Something About Lion Dance
Meaning Chinese New Year "Barongsai" Lion Dance Performance
Barongsai or Lion Dance is traditional dance form in Chinese culture, which performers mimic a lion's movements in a lion costume to bring good luck and fortune. Usually will perform in chinese culture celebration like Chinese New Year (IMLEK).
Because there were no lions native to China when the dance was developing, the local people developed the lion dance by imitating the movements of animals they knew, and two separate styles of the dance developed: A northern style and southern style.
The southern lion dance is a performance based on the study of a lion's behavior, with an emphasis on actions like scratching, shaking of the body, and licking of fur. Performances are vivid and entertaining, even comical. There are also skillful performances, such as playing with a ball, which includes swallowing it. The southern style tended to be more stylized, with less realistic looking lion costumes.
The northern lion dance has close relations to kungfu Chinese martial arts. A young lion is performed by a single person and an adult lion is performed by a duo. Costumes are more robust, and less decorative, to allow for more movement. In the adult lion dance, the performer in front holding the lion's head is often lifted by the other to make the lion stand up. Northern lion dances are more gymnastic, involving rolling, wrestling, leaping, jumping, climbing, or kowtowing. The northern style tended to be more explosive, incorporating stunts.
During Chinese New Year celebrations in South-east Asia, with many troupes making their way to public spaces to perform Barongsai or Lion dance. Having a lion grace your premises, and presenting it with red packets filled with money, is said to bring you luck for the rest of the year.
The performances are no doubt entertaining, and the lions adorable, but not many people know about the deep symbolism behind each action they do, and even the details on the lions’ costumes. Why do they eat lettuce? What should you do if the lion approaches you? Who’s inside the costume, anyway?
Barongsai "Lion dance" illustrations help us appreciate this ancient tradition and art form.
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Articles, pictures and videos on this website are mostly originated from the internet or other third parties. They are demonstrated here for the purpose of cultural introduction and diversion.
They are not aimed for commercial use or sales purposes. The copy right of these articles, pictures or videos still be claimed by the original authors. However, we are aware but unable to get contact with the original copy-right owners of some non-original articles & pictures and unable to verify their real sources. If the related intellectual property rights of these authors are violated unintentionally, please contact us in time and we will delete the relevant articles or content immediately.