Happy new year everyone! Chinese new year is probably the most exciting time of the year for me. It’s my version of Christmas or Easter. There are family events, lots for food, lots of entertainment like lion dancing AND it goes on for 2-3 weeks! I’m not sure what else can beat that combination. I think it’s a particular touching time for me because my family never really celebrated any of the other important calendar dates in Australia, and just growing up in Cabramatta where there is so much hustle and bustle leasing up to Lunar New Year, then the place shuts down for a few days before it completely explodes again with colour and sound. It’s also super special to me because as a lion dancer, the celebration doesn’t stop with the family lunch and dinner but continues as part of the performances that I am involved with both as a performer and as an audience member. The other exciting time for me would be over the Mid Autumn Festival/ Moon festival but that really is only a one day event and then it’s over.

And what a packed schedule it is in Sydney. I’m not sure if all you lion dancers do what I do, but I always trawl through all the different lion dance team’s Facebook pages to see their individual schedules and look trawl through all the various council’s websites to see when they’re hosting their lunar new year community events (in Sydney, the big events are usually in Cabramatta, Fairfield Showground hỏi chợ Tết, Bankstown, Eastwood, Hurstville, Burwood, Chatswood, Rhodes, Parramatta and of course Chinatown) and all the nearby shopping centres to see if they’ve hired a team to perform for them to get a mental mind map of what, when and where performances are happening. It’s become such known amongst my family and friends that any time they have spare chance and want to see lion dancing, they’ll always be asking me for where they might be able to catch a performance. On top of that, just because they’re up the road, it’s hard not to start watching videos of the Melbourne based teams tearing it up in Richmond, St Albans, Footscray, Springvale, Box Hill and Melbourne’s Chinatown. And of course Sun Loong and the team in Bendigo for putting on a show there too. That’s right Melbourners, I got my eyes on you down there and I love it!

Some of the posters for the community council events

Some of the lion team schedules. For all the other teams, put them up, people want to know where they can see you guys!

I can definitely say this this year feels like everyone is getting in on the action because there or events and performances everywhere for 3 weeks straight. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s the “Dragon Year”, or maybe it’s because Sydney is such a multicultural hub and the resumpton of travel and normality post covid-19 has meant more people who typically celebrate lunar new year actually doing so, or if it’s businesses trying to be inclusive, or just trying to cash in on another celebration/event that they can put as part of their marketing calendar (and why wouldn’t you with the wonderful decorations and various entertainment options). Apart from all the council events, it appears every major shopping centre is hiring out a lion dancing team including in suburbs not usually known to have a large East Asian diaspora and what’s becoming more trendy is clubs all over Sydney (in Australia, they’re typically run by a sporting club or RSL and have strong community engagement through their facilities and community funding) inviting teams to perform for them too! I think I mentioned it last year but we’ve also go nightclubs hiring our teams for performances. Plus of course if you’re in Cabramatta and Chinatown, there’s always the street performances happening throughout the new years periods as various teams move their way from shop to shop.

I shouldn’t neglect that there are various other performances happening as part of the entertainment (typically the community council events) such as traditional stage dances that and music but let’s be honest, as a lion dancer, I want to hear the drums and the lions and the atmosphere we create.

03.02.2024 Bankstown. My adventures started in Bankstown for their lunar new year festival. They had a short little lion dancing segment as part of a larger performance line up. I must admit, when I go to these events, I tend to only watch the lion dancing before checking out what food and exhibition stalls they have on offer. Bankstown has a large Vietnamese diaspora and that was reflected in a lot of the decorations that were set up. It was actually quite beautiful and real and authentic. Real in the sense that this is what new years in Vietnam would look like and what my parents would have experienced growing up. You’re almost transported there even though you’re in the middle of Bankstown. I can imagine the sense of nostalgia for the refugees who fled in the 80s and 90s. The flowers, the banh trung, the calligraphy, the south Vietnamese flag flying, all of it.

03.02.2024 Chinatown. I got to see Jin Wu Koon out and about for their Chinatown performance. They had 3 lions and a dragon dancing around which was cool. The only thing I think would be cooler is if there were firecrackers and if more shops put out chengs!! I think I spent more time trying to chase after the team as they moved fairly quickly around Chinatown given not as many shops were putting up chengs. (I have to admit, I missed seeing them up and down Dixon and Sussex Street. Maybe those shops were more amendable to putting something out). I prefer watching teams when the lions go shop to adjacent shop and it excites me when I look down the street and most if not all have a lettuce hanging on the doorway. Then I can watch the dancers actually dance around and do their thing rather than just seeing their tails as they move off. Also, I can say go to the toilet and come back and voila, the lions are only two shops down!! Exactly where I left them!

9.02.2024 Canley Vale. I typically attend the Ming Yue Lay Temple in Bonnirigg on the evening of Chinese New Year’s Eve followed by the Kuan Yin Temple in Canley Vale by 11pm to catch the last part of the lion dance performances there, their epic old school firecrackers followed by a cracking fireworks celebration. This year everywhere was crazy packed!! It was really atmospheric and really cool to see lots of people turning out and also getting dressed up in their traditional clothing. It was beautiful to see lots of áo dài of various colours on both the guys and girls as well as various Chinese style dresses, mandarin tops on the guys and for everyone else, plenty of new year print t shirts. And to add to the cultural aspect, there were plenty of people of other ethnicities getting in and wearing the traditional clothing. I guess it speaks of the widespread reach of Asian culture on Sydney. The only downside is the parking!! Now that everyone has gotten the lowdown on the best celebration of the year, it’s impossible to navigate down the Avenues and to get parking close by.

10.02.2024. Performances. I spent all of my time tucked away in the big headed Buddha costume this year. It was so much fun playing him. We’ve never really pulled the big headed Buddha out for our previous performances so this was a little special. I hope whoever saw our shows enjoyed it. I got the inspiration to play it from my son. He’s 2 and a half years old and we were reading Ernie Wan’s Chinese New Year book and one of his favourite photos in the book is that of the big headed Buddha. Don’t bother with all the killer Baak Wan and Luo On Kee lions, the kid wants Dai Tou Fut! So there you have it. I don’t know how I performed as I haven’t had a chance to see myself but I had a ton of fun. This year we have a much small set of performances this year which I don’t mind at all. A few shows today and a few shows in the coming weeks. It’s enough to whet my appetite for performing and having fun whilst giving me time to enjoy watching others. Some of the schedules of the other teams look nauseating. I wonder how the performers feel and I wonder whether they have an opinion on some of the places they perform at or whether they’re just happy to hop onto the team bus, arrive at destination and start do what they love doing all over again. As for me, there are certainly shows/ gigs that I get really excited about and others where I feel I could give it a miss. It’s a weird paradoxical feeling given that as a performer, it shouldn’t matter who I perform for as long as they enjoy it. The shows I like to participate in are the ones where people travel out of their way to specifically see you and deeply appreciate what you do. And then there are those shows where you’re hired entertainers and the people watching were already going to be there whether you were there or not. Not that these audience members don’t appreciate you, but more so they probably couldn’t care less. Eg, we did a show at Rhodes Waterside and there were plenty of ads for our scheduled 11.00 start time and a crowd has already begun awaiting our arrival! They’re there for us. Now that’s a show I like to perform at.

11.02.2024. Today was a busy day for performances all around Sydney. On my to watch list was Jin Wu Koon at Rhodes in the morning, Jing Yee at noon, THQ in the afternoon and Chinese Youth League in the evening. In the end I found myself in Chinatown watching the Sydney Masonic Society parading around. They even had a 財神 and a dragon mascot (I feel for whoever was in there because it was hot). It’s not too common in Sydney to see other characters accompanying the lions so it was a little refreshing to see these guys.

There’s plenty more coming up in Sydney. Eastwood is having their lunar new year celebration on Saturday 17.02.2024, Fairfield City is hosting Hoi cho tét between Friday and Sunday the 16.02.2024-18.02.2024, Cabramatta is set to come alive with lion performances over the coming weekend and culminating with a mini festival on the 24.02.2024. All the local lion teams have been invited to perform at some point during the day so if you’re a lion enthusiast, come on down. Choy Lee Fut will be parading around Chinatown, and there’ll be dragon boat races amongst other performances. I hope everyone is enjoying it all as much as I am.

I almost forgot, for those who haven’t seen it, there’s a really cool short documentary involving the Pak Hok Kung Fu International Inc. family. Check it out here. I remember seeing the Pak Hok guys when I was younger. One of the unique things they did was the tail players would stick their arms out and not support the head player when they shoulder stacked.