I’ve finally started painting one of the lion heads. It has took me a fair bit of time trying to pencil in the template to make sure it’s as true as I can be with the original. It’s been slow progress as I haven’t painted in quite some time so I’ve been trying to make sure my brush strokes are clean. In saying that I like to think that a lion like any living animal has its blemishes and nothing is perfect so if I haven’t got a stroke right and it isn’t 100% off, I’m happy to leave it as it adds some character to the lion. Here are some photos of the progress

And last but not least, I enjoyed the performances that the Chan Family Choy Lee Fut school had around the streets of Chinatown. I particularly enjoy the continuous parading of the lions and the drums from shop to shop around Chinatown as opposed to the start and stop nature that I see in Cabramatta. Their drumming style is also similar to the drumming style that we perform with in Dragon Style Kung Fu (based on the Hong Kong Hung Gar style of drumming) so it was nice to be able to follow and know why and what movements they’re performing. They also has some killer firecrackers that were double layered and went off with a bang! The noise was deafening, the smoke choking, and the flames bright. At one point, the smoke managed to fill a nearby shop and set off its fire alarms causing the local firies to make a visit. It’s always funny when people are standing quite close watching the performance and are reluctant to move back to a safe distance as the firecrackers are going to be lit. Fortunately, they had a forced safe distance or 5metres before anything was lit and then a space of about 10metres as everyone ran for cover when they realised that the sound of the firecrackers exploding is louder than they expected.

The team did an amazing job especially as towards the end of their performances, it started to bucket down with rain making the floor slippery and doing shoulder stands dangerous. They had a close call with one of the heads slipping backwards during an attempted shoulder stack but fortunately, no one was injured.

They did a great job keeping everyone entertained.

I usually make my way to the Ming Yue Lay Buddhist temple in Bonnirigg every year for New Years Eve to catch the Teo Chew Association performing there. They usually do a couple of cool set routines and showcase a lot of their lions. I missed out on seeing them there this year but caught some of their performances on the streets of Cabramatta.

They were rocking some new uniforms.

I’m on a roll with watching other teams this year. I briefly got to see these guys perform at one of the shops in Cabramatta. Unfortunately for me the lions spent most of its time up in the restaurant so I didn’t get too many snaps. However, I did get to see them do a few shoulder stacks as the firecrackers were being let off.

Here are a few snaps of them.

Up next with the Sydney groups is Sydney Yun Yee Tong. I managed to see them on a number of occasions across this new year period.

The first glimpse I had of them and their new uniform was at a local restaurant that my family had our 團圓飯 at.

Then we managed to catch them at one of the local temples- Kwan Yin Temple at Canley Vale for their annual midnight performance to reign in the new year. As usual they provided the entertainment by way of lion dancing and Kung fu sets before the firecrackers and incredible fireworks display were lit. A noticeable absence was the Central Coast Jow Gar school who have been a regular fixture at the New Years Eve celebrations the past few years and who usually belt out a number of Kung fu sets.

Finally, I managed to see more of them across their various performances around Cabramatta. There’s no missing the distinctive ding sound of their gong and their new fluoro green uniforms. I’ve included a picture of a new lion of theirs. A purple Hok San with a wicked paint job. I’m not sure if I’m a fan of the pom-poms though.

I managed to catch White Crane Kung Fu school- 白鶴派 during their New Years parade around the shops of Sydney Chinatown. They did a great job with their performance and drew in a sizeable crowd. Keep up the good work.

Happy New Year to everyone for the year 2018. It is the year of the Earth Dog. It is quite interesting because as much as I love lion dancing, Chinese culture and partake in the celebration of Chinese New Year, I was stumped when a member of the audience approached me after one of our performances this year and asked me what does that mean for her with this year being the year of the dog. I wasn’t sure. The only way I could answer was that it depends on what school of feng shui or divination that you follow. I wasn’t sure if that was a good answer itself so I had to look it up.
So what does it mean for us to celebrate the lunar new year.

For me, it was always a time to usher in the old and bring in the new year with new changes, new hopes, new aspirations, or to reflect on the good things we have done in the previous year and to renew our ambitions to continue the good stuff.
It was also a chance for the whole family to get together on the eve of the new year to have a family meal to round out the old year followed by a family meal on new years to bring in the new. For me, it’s another reason for the family to get together and to enjoy each other’s company.

It’s also a chance to “clean out” the house physically to begin the new year on a good clean front as well as to leave all the bad luck and omens of the previous year behind.

As for the zodiac animals, my brief research suggests that it is a way for feng shui or divination masters to describe the certain characteristics that are associated with being born in the year of the dog. For everyone else, how the year pans out depends on your own zodiac birth animal and the school of thought of divination.

More practically, Chinese New Year is lion dancing time. It’s a chance for me to hit up the temples on New Year’s Eve to check out the other schools performances and to catch up with my group of friends whom gather “religiously” to the temple year in and year out to watch the lion dancers, firecrackers and fireworks go off before our annual late night snack. As for the rest of the New Years period, it’s a time to lion dance and enjoy the various festivals and performances by the various cultures and groups that celebrate the lunar new year.

I’ll put up photos of the various performers I got to see in the upcoming posts.

I’ve made a fair bit of progress with my lion after a long break over the Christmas and new years period. I’ve finally finished papering both lion heads. I do have a third frame to be papered and painted but I think I will leave that as a reference frame for possible future lions I make.

Now starts the fun bit. Studying and admiring the finer detail of other lion heads to see the intricate detail that is involved with the painting process.
I can’t wait to start painting these two.
I’m tossing up between a Lau Bei and a Cheung Fei lion or two Lau Bei lions of different base colours