Flag of China
You can't visit China now because of the quarantine over the Wuhan virus, but you can see a lion dance in many places.
I saw a lion dance in Singapore. The lion dance has two people with poles, hidden, holding up the lion head. I have seen both several times in Singapore.For Chinese New Year and openings of restaurants and businesses.
Singapore flag
First I saw the large lion faces on the ground.
I've got my eyes on you. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
First I notice the big yellow and red lion's faces.
Then the red shirts of the team of men doing the lion dance.
The music started up. I'm not a fan of noise. But the music was mesmerizing. Even more so, the colours and the movement.
The lions danced into the restaurant and out again, delighting the onlookers, children, adults, the elderly.
Then the dancers gathered together in a line and lifted the head and body for the Dragon Dance.
The clashing music started.
The sticks, not bamboo which I imagined was used in the old days, but metal tubes, were used to raise the long lion body. More a snake than a lion.
They whirled, they twirled, they acted in unison, one after another, up and down, like a Mexican wave of the audience, standing and sitting and standing at a football match. A diagonal circle. A spiral. The music was jarring but the images were soothing. The colours were entrancing. The spectacle was mesmerizing.
Dragon Dance at Buona Vista mall beside the MRT railway station, Singapore. Photos and videos by Angela Lansbury
Several times I tried to walk away. When the music stopped. Then the music started again. I turned to look back. I ran back. I stood at the back. Another photographer steeped sideways blocking my vision. I moved forward to take a better picture.
So, sort out the dragon dance, the lion dance and the tiger dance. The dragon dances are performed in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Chinatowns in Canada, the UK and USA and Chinese restaurants and businesses worldwide. The tiger dance is performed in India, Indonesia, Japan and Nepal.
Celebrations in Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_dance
singaporeair.com
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Singapore
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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