Dong dong ching
(Lion Dance: Singapore)
It seems that all activities surrounding New Year are concerned with luck, fortune and prosperity. There are three lucky Gods in Chinese culture, each refers to a different attribute of a healthy, good life. They are Fu, Lu and Shou, or Good fortune, Prosperity and Longevity. You might have seen a set of three Chinese figurines, all of them are smiling old men with long trailing beards.
I have been desperate to see a traditional lion dance since I arrived here as it is only performed at this time of year. Unfortunately our plans to see one in a park were thwarted by horrendous queues, then I accosted a trailer load of lion dance performers and we chased them, but this time they were too quick for us. Just as I was becoming despondent and convinced we would never manage to find one, we heard the “dong dong ching” of the lion dance percussion from the car. Just out of the rear view mirror, we caught the shivering head and striped caterpillar body of a lion in a roadside restaurant.
At one of the several family gatherings I have attended, I met many of Ying’s cousins, one of which used to perform as the front of a two-man lion dance a few years ago. Much to my interest and excitement, he told me much about the lions and their dances. This lion is a Southern two-man lion (the Northern being a one man, agile affair) and to be honest, by the late afternoon it seemed that this King of the beasts was becoming fatigued. The lion’s goal is to eat the ‘green’, the vegetables that are left as offerings, but in this case (being a restaurant bar) the ‘green’ came in the form of beer tins. In the left hand picture, he managed to kick dance his way nearer his target – this was as impressive as the tired lion managed to be, but I could see that his prowess was limited by the amazing humidity and heat of the sun. A lion should really be sleeping at this time, not prancing in front of a shrine and sustained by vegetables.
The top image shows the lion eating; this basically entails him descending onto the offerings as the two dancers inside set to swiftly peeling oranges and clicking open the beers. The percussion reflected his movements with the trademark drum and cymbals incessantly chinging in the background. In the bottom image, he has become very curiously cat-like and peers inquisitively at the cans. This was done with much blinking and sniffing (the nose is set on springs for added effect). In fact, I believe here he is cleaning himself after feeding on the cans and peeling the oranges to sit atop them. At the climax of the performance, the lion ate many oranges and there was a wait of several minutes. Neither Ying nor I could fathom why the act took so long until the lion rose up, spitting peel across the restaurant. Lion took off and the dancers shed their skins, we gathered round to see the end result of the dance; orange segments arranged into the Chinese characters for luck and wealth and the address number of the restaurant.
