Lion Dance
What is Lion Dance
Lion Dance is a traditional art form that incorporates physical training commonly associated with martial arts and ascetic expressions. It is a folk show performed by one or two persons wrapped around with lion skin costume. Like the dragon lantern dance, lion dance is usually performed during the Chinese New Year and other Chinese traditional, cultural and religious festivals. It may also be performed at important occasions such as business opening events, special celebrations or wedding ceremonies, or may be used to entertain special guests by the Chinese communities.
The Chinese lion dance is often mistakenly referred to as dragon dance. An easy way to tell the differences is that a lion is normally operated by one or two dancers, while a dragon needs many people. Also, in a lion dance, the performers' faces are only seen occasionally, since they are inside the lion. In a dragon dance, the performers' faces can be easily seen since the dragon is held on poles.
History of Lion Dance
There has been an old tradition in China of dancers wearing masks to resemble animals or mythical beasts. However, lion is not native to China. According to textual research, lions in China were originally introduced from West Asia through the "Silk Road". In Buddhist culture, lion is the
animal ridden by Bodhisattva Manjusri that was introduced to China along with Buddhism, together with the real lion dance performed by the animal. Since sending lions to China was no easy job accompanied by hardships, very few lions finally arrived at the destination. Therefore, the real lion dance was only limited to the imperial palace and wealthy families, and common people never had the chance to watch it. Therefore, the folk artists created idealized works of lions through imagination according to records or legends, and highlighted the broad forehead, upturned nose and open mouth with traditional divine and auspicious decorations, presenting the mighty force and liveliness of lions. In the lion dance, people perform the role of lions.
The earliest use of the word “shizi” meaning lion first appeared in Han Dynasty. Detailed descriptions of Lion Dance appeared during the Tang Dynasty and it was already recognized by writers and poets then as a foreign dance. However, lion dance may have been recorded in China as early as the third century AD where "lion act" was referred to by Meng Kang in a commentary on Hanshu. In the early periods it had association with Buddhism: it was recorded in a Northern Wei text, Description of Buddhist Temples in Luoyang, that a parade for a statue of Buddha of a temple was led by a lion to drive away evil spirits.
There were different versions of the dance in the Tang Dynasty. In the Tang court, the lion dance was called the Great Peace Music or the Lion Dance of the Five Directions where five large lions of different colors and expressing different moods were each led and manipulated on rope by two persons, and accompanied by 140 singers. Another version of the lion dance was described by the Tang poet Bai Juyi in his poem "Western Liang Arts", where the dance was performed by two Hu dancers who wore a
