Happy new year. It’s been non stop celebration season. First it was Christmas, and then came the calendar new year and now, lunar new year is upon us and Sydney has been in full swing! It’s only been 5 days since the new year but I feel like I’ve been in the lunar new year festive spirit for much longer. Everywhere I look, more and more people are celebrating or getting into it. It feels in a way like Christmas (with all the Christmas lights adorning homes, Christmas trees in town centres and shopping centres; Santa and Christmas carols, and then a lot of get togethers). Now just replace the Christmas decorations with lanterns, red paper couplets, cherry blossoms, Chinese fans, red pockets and did I mention lots of red?! All the Asian town centres, plenty of restaurants, sports clubs, RSL clubs, shopping centres (no matter the local demographics) are joining in on the lunar new year festive spirit with their decorations and hosting lunar new year events and hiring lion dance teams to perform. And to top it off, it’s not just one day but events that stretch out for about a month! Actually, it feels like every shopping centre, restaurant and club in Sydney has hired a lion dance team, some not just once but for two or more performances. You don’t have to travel far now to see lion dancing, and if you haven’t got enough of a fix for lion drum beats, then you can do it all again at the next 100 shows!! It’s in stark contrast to when I first started. When I was younger, if I wanted to watch lion dancing, it was typically go to Cabramatta and you’re guaranteed to see lions everywhere during the day at one of the local banquet restaurants like Iron Chef at night; or you head into Chinatown on the weekends to watch one of the non Cabra teams (I’m thinking Guangzhou Bak Mei, Yau Kung Mun, Jin Wu Koon, Choy Lee Fut, White Crane. Or it would be to head to somewhere like Eastwood or Hurstville for their festival. What’s really impressive is how some of the teams can split their team into 3 or maybe more little teams so they can spread out to cover the gigs. To those teams, I applaud you for putting the effort in to training up so many drummers and musicians and lion performers AND for travelling far distances to perform at your various gigs.

I had the opportunity to catch a few lion performances myself. My favourite so far was Qing Fong’s gig at Flemington shops. It reminded me a lot of Cabramatta in the old days. When I arrived, almost every single shop had at a lettuce and red packet hanging at the entrance. The only thing missing compared to the old days were a string of firecrackers already strung up and closely guarded to protect them from kids coming along and plucking a firecracker or two or more to light for themselves. But to my delight, they didn’t need to be hanging from the get go because following the lions were the pyrotechnics team. And just like Cabra of old, as the lions started going from shop to shop to shop, each performance was capped off with one or two strings of firecrackers. It was 2 hours of continuous fun! This is definitely my preference as a performer and as an audience member. As a spectator, it was just continuous action!! I didn’t have to criss cross town. I knew exactly where the next performance was, I could do a toilet break, get some food and the dancers are only 3 shops away!

I should put a mention that it’s a shame the Bankstown Lunar New Year festival was cancelled due to bad weather. Let’s hope good weather holds up for the rest of the seasons performances and celebrations.

I went down to my usual haunt at Kwan Yin temple on Chinese New Year Eve. Yun Yee Tong put up another great show. There were lots of different lion routines, a dragon routine and some kung fu performances both from the Sifu’s and from the students. I need to work out what kung fu they do though. I always knew Yun Yee Tong to be a Jow Ga kung fu school but it looks like there’s other styles being taught there. I liked the addition of the fire extinguisher to make a puff of smoke for the dragon. I also loved the use of different percussion instruments to add different elements of music to some of their routines. And as usual, the night was capped off with a lucky red packet from the God of Wealth and the most epic fireworks display. If you haven’t been, you need to go next Chinese New Year’s Eve.

I went chasing lions in Cabramatta and Canley Heights on the Sunday after finishing up with my own performances on the Saturday. The tricky thing with so many performances happening is which ones do I go and see. Do I go to Rhodes central to watch Jin Wu Koon on poles (no firecrackers), do I head to Burwood Westfields to see Yau Kung Mun roam the shops, do I head into Chinatown to watch Choy Lee Fut do their parade or do I head home and watch lions with firecrackers. (Answer is at the top). There’s just something about firecrackers. It’s like the cherry on top of the performances. You can do without but it’s ALWAYS better with it. In saying that I got to see Trung Han Qun and Yun Yee Tong go about their shows. One supermarket went baller style and had 8 strings!! Here’s what I would do if I was the supermarket, I’d ask if I could connect the firecrackers end to end to make a super long firecracker! That way the string goes for 8x the length of time for the approximately the same amount of ear popping noise!

Some of the decorations out and about

There’s another two more weeks of performances happening if you’ve been unlucky enough to miss out so far. Head anywhere and you’re bound to see performances. If you’re stuck, Eastwood, Rhodes, Cabramatta, Canley Heights, Fairfield City Council Hoi Cho Tet is yet to happen. And of course if you head to Cabramatta or Chinatown, you’re guaranteed to see something.

And that’s a wrap for another new year’s season of lion dancing. This year’s celebrations felt particularly long and I suppose it was much helped by the fact that day 1 fell on a Saturday and day 15 on a Saturday. That makes 3 sets of weekends to officially celebrate the period not withstanding the extra events that were held outside this.

So what has been happening? It’s been crazy busy here in Sydney with lion dance action everywhere. I managed to catch a few other teams’ performance which was wonderful. I really like how every team has something different. A different drumming style, a different dancing style, some with dragons, some teams using props like high poles and jongs, some mascots like the God of Wealth, dragon mascots and others mixing their shows with their kung fu. It’s quite refreshing to see for me. For us at Dragon Style Kung Fu, we had a big headed Buddha to join in the lion dancing, as well as a dragon ribbon dance for one of our gigs. The Dai Tou Fut was actually quite fun to play. There was lots of freedom to interact with the lions and tease the crowd and I think best of all, just acting plain silly. I think he’s also a nice segue for the in between performances as light comedic relief such as when everyone is setting up benches or packing away scrolls. During the performances, he’s useful to help direct lions to where they need to go and even cover up for them if need be like if they’ve dropped a lettuce all whilst looking like it’s part of the show. The only problem (which is minor) for me is that I can’t jump into the lions or spend time jamming away on the instruments. To help me prepare for playing the Buddha, it got me watching heaps of videos of other players and taking the elements that I really enjoyed and trying to incorporate that in. It also got me looking to other performance arts like Noh and kabuki and mime to see how they choreograph their moves which was cool. I’ve always tended to only watch other lion dancing groups and borrowing elements that I liked so this was refreshing. I think there’s potentially a lot we might be able to borrow from other performance arts. Alas, in the case of the Buddha, it really was just watching other lion teams where I drew most of my inspiration.

17.02.24 Trung Han Qun Lion Dance and Yun Yee Tong Lion and Dragon Dance. I managed to catch THQ and YYT roaming around Cabramatta on Saturday. It’s always fun to watch performances in Cabramatta on Chinese new year period. There’s plenty of firecrackers, plenty of lion dancing groups around (Jing Yee were also out and about but I missed them) and it’s more or less continuous action for most of the day.

24.02.2024 Rhodes. No lion dancing but it was really good to see the community come out to participate in Rhodes’ lunar new year event. There were lots of groups performing on stage, they had this awesome face changing performer. Still impresses me every time he performs. I have to admit, I have looked up how they do it but there’s a dearth of information on how they do. I guess some things are left to the imagination and that means it’ll be forever an enjoyment when I watch him perform. On the topic of why Rhodes is up here, they had a dragon parade. The owner of the dragon had stitched together a mega long body that takes 100 people to bring it to life and he was busy beating out a nice little tune with his solo multiple drum set up. I think it’s time Cabramatta get in on the parade dragon bandwagon. I think the community will easily get involved and it’ll be magnificent.

24.02.2024 Cabramatta lunar new year festival. Where else in Sydney do you find a lion dancing program that stretches the whole day. There were a few little stages scattered around but I think for most people, the action was just in front of Freedom Plaza where Jing Yee, THQ, Qing Fong Lion Dance team and Dragon Style Kung Fu each had a one hour set to wow the crowds. I think it was a great initiative from the organisers’ perspective. I do think that it’s amazing that there are that many teams in the Cabramatta area and the cool thing is, everyone is doing something a little different.

I didn’t get to see Jing Yee perform live but I did see some of their videos and they did an amazing Jong performance (I think it’ll be the first Cabra area team to do so), a super high pole performance with some dangerous stunts, dragon dancing and lots of lions dancing. I caught a bit of Qing Fong’s performance with great use of props and what I can only imagine to be a carp leaps through the dragon gate routine where they managed to combine a lion and dragon set together. It was pretty cool to watch.

Then it was us at Dragon Style Kung Fu to rock the joint. I think we did a good job by the look of the crowd. We had a few solo lion performances with the old guys, the less old guys and the kids all joining in. Big, old big head headed Buddha made an appearance once or twice but we got severely beaten back by the lion a few times. We also got to showcase our dragon style kung fu (lung ying kuen; it’s a Hakka art with similarities in principle and appearance to some other Hakka arts like bak mei, and southern mantis kung fu). And two of the parents came out and did an epic ribbon dragon dance set. I’ve tried it and it’s no easy feat spinning them around let alone making it look good. We had a jolly good time and I hope if you’re reading this and watched our performance, you had a good time too.

I must say, I missed THQs late night set but from the videos, it was lots of LED lights!

That’s a wrap for 2024 Lunar new year. We’ll see you again at moon festival.

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.

Happy new year to everyone around the world. It’s been a rough past 3 years with the covid-19 pandemic and there’s definitely a feeling here in Sydney, Australia that people want to move on with their lives. In saying that, I don’t think I have seen a lion dancing schedule as packed as what I’ve seen this year. There have been performances in and around Sydney for the better part of a month starting before lunar new year started and stretching through to the 15th day!

A new trend that I’ve seen more of is large shopping centres getting in on celebrations and hiring lion dance troupes to perform at set schedules. I think it’s testament to the impact and influence of the large multicultural diaspora living in and around Sydney. I like the idea of spreading this aspect of Chinese/ Asian culture but I do sometimes wonder where the line gets drawn between a cultural celebration versus a chance for corporates or businesses to use lion dancing as a means of entertainment/ marketing like moving from Christmas decorations to Easter decorations to Valentine’s Day to halloween etc. One example that comes to mind is lion dancing at night clubs. I don’t think I’d enjoy lion dancing at a night club. The other trend this year was seeing a stacked performances schedule on New Year’s Eve which just happened to fall on a Saturday. I suppose a big part of it is that despite lunar new year being part of the lunar calendar, we follow the Gregorian calendar including its 5 day work week and 2 day restful weekend. Which means, for a lot of shopping centres who are trying to make the most of lion dancing as part blessing, part entertainment, part attracting as many visitors to their centre as possible, it makes sense to try to get performances scheduled on the weekends in and around the new year date itself. It just feels a bit weird in a way because my memory of lunar new year when I was a kid was that lion dancing performances would happen on New Year’s Eve at the temples and then a bit of a break before they hit off about a week or two after lunar new year because a lot of the shops in Cabramatta where closed over the festive period as store owners would take possibly the only holiday break in the whole year. Now, we’re able to watch daily performances if we wanted to! I wonder how it is around the rest of the world. I do feel that Melbourne and it’s Asian suburbs seems to run a lot of its celebrations earlier than lunar new year itself (eg Footscray, St Albans running their cho tet 1-2 weeks before the actual lunar new year date). Whereas it seems like New York and the east coast of USA is about to hit its Super Saturday this weekend which would be the second weekend after lunar new year. Let me know what you guys think of these trends.

This year I did get a chance to participate in lion dancing performances with the Dragon Style team which is always fun. Our team was running a little low on available performers so rather than sit comfortably at the drums, I had a wonderful time flitting between playing the instruments, subbing into the tail as well as head for a few of the performances. We had a few performances mainly in different shopping centres. I don’t mind it as much given it’s a continuous stretch of approximately 1 hour performances. It gets the adrenaline pumping and when you see a shop after shop getting in on the atmosphere and putting up chengs and red pockets it definitely adds to the excitement.

I also had the pleasure of catching a few other teams performances. I really love the fact that quite a few of the teams have a social media presence and were kind enough to post their schedules out. That way it was much easier to plan out where to go and guarantee I’d get to see them.

I got to catch the Qing Fong team on New Year’s Eve at the Ming Yue Lay temple in Bonnyrigg. It’s been my rite of passage since being a kid growing up watching the Teo Chew Association perform here before dashing off to Kuan Yin temple in Canley Vale to watch Yun Yee Tong perform and then the best firecracker and fireworks show ever at midnight. The Qing Fong team ran through a gamut of routines and even brought out a dragon. I think it’s cool that all the members gets a chance to show off their hard work for everyone to see. They also appeared at Ashfield Mall where I just happened to be. And I saw a few of their performances in and around Cabramatta. Shoutout to them and their mini little firecracker! It was a nice touch in the absence if the real deal.

Over at Kuan Yun temple in Canley Vale, Yun Tee Tong were tearing up the place with their lion routines and kung fu demonstrations. Sifu Peter showed everyone how his qigong skills by bending a long metal rod and having concrete blocks smashed off his back whilst having his neck impaled with super sharp spears. It’s always cool to see the old timers come back and get in on the drumming action. I did so catch them around Cabramatta on a super hot and sweaty Sunday day and watched them participate in a wui si (lion greeting) with the Lion Dance Academy.

I didn’t see much of the Lion Dance Academy apart from their lion greeting with Yun Yee Tong and a throw back moment when they were on the rooftop of J’s Kitchen Steakhouse and I could picture the Teo Chew Association guys up there.

I saw THQ Cabra out and about. Fortunately, lots of firecrackers to accompany their shows as well as their many colourful lions. I hope firecrackers don’t ever lose favour with the council. I think it adds so much more to the atmosphere of the performance. It definitely beats having no firecrackers or the confetti canons. One new thing I’ve noticed is an addition of a new drum beat to their drum beat!

I managed to briefly catch the Jin Wu Koon team live at Burwood Plaza but was pleased to watch a video of their crazy jong routine at Market City.

Up in Chinatown, I got to see the tail end of the Choy Lee Fut team’s Chinatown performance. They’ve changed up their lions this year from their usual red lions. This time they had a triplet of 3 gold lions that were prancing around. It’s a shame they didn’t have firecrackers because that was always a sure thing in the past. I wonder what happened with it. Maybe council didn’t approve. In any case it was still enjoyable and nice to hear a different drum beat to most of the other teams around. Out in the city, I also got to see the Chinese Youth League do a short run down the length of Dixon Street. I like them. Actually, I really like their musicians. They have a nice musical quality to how they play with a variation of tempo and volume and flower drumming thrown in.

And finally, I saw the Yau Kung Mun team and their lion dance kids and lion dance teens teams hit it off at Eastwoods Lunar New Year celebrations, they had a monster eye dotting ceremony as well as a super cool Jong performance. It’s weird because I get bored quickly watching videos of jong performance and frequently find myself skipping through the routine but it’s something else watching it live. It’s almost like holding your breath to make sure the performers pull off their stunts and don’t get injured. So shout out to the dancers putting it all on the line for a wonderful performance. And of course, it all finished with a bang courtesy of a pair of firecrackers.

I just happened to have the other Zhang Fei lion hanging about so I managed to take some shots. The Liu Bei and the tails are stored away elsewhere so it’ll take some time to retrieve them.

Almost. I forgot to hook up the pulley system on the inside to get the eyelids to work!I have finally put the finishing touches on the lion. Apart from that, it’s pretty much done! The last couple of bits was to attach the trim and pom poms. I ordered in some sequin – red and gold to add to the lion. I think the sequins add a nice glint which might just catch the audiences’ eye as the light bounces off the lion. The red and gold sequins and the red pom poms against the gold base of the lion really makes the lion pop.

I feel it also has very much the same feel as the other two LFC homages that I have made which is no surprise given I used the same measurements. But good to know nonetheless, especially as I did a little improvisation when following the scale drawings.

Now to find a tail to go with the lion and then stick it together with its two brothers to take a family shot!

I got stuck into it this Christmas break to try to finish the lion head. There’s no deadline for it but it’s been sitting as an unfinished project for some time now and now that I have time, I better make a move on it. Especially as I see the end in sight. I got busy with using metal wire to secure the fur in place and I’m loving what I’m seeing. Out of the whole lion, there was probably one part which stood out to me that I didn’t like and that was my metal wiring for the eyelids. I miscalculated the length of the wire so the eyelids are a little on the smaller size compared to the eye. With the eyes closed, you can still see eye coming through. I was hoping with the eye bristle fur on, it’ll make it less noticeable and if all else fails at least the eye is usually open at rest (once I secure the elastics on).

The next step is to secure the bristle fur onto the lion but I couldn’t help myself and start arranging the pom poms. They’re double thickness so they really do look and feel “full” and vibrant. I was really worried that the lion being a gold and red lion was lacking redness to it but after playing around with the pom poms I think it’ll look great.

Slowly slowly getting there. I’ve made myself some free time to keep working on the lion. I hot glued the metal discs on and the fur. With the last two lions, I only put a small dab of hot glue on one edge of the discs and even though those lions haven’t even been performed in get, just carrying them around and accidentally knocking them around has meant that the discs have gone flying off. So this time, I’ve made sure to use more glue and applied the hot glue around the circumference of the discs so they’ll stay on permanently. For the fur, I decided to use faux fur. It doesn’t look as pretty as rabbit fur but it’s probably a little more animal friendly and what I’ve found with rabbit fur is over time, the fur tends to fall off the skin. I prepared the faux fur in the same way as I would have with the rabbit fur. I cut it into strips with the fur running perpendicular to length of the strip.

I also tried my hand at Chinese calligraphy. I must say, cudos to the professional writers and artists because it isn’t easy! Trying to make it nice and fat to fit out the zhao pai whilst keeping it neat was difficult. It looks a little childish but at least it’s my hand!

I had a pretty productive weekend with painting the lion head. The only parts I have left to do is the top and bottom eyelids after I have attached the fabric section for the eyelids. The only parts I am considering jazzing up are the areas with the red base and gold knife strokes. It almost looks too plain for me but I wonder with the addition of the metallic discs on them if it’s just enough.

Overall, I’m ok/happy with it for my level of painting skill and artistic abilities (read:lowly). Every time I see some of the professional heads made by the likes of Lo An Kee, Yu Ho, Bo Wah or Bak Wan etc it makes me feel like my head is inadequate but I need to put it all in perspective. They’re professionals and have made countless heads. This is my 5th attempt. I’m not aiming for the best, I’m also not aiming for a generic lion head. I’m aiming for something that makes me happy that I haven’t rushed it and have put it my all AND for everyone else, something that might just make you turn your head enough to say, that’s a cool looking head, it doesn’t look like the others, I wonder who made it. What do you guys think?