 Lion Dance Champ VCD I have heard. They really have some real cool unicorn too. This is the first time that I saw a flag for each lion-- red, sylver, yellow, blue, and green-since the time I seak refuge in the US. They made their own design and decoration on all of their Unicorn, Lion, Dragon, flags... prety fancy. They do not sell their product either. I did ask them about it. Thuan Nguyen
VYMAA'S Lion Dance Director
Blooming Orchid Lion Dance (BOLD)
www.members.xoom/B_O_L_D/
Bold888@yahoo.com

PS.

News

Aug 3, 7:00PM
We will perfrom for the National Night out against drug on East 40 & Roosevelt in Tacoma, WA

On August 21 we will perform lion dance and martial arts at the Tiger Kung-Fu club Founder Conmemoration in Vancover BC, Canada.

I saw them on Sunday.  They had @30+ drums, two dragons, about a dozen Fat Shan Lions.

Their Lion dancing was nothing spectacular, but thier drumming set choreographed with the Weapons, drum and horn was very impressive. 

Layton, do you think that Rose was pushing her Ms. Asian America Pageant kinda far?

Tim

A bunch of us in Honolulu were very fortunate this past week to have had some hands-on clinics with Master Li Fei Piu from Hong Kong.  He is a very nice and humble sifu who came to Honolulu for ten days primarily to show us how to safely manuver on the competition style platforms.  I was so amazed how impressive some of my own boys looked after just a couple of days doing basic stacking manuvers.  Sifu Li was able to make some of the most impressive tricks on the competition video look so easy.  Of course we only practiced on the floor most of the time and on a 5' max platform a couple of times.  I'm sure the 10' platforms they use in competition do take a little more guts to perform on.

If anyone is planning to go to HK and would be interested in contacting the sifu, let me know.  He is very friendly and spends a lot of time teaching young elementary schools kids. 

Sherman

Dear liondancers in California:

We are a troupe from Spain searching for help. We need to buy and learn to dance a northern lion. This quest is being so difficult for us, because of our distance from the centers of liondancing. We are now seeking a liondancer called Johnny Chan that lives and performs northern lions in San Francisco. He is not answering our e-mails to him. Maybe he is not an habitual user of the Internet. So we need another right contact with him. Can you help us?

Jose Maria Martinez
The Drawing Man Theater
http://www.infc.es/~teatre

Jose,

Could you tell me what Johnny's email address is (the one you are using)? I have a hunch that I know the Johnny Chan you are trying to reach, in which case 1) he is not a liondance master and 2) the address you are using is one he does not use anymore.

I do know someone on this list who might be able to teach you, but under the circumstances (you being in Spain and all) it still seems unlikely. It's worth a try, though.

Willy Le

Hi all!

I just got a request from a Chinese Student Association in Minnesota wanting to know where they can get a good deal on a head and drum. I suggested a trip to Asia, Clarion Music Center, and visiting New York's Chinatown. All those either involve long trips or high shipping costs. Any other ideas?

Chris

That guy I just told you about knows some people in Malaysia and would like to know who to have them contact over there that may be able to build a lion and drum for them. Master Siow? Others? Addresses and/or phone numbers would be helpful. You can direct them to me and I'll pass them along to him. Thanks!

Hi Chris & fellow lion dancers,

Master Siow's handphone no. in Malaysia is 012-3346458 or 019-3346458.

Anyway, just a bit of news that I heard of. Macau redently organised a lion dance competition in conjunction with its handing over celebration. Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, China, Hong Kong and the host country participated. Kung Seng keng was there and they won the competition and a new team from Singapore got second. The Macau team that was the runner up in the 98 World Champs was unlucky and fell during its competition.

The Malaysian National Lion Dance Championship this year will be held from the 23rd-25th of November at Genting Highlands. This is the first time it is held in Genting, and it seems that Genting is now rather keen in sponsoring these competitions in Malaysia. The champion and first runner up will be able to represent Malaysia in the comming year 2000 world LD championship in Genting. The national can be seen as a dress rehearsal to the world champs. So, those of you who are keen to watch the nationals do take note and you can call Master Siow if you want accomadation arrangement in Genting Highlands during the conpetitions.

That's all from me for now.

Hi George- I was wondering if you got my email earlier about getting some pictures or in contact with someone who can give us information about Master Siao's Dragons. We are interested in checking them out. Thanks

Keith
kei lun martial arts

GEORGE!!! How are you? This is Corey Chan from San Francisco. Maybe you'll remember me as the guy who danced the pearl in our sloppy dragon dance at the lion dance conference in San Francisco last March.

There is a good possibility that my wife and I may visit Malaysia in November around that time. Her cousin is giving us a week of his timeshare stay in Malaysia. Which of these places is closest to Genting and Master Siow's company? (Cherating, Kuala Lumpur, Terengganu, Port Dickson, Kuching) We have a choice of staying in one of these cities. If it's not close, perhaps we can extend our stay in Malaysia to see the competition.

If we do end up in Malaysia, we would definitely love to bring Master Siow a little business and bring home a lion or two. Do these need to be ordered in advance, or are there some that are already ready for sale? Also, our team is interested in seeing/learning more about dragon dance competition. Are there any videos/vcds available? Finally, we are still quite interested in seeing the dragons made by Wan Seng Hang...we may be looking to upgrade soon! :-)

Thanks for your time George. Take care!

Corey

Anyone have any contacts to purchase Dragons?

John

San Francisco,

local new ... local born Modern Artist Martin Wong passed away at the age of 53 this week. He has a picture tilted "lion dancers" displayed in a lobby at a building on golden gate ave. here in San Francisco. Has anyone on the list seen this art work or know more about MR. Wongs work..?????

How is Mr. Wong connected to Lion Dancing. >>>??

layton

if it's the same martin wong, he's from new york. he had a one man show at the SF Art Institute about ten years ago. don't know much about him other than him being a eccentric artist. but i don't think he's into lion dancing. he just uses a lot of chinese american subjects and icons like bruce lee etc. in his paintings.

Dr. Doung Chang

We're not talking about the same Martin Wong who designs the necktie patterns are we? Like the SF Doc said, I think he's more of someone who tries to catch that Chinese-American kitch and capture it into more of a modern artistic flavor...I'd be very interested in seeing that particular display.

Other news...does anyone has any info about the upcoming lion dance event in Oakland this coming weekend?

I don't know the exact schedule (they probably don't either) but I went last year and the liondance competition was held early in the morning. Around 10 am, I believe. All I know is this year the festival starts at 10 and goes from there. I think the competitions should be early in the morning like last year. Does anyone know what's going on with the dragonboat races also in Oakland this weekend?

Willy

Does anyone know where to get good lion dance equipment? in the states, over seas?

Thanks.

Jason

Contact Jonie at Jonie Uniforms in San Francisco at 415 566-5566. They have the best quality lions.

John Wai
www.floridakungfu.com

Hi Keith,

Sorry for the late reply.

Anyway, I can't get hold of any photos of Mater Siow's Dragon as they are not very popular here. The speciality of his dragon is that the 'ribs' of the body is made up of interlocking criss-crossing rings. In this way the body will not 'sag'. The price of his dragons are Malaysian Ringgit RM 1000 (~USD 264)pre segment, ie. a 9 segment dragon will cost RM 9000(~USD 2376). If you want more info you can always ring Master Siow up.

Hope it is of help.

George

Hi Corey,

Of course I remember you!

>There is a good possibility that my wife and I may visit Malaysia in
>November around that time. Her cousin is giving us a week of his timeshare
>stay in Malaysia. Which of these places is closest to Genting and Master
>Siow's company? (Cherating, Kuala Lumpur, Terengganu, Port Dickson,
>Kuching) We have a choice of staying in one of these cities. If it's not
>close, perhaps we can extend our stay in Malaysia to see the competition.

COOL STUFF! Well, I don't know where Cherating is, but Kuala Lumpur is the closest(~1/2 hrs drive)to Master Siow and Genting(~1 hr). Port Dickson is a beach-town about 2.5 hrs away, Terengganu is another state about 4-5 hrs away, and Kuching is almost as far as I am, about 3hrs flying time(no roads!).

BTW everybody, the competition date has been changed from the 23-25 of November to the 26-28 of November, and there might have 40 teams in the competition.

>If we do end up in Malaysia, we would definitely love to bring Master Siow
>a little business and bring home a lion or two. Do these need to be ordered
>in advance, or are there some that are already ready for sale? Also, our
>team is interested in seeing/learning more about dragon dance competition.
>Are there any videos/vcds available? Finally, we are still quite interested
>in seeing the dragons made by Wan Seng Hang...we may be looking to upgrade
>soon! :-)

It is better to ordr in advance as then you would have what you really want. He has some on sale but they are only for 'emergency' situations. To order you will have to give about 2 months advance notice and do follow up nearer the time, if not you may become one of the 'emergency situations'cases.! :)

AS for the dragon..I am sorry but I have no ideas on them, but I will try to talk to Master Siow about them, or you can talk to him directly. Maybe he can show you some one/team that will show you.

Wel, that's all for now. Take care!

George,
Tawau, Sabah