Lion Dance A Significant Tradition of Chinese Culture

Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year is one of the biggest yearly celebrations in China. It’s filled with cultural significance, celebration, and lots of family time. There are many aspects of this Festival that are traditional, beautiful, and memorable. One such piece of cultural pie is the Lion Dance.

Chinese Lion Dance

The lion is a symbol of power and wisdom, and as such it is used as a symbol to help bring luck and posterity into the new year, as well as ward off evil. You may be familiar with the images of dancing Chinese dragons – which have some similarities but aren’t the same. While both types of costumes are ornate, with a large head operated by one person and a trailing body, you can tell a dragon dance from a lion dance easily by the number of people in the costume. Lion dances only have two performers, while the long body of the dragon is represented through many performers in a shared costume. This allows for different styles of movement and incredible acrobatic feats.

One really interesting thing that connects the two is that both are culturally considered to be in the same category of mythical creatures. This is because lions historically haven’t lived in China, so when these traditions arose, the people weren’t exposed to living lions, which allowed the idea of lions to fall in the same category as Chinese dragons.

As with many pieces of Chinese culture, there is a lot of variation in how lion dances are performed. There are two main styles – northern and southern. The south has greatly influenced how the dance is performed outside China, particularly in South East Asia.

Northern Lion Dance

The face of a northern lion is considered to look meaner and more aggressive. The colouration on a northern lion is primarily red and gold/yellow, the colors of china. The northern movement style is more rooted in martial arts, acrobatics, and gymnastics, and often includes incredible stunts. These stunts on their own are incredible to conceive of, but just imagine doing them while holding a giant head or needing to be perfectly in sync with a partner! These performers train extensively to be able to accomplish something so amazing.

Southern Lion Dance

The southern lion is more fluffy, less angry, and has a completely different movement style. The southern lion’s movement is based on studying the real movement and behaviors of a lion. It makes the performance more playful, and even comical at times.

The lion dance is just one of the countless beautiful Chinese festival traditions. The performers go through intensive training to make themselves part of the cultural effort to celebrate China through tradition and history. They’re incredible to see, and should definitely be on the list of things to see during Chinese festivals.

Have you ever seen the Chinese lion dance performance?