Equipment Store Reviews

Reviews for Shops in
Malaysia

The following reviews are independently written by people who have visited or purchased from the shops listed. They are provided for informational and review purposes only and should not be seen as either endorsements for or discouragements against using these vendors by myself or the Lion's Cave Website. If you are interested in purchasing Lion Dance equipment it is your responsibility to check into the details for yourself. I hope you find the following information helpful, but remember that everybody's opinion is different and product quality can vary depending on a number of different factors--so what one person experienced may or may not be true of the store now.

	Comparisons

Lo Fo Chi/
Springrace Enterprises

Arnold Buenviaje, Fri, 10 Nov 2000 21:35:17 +0800
I know Master Lim Meng Kok,our club "Phil. Ling Nam Athletic Federation" have been purchasing lion head from Master Lim Meng Kok (His company's name is Lo Fo Chi) for years, we met him when he was still a partner of Sifu H.P.Siow at Wan Seng Hang. Because we and Sifu Lim have been friends for years We sometimes pay him after we received the merchandise, sometimes we sent our money in advance (sometimes months ahead of delivery). If you guy want to purchase lion from Sifu Lim deal with him directly if you need his contact number, I can get it for you and his address too! I think Sifu Lim do not speak English, only Cantonese and Mandarin. About Sifu Lim lion they are good

Ernie Loo, Mon, 04 Dec 2000 23:59:36 -1000
Lawrence is a nice guy. He went out of his way to get our lion head which Peter Seen did not ship. Lawrence did not make a single penny from us but he felt the obligation to fulfill our order just for Sifu Lim's reputation. If we order lion heads again, we definitely will order from him.

Wan Seng Hang
Trading Co.

Willy, Wed, 19 Apr 2000 23:45:23 -0500
Well you get 2 pairs of pants with the lion. You'll have to ask the Marin group how much shipping is. His heads cost from about 1500 ringgits for the normal color lions to around 1900 ringgits for the silver, gold, and batik ones I think. Last I checked, US dollar got 3.8 ringgits, so divide these prices roughly by 4. These are great deals but getting them can be a problem. It's best to go over there yourself and pick up a bunch.

Peter Lee, Mon, 20 May 1996 18:23:51 +0800
In my opinion, this guy (Siow sifu) is making one of the nicest lion heads around. A good indication is 80% of the competing teams in HK 95 Championship used his heads. He makes several hundred heads a year, so he's stuff is pretty popular. H.P. Siow is the chief instructor of the Malaysian world beating lion dance troupe, Kun Seng Keng. He's a really nice guy so check him out. Oh, one thing to note, sometimes he is really good in terms of getting it send to the US (6 weeks for a friend in SF) , but other times when he is really busy (like -often), it may take much longer...it's really hard to say...check with him. Siow sifu does not speak English well but can get someone to read his English faxes.

Alevia Dwixenzia, Fri, 10 Nov 2000 00:19:37 GMT
I bought 2 lions and 8 pairs of cymbals. Master Siow's lions are really good made ones. The sticks inside the lionhead where you hold it with, made of PVC pipe. The lionhead is quite light, the balance is also good. It has nice face form, that makes it look so cute and expressive. Master Siow sells 2 different size of lionhead, size 2 and size 3 (which is smaller than size 2). He sells both Fat Shan and Hoc Shan lionhead. You can choose the one you like. The price? Not too high not too low. About US$400 and US$500 each lion, completed with costume.The cymbals have clear sound to hear. Actually we were going to buy 2 pairs of drumsticks, but he gave them to us for free, cool! They are very light and produce clear sound.

Willy Le, Fri, 10 Nov 2000 07:09:09 -0600
This is just FYI but it is for fraud protection and customer satisfaction that Master Siow will not accept payment for your order before the equipment is in your hands. It's just to make sure that you are happy with what you ordered and because sometimes he might not meet deadlines because his factory is very busy. It takes a lot of trust on his part but I think he's doing better business that way.

Greg Chuck, Fri, 10 Nov 2000 16:16:23 GMT
Hmm, this has not been my experience with Master Siow. When my team orders equipment from Master Siow by mail, we have to wire him the money BEFORE he will release the equipment. And very often, we are not satisfied with the shipment. We have received heads in colors we did not order, heads with the wrong kind of material, and heads with small amounts of damage. And some of our orders have arrived late. Although the damage and lateness may not have been entirely his fault, would you be satisfied receiving damaged and incorrect goods from a retailer the week after an important occasion? I've heard similar stories from people on other teams that deal with Master Siow. Anyway, my point is that the customer satisfaction "department" at Master Siow's shop could be improved.
Don't get me wrong: Master Siow has done a lot for the lion dancing community and is a great guy, and I'm not saying not to do business with him, but I believe he has simply gotten too busy to run the business-side of his shop efficiently and effectively without more help.

Willy Le, Fri, 10 Nov 2000 12:39:09 -0600
I guess my info. is more for people going to Malaysia to pick up the stuff personally. For instance my troupe is interested in getting a dragon and I told him we'd come back to Malaysia to get it. I offered to pay for it beforehand but he refused for the reason I stated earlier (it might not be ready, he wants to make sure it's the right one, etc.).
You are quite right, though. He's getting really busy and it's getting harder and harder to keep up with the increased business. Good for him (sort of), bad for us.

Greg Chuck, Sat, 11 Nov 2000 00:07:28 GMT
Hmm, I've been over to Malaysia to get/order equipment using 2 "methods". One method is to order the equipment at his shop, hoping that since you're there talking in person to Master Siow himself, you can get all the details straightened out. The other method is to order a few months before going over and to pick up the equipment when you're there. We've tried both these methods. Both times, we didn't get 100% satisfaction.
We tried the first method, and ordered a red batik lion from him at his shop. A few months later, we did get a batik lion, but it's not red! We call him up and tell him, and he apologizes and tells us he'll bring us a red batik lion when he arrives in SF for the lion dance conference. So he brings over another head for us. This time, the head is red, but it doesn't have batik material! He tells us that red batik material is hard to find.
Ok... why couldn't he have told us this in the first place when we ordered the head at his shop? If he had even called us up to tell us that he can't deliver a red batik lion, we could have accepted that. But telling us that he can't make a red batik head AFTER he delivers to us 2 heads of the incorrect type is pretty hard to accept.
We also tried the second method, picking up heads at his shop. We ordered some small heads for my younger group of performers. The heads are very nice! The heads are about the size we desired. But the body and pants of the lion are regular adult one-size-fits all. I don't think my younger group will be able to fit into these pants without some alteration. Plus we wanted our name on the collar of the heads, but I think he misplaced our name when he moved his shop. I guess we could have left the heads with him and told him to correct everything, but it's hard to leave his shop empty-handed after traveling all that way.
And yes, all of this is in addition to our mail deliveries from him.
I should say that we have been satisfied with some of our orders from Master Siow, but that seems to be more the exception than the norm.
Your experience and other persons' experiences may be different. But this is what I've experienced. That disclaimer "Past history is no indication of future performance" applies here.

Willy Le, Fri, 10 Nov 2000 18:55:07 -0600
Actually, my experience wasn't perfect, either. When I got there my heads weren't ready yet and it was during the last week that I reconfirmed my order and they finally made the lions for me. I was a little worried because I made the order like 3 months in advance! At one point I was even ready to change my order and get whatever was available since the lions weren't finished anyway... but luckily they found some lions that were premade and designated them for me and even custom made the collars with our troupe's name on them in time for me to go home. But I had to check just about every day of that last week to make sure that everything was going ok.
They seem to make a lot of gold and red lions, which worked in my favor since those were the two colors I wanted. So maybe in the future potential customers can keep in mind that gold and red have a higher chance of being available sooner. Then again it could have just been a coincidence while I was there that they had gold and red lions.
I hate to scare anyone with these experiences but just be aware that you should be prepared for anything. From doing business with Master Siow to getting your equipment home, it's a gamble the whole way through.

George Chan, Sun, 12 Nov 2000 05:45:23 GMT
Even us here, in Malaysia, sometimes experience your problem ordering from Master Siow. The problem with us is that we are located about 4 hr flying time from Master Siow's place so we could not see the progress of our lions personally. It is a problem and we are thinking of how to help. You see, his oringinal and main market is still Peninsular/West Malaysia, where the buyers can check on their stuff easily. Wan Seng Hang's problems, as I see them, are;
1. No manager/secretary and with only 5-8 'non-permanent' workers.
2. Owner is not a 'profressional' buisnessman.
3. Owner is too busy and disorganized.
I think letter/e-mail writting is definitely the most non-effective way to communicate with him. Better to fax him or better still ring him on his cell phone.
It is also better to email Albert Fong (Ah Yip) through his or Khuan Loke's address as he is very close(physical distance) to Sifu, but I cannot vounce for the freqency he reads his e-mail. His is also busy with his studies and lion dance performance/competition.
To get the best product 'accuracy', I suggest that you order more 'popular' lions, like the lazer silver/gold lion, the red lion with white fur etc. Only order customise lion if you can check on the lion's progress your self or take the risk that it will not come out as what you want. FYI, batik clothes are unique every batch, and thus it is almost impossible to have the same batik lion if the batch of cloth runs out.
What I suggest when ordering is first talk to master Siow then fax him the order. Tell him of the collection date. About 2 weeks before the time of collection follow up with a few phone calls, until the day he finises the lion head. Better still ask Yip to check for you. To collect it is always better to fly in and get it yourself.
I know of the frustration when you get the lion that you did not ordered, and unfortunately Master Siow is infamous with that. Me and a few of his friends use to think of ways to help him out but so far no solution in sight beside finding him a manager. There are however occasions that people to send the lions head back to him, mostly because of damages during freight, and he will repair it at no extra cost.
As for payment, for my personal experience I never had to pay before delivery. Somtimes teams here also take a few months to fully pay him.
There is a lot of problems with Master Siow's overseas distribution and we who know him feel really bad as he good name is tianted by this, thus we are always trying to help him get a good system going. I am also very nervious in helping people ordering from him as I could not garantee anything! I do hope the list can give some good suggestion that will help him so that I can pass it on to him and help him to help us!

If you've been to or purchased equipment from a store in this area and would like to write a review, email it to me and I'll include it here the next time I update the page.

	Lo Fo Chi/ Springrace Enterprises
Arnold Buenviaje, Fri, 10 Nov 2000 21:35:17 +0800 I know Master Lim Meng Kok,our club "Phil. Ling Nam Athletic Federation" have been purchasing lion head from Master Lim Meng Kok (His company's name is Lo Fo Chi) for years, we met him when he was still a partner of Sifu H.P.Siow at Wan Seng Hang. Because we and Sifu Lim have been friends for years We sometimes pay him after we received the merchandise, sometimes we sent our money in advance (sometimes months ahead of delivery). If you guy want to purchase lion from Sifu Lim deal with him directly if you need his contact number, I can get it for you and his address too! I think Sifu Lim do not speak English, only Cantonese and Mandarin. About Sifu Lim lion they are good
Ernie Loo, Mon, 04 Dec 2000 23:59:36 -1000 Lawrence is a nice guy. He went out of his way to get our lion head which Peter Seen did not ship. Lawrence did not make a single penny from us but he felt the obligation to fulfill our order just for Sifu Lim's reputation. If we order lion heads again, we definitely will order from him.

	Wan Seng Hang Trading Co.
Willy, Wed, 19 Apr 2000 23:45:23 -0500 Well you get 2 pairs of pants with the lion. You'll have to ask the Marin group how much shipping is. His heads cost from about 1500 ringgits for the normal color lions to around 1900 ringgits for the silver, gold, and batik ones I think. Last I checked, US dollar got 3.8 ringgits, so divide these prices roughly by 4. These are great deals but getting them can be a problem. It's best to go over there yourself and pick up a bunch.
Peter Lee, Mon, 20 May 1996 18:23:51 +0800 In my opinion, this guy (Siow sifu) is making one of the nicest lion heads around. A good indication is 80% of the competing teams in HK 95 Championship used his heads. He makes several hundred heads a year, so he's stuff is pretty popular. H.P. Siow is the chief instructor of the Malaysian world beating lion dance troupe, Kun Seng Keng. He's a really nice guy so check him out. Oh, one thing to note, sometimes he is really good in terms of getting it send to the US (6 weeks for a friend in SF) , but other times when he is really busy (like -often), it may take much longer...it's really hard to say...check with him. Siow sifu does not speak English well but can get someone to read his English faxes.
Alevia Dwixenzia, Fri, 10 Nov 2000 00:19:37 GMT I bought 2 lions and 8 pairs of cymbals. Master Siow's lions are really good made ones. The sticks inside the lionhead where you hold it with, made of PVC pipe. The lionhead is quite light, the balance is also good. It has nice face form, that makes it look so cute and expressive. Master Siow sells 2 different size of lionhead, size 2 and size 3 (which is smaller than size 2). He sells both Fat Shan and Hoc Shan lionhead. You can choose the one you like. The price? Not too high not too low. About US$400 and US$500 each lion, completed with costume.The cymbals have clear sound to hear. Actually we were going to buy 2 pairs of drumsticks, but he gave them to us for free, cool! They are very light and produce clear sound.
Willy Le, Fri, 10 Nov 2000 07:09:09 -0600 This is just FYI but it is for fraud protection and customer satisfaction that Master Siow will not accept payment for your order before the equipment is in your hands. It's just to make sure that you are happy with what you ordered and because sometimes he might not meet deadlines because his factory is very busy. It takes a lot of trust on his part but I think he's doing better business that way.
Greg Chuck, Fri, 10 Nov 2000 16:16:23 GMT Hmm, this has not been my experience with Master Siow. When my team orders equipment from Master Siow by mail, we have to wire him the money BEFORE he will release the equipment. And very often, we are not satisfied with the shipment. We have received heads in colors we did not order, heads with the wrong kind of material, and heads with small amounts of damage. And some of our orders have arrived late. Although the damage and lateness may not have been entirely his fault, would you be satisfied receiving damaged and incorrect goods from a retailer the week after an important occasion? I've heard similar stories from people on other teams that deal with Master Siow. Anyway, my point is that the customer satisfaction "department" at Master Siow's shop could be improved. Don't get me wrong: Master Siow has done a lot for the lion dancing community and is a great guy, and I'm not saying not to do business with him, but I believe he has simply gotten too busy to run the business-side of his shop efficiently and effectively without more help.
Willy Le, Fri, 10 Nov 2000 12:39:09 -0600 I guess my info. is more for people going to Malaysia to pick up the stuff personally. For instance my troupe is interested in getting a dragon and I told him we'd come back to Malaysia to get it. I offered to pay for it beforehand but he refused for the reason I stated earlier (it might not be ready, he wants to make sure it's the right one, etc.). You are quite right, though. He's getting really busy and it's getting harder and harder to keep up with the increased business. Good for him (sort of), bad for us.
Greg Chuck, Sat, 11 Nov 2000 00:07:28 GMT Hmm, I've been over to Malaysia to get/order equipment using 2 "methods". One method is to order the equipment at his shop, hoping that since you're there talking in person to Master Siow himself, you can get all the details straightened out. The other method is to order a few months before going over and to pick up the equipment when you're there. We've tried both these methods. Both times, we didn't get 100% satisfaction. We tried the first method, and ordered a red batik lion from him at his shop. A few months later, we did get a batik lion, but it's not red! We call him up and tell him, and he apologizes and tells us he'll bring us a red batik lion when he arrives in SF for the lion dance conference. So he brings over another head for us. This time, the head is red, but it doesn't have batik material! He tells us that red batik material is hard to find. Ok... why couldn't he have told us this in the first place when we ordered the head at his shop? If he had even called us up to tell us that he can't deliver a red batik lion, we could have accepted that. But telling us that he can't make a red batik head AFTER he delivers to us 2 heads of the incorrect type is pretty hard to accept. We also tried the second method, picking up heads at his shop. We ordered some small heads for my younger group of performers. The heads are very nice! The heads are about the size we desired. But the body and pants of the lion are regular adult one-size-fits all. I don't think my younger group will be able to fit into these pants without some alteration. Plus we wanted our name on the collar of the heads, but I think he misplaced our name when he moved his shop. I guess we could have left the heads with him and told him to correct everything, but it's hard to leave his shop empty-handed after traveling all that way. And yes, all of this is in addition to our mail deliveries from him. I should say that we have been satisfied with some of our orders from Master Siow, but that seems to be more the exception than the norm. Your experience and other persons' experiences may be different. But this is what I've experienced. That disclaimer "Past history is no indication of future performance" applies here.
Willy Le, Fri, 10 Nov 2000 18:55:07 -0600 Actually, my experience wasn't perfect, either. When I got there my heads weren't ready yet and it was during the last week that I reconfirmed my order and they finally made the lions for me. I was a little worried because I made the order like 3 months in advance! At one point I was even ready to change my order and get whatever was available since the lions weren't finished anyway... but luckily they found some lions that were premade and designated them for me and even custom made the collars with our troupe's name on them in time for me to go home. But I had to check just about every day of that last week to make sure that everything was going ok. They seem to make a lot of gold and red lions, which worked in my favor since those were the two colors I wanted. So maybe in the future potential customers can keep in mind that gold and red have a higher chance of being available sooner. Then again it could have just been a coincidence while I was there that they had gold and red lions. I hate to scare anyone with these experiences but just be aware that you should be prepared for anything. From doing business with Master Siow to getting your equipment home, it's a gamble the whole way through.
George Chan, Sun, 12 Nov 2000 05:45:23 GMT Even us here, in Malaysia, sometimes experience your problem ordering from Master Siow. The problem with us is that we are located about 4 hr flying time from Master Siow's place so we could not see the progress of our lions personally. It is a problem and we are thinking of how to help. You see, his oringinal and main market is still Peninsular/West Malaysia, where the buyers can check on their stuff easily. Wan Seng Hang's problems, as I see them, are; 1. No manager/secretary and with only 5-8 'non-permanent' workers. 2. Owner is not a 'profressional' buisnessman. 3. Owner is too busy and disorganized. I think letter/e-mail writting is definitely the most non-effective way to communicate with him. Better to fax him or better still ring him on his cell phone. It is also better to email Albert Fong (Ah Yip) through his or Khuan Loke's address as he is very close(physical distance) to Sifu, but I cannot vounce for the freqency he reads his e-mail. His is also busy with his studies and lion dance performance/competition. To get the best product 'accuracy', I suggest that you order more 'popular' lions, like the lazer silver/gold lion, the red lion with white fur etc. Only order customise lion if you can check on the lion's progress your self or take the risk that it will not come out as what you want. FYI, batik clothes are unique every batch, and thus it is almost impossible to have the same batik lion if the batch of cloth runs out. What I suggest when ordering is first talk to master Siow then fax him the order. Tell him of the collection date. About 2 weeks before the time of collection follow up with a few phone calls, until the day he finises the lion head. Better still ask Yip to check for you. To collect it is always better to fly in and get it yourself. I know of the frustration when you get the lion that you did not ordered, and unfortunately Master Siow is infamous with that. Me and a few of his friends use to think of ways to help him out but so far no solution in sight beside finding him a manager. There are however occasions that people to send the lions head back to him, mostly because of damages during freight, and he will repair it at no extra cost. As for payment, for my personal experience I never had to pay before delivery. Somtimes teams here also take a few months to fully pay him. There is a lot of problems with Master Siow's overseas distribution and we who know him feel really bad as he good name is tianted by this, thus we are always trying to help him get a good system going. I am also very nervious in helping people ordering from him as I could not garantee anything! I do hope the list can give some good suggestion that will help him so that I can pass it on to him and help him to help us!