Chinese Lion Dance - Research Paper Example

Chinese Lion Dance Historical Background Chinese Lion Dance has long held the entire western world in its trance and with each passing day is becoming ever more popular with a continuously increasing fan following. Lion, as represented by the mount of Manjusri, is generally considered to be a guardian creature in Buddhist culture and as Buddhism was the predominant religion in China for a very long time, Lion Dance has come to be an integral part of Chinese culture. Some experts have explored in depth the Buddhist connection in Chinese culture and believe that this famous dance of China has its roots in India. There is also a mythical tale intertwined with Lion Dance. There was a mischievous young lion in heaven that used to go about its pranks causing enormous irritation to the inhabitants. One day matters reached a head when it tried to pull a fast one on Jade Emperor, the lord of the heaven. He got infuriated with the antics of the lion and killed it by decapitating and throwing both the head and the body down on earth to putrefy. But Kwan Yin, the Goddess of mercy, came to know of it and brought the lion back to life by tying its head and body with a red ribbon. The red ribbon is very much visible in the Lion dance costumes of today and is considered to be the lucky omen that most surely ushers in prosperity and good luck. The Goddess of mercy also decked up the lion with a mirror and a horn that were meant to drive away evil spirits. (Nee) Thus it is a standard ritual among Chinese Lion Dancers to invoke the spirit of the lion in a new lion head before it is used in the dance. This is an elaborate ritual and is known as "Hoi Gong", or the "Eye Opening/Dotting" ceremony. The ceremony consists of painting eyes on the lion head on completion of which the lion is thought of as having entered into this world. Any performance done with a lion head that has not been blessed through the Hoi Gong ritual is considered as a bad omen that most surely brings bad luck and misfortune. Features of Lion Dance There is always a thread of narrative running through the performance which usually begins in a closed space signifying a cave inside which a lion is found sleeping. A rotund Buddhist monk enters the cave and has a look around before he starts setting up the temple. He opens the doors of the closed space, lights up an ornamental lantern and dusts and cleans the interiors to make the place worthy of Buddha and his worshippers. The time finally comes to wake the lion which the monk does by beating a drum, a gong and a cymbal. The lion awakes and starts playing with the monk and this continues for some time. Finally the monk tries to manipulate the lion to come near the altar and pray which the lion, quite obviously, refuses and starts getting irritated with the monk. The monk adds fuel to the fire by further irritating the lion by dangling some green vegetables in front of it and finally the lion cannot take it anymore, bites the monk, snatches the vegetables from him and chews them while spitting them thrice in all directions to usher in prosperity, fortune and good luck all around. After showering its blessings in all directions the lion feels it has become tired and retires inside the cave to take a nap. By the time it wakes up again the monk has already gone, leaving the lion to dance on its own and spread cheer all around. (Staples) The lion possesses mystical properties and through use of colors has supreme control over five cardinal directions. It never walks in straight lines but always follows a zigzag path to throw evil spirits off track as they, according to the Chinese, always move in straight lines. The lion has a forehead that juts out and is adorned with a mirror that is capable of deflecting all forms of ill luck and misfortune. The costume is also an assortment of many potent symbolic shapes. While the ears and tail remind one of unicorn, the horn recalls the image of a phoenix and the lion head, especially in case of Southern Lions has close resemblance to a dragon. As a result of this, the uninitiated tend to confuse between Lion Dance and its more famous cousin Dragon Dance but the main difference between the two is that while the former requires only two participants the latter is performed by an entire troupe of at least ten dancers. Lion Dance form dates back to one thousand year and it reached full bloom during the reign of Tang dynasty. There are two distinct types of Lion Dance – the Northern and the Southern. The Northern Dance Legend has it that the Northern variety originated when Emperor Emperor Wu of Beiwei Dynasty (386-534) ordered his prisoners to perform in a way that would not only be unique but will also be graceful and supple so much so that the spectators enjoy it profusely. The prisoners came up with what might surely be termed as the first performance of Lion Dance of the Northern variety. Quite predictably, the Emperor enjoyed it so thoroughly that he anointed each of them as Beiwei Lions and set them free. In this type of Lion Dance, the lions usually appear in pairs where the one that has a red bow is the male and the other that has a green bow is the female partner. Sometimes these lions also appear as a family with one or two cubs as well. These lions do not have horns and as a routine perform acrobatic stunts like standing on a ball while broadly exhibiting the mannerisms of Fu Dog. Generally there is a performer who stands in front of the lion or lions and teases and coaxes them to perform their tricks. The lion heads look more like lions (at least when compared with their Southern cousins) and the mouth is more static with the body sporting long luminescent yellow or bright orange hair. The capital as it were of Northern Dance is considered to be at Ninghai. (Latsch) The Southern Dance The origins of Southern variety cannot be historically verified but many people and almost every Chinese would like to believe that Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was instrumental in initiating Lion Dance as the official court dance. This form is radically different from its Northern cousin and many experts are of the opinion that other than the name and the basic leitmotif of lion there is very little in common to these two forms. These horned lions are thought of as being Nians and their home is supposed to be at Guangdong. There are several sub categories of Southern Dance and each category has a specific type of costume and a lion head that is conspicuously different from other categories. The Fut Shan lion head, for example, is heavier than others and has bristles instead of fur. The eyes rotate and teeth pop up and the costume is marked out by an exceptionally long tail with bells attached to it and golden letters marking Fut Shan at the back of the lion head. The Gwan Gung lion has a long red and black tail with cute borders in sparkling white while the Huang Joon lion has a flamboyant yellow tail with equally bright white trims and the Liu Bei lion is never the one to be ignored as it looks breathtakingly gorgeous with its flowing black tail. (Bredon and Mitrophanow) Martial Arts and Lion Dance Southern Dance style has been adopted by many kung fu schools as the dance style requires powerful movements and capacity to stand for long duration in a particular, often cramped pose. This form of dancing requires a strong, beautifully balanced and supple body that is flexible enough to keep up with the various complicated and strenuous steps that signify this dance form. The lion never moves haphazardly and every move of it has a musical rhythm in it that is maintained by the musicians through properly sequenced playing of drums that are followed by gongs and cymbals in that order. The whole performance has a stupendous fluidity in it with music and movement mixing imperceptibly into one another. Such control over body can be attained only by those that practice kung fu regularly. Lion Dance was essentially practiced by Buddhist monks while they studied and prayed in monasteries. These monks observed animals and nature in great detail and copied their fighting styles and some experts say that they were most impressed by the fighting styles of a tiger and a crane, especially when they fended off each other. Other equally favorite fighting styles of those monks were those adopted by leopards, eagles, snakes and praying mantises and some of them also preferred the imaginary fighting style of a dragon had it walked the earth. Customs associated with Lion Dance The Lion Dance is thought of as a harbinger of prosperity, good luck and happiness in communities. The dance together with bursting of firecrackers is considered a good omen that would chase away all misfortune and unhappiness in the coming year as it is usually performed during Chinese New Year celebrations. This dance is often performed during marriages also and Chinese believe that it brings good luck and prosperity to the newlywed couple. When the Dancing Lion enters a village or a neighborhood it is supposed to first pay its obeisance to the local Buddhist temple and then to the ancestors by visiting the ancestral hall, if there is one in the village or the community meeting hall, and then through the streets of the village or the community spreading goodwill, cheer, prosperity and success to all. (Bodde) There are generally three types of lions; the green lion represents friendship, the golden lion represents vivacity and youthfulness while the red lion represents courage – the three most vital ingredients for a full and contented life. Chinese have their own unique way of making payments to the performers. Generally it is made by putting the money in red envelopes (known as hung bao in Chinese) that are attached to large lettuce leaves. The Lion Dance party is supposed to pocket the red envelope, eat the lettuce (in what is known as choy cheng which literally means eating the vegetable) and spit the chewed leaves in all directions to spread good luck and cheer everywhere. In practice, however, lettuce leaves are never chewed; they are torn in bits and scattered all around. The approach to the red envelope is often made as complicated as possible and the dancing teams consider it as a challenge to reach there without breaking any condition associated with the challenge. Sometimes, dummy greens stuffed with fireworks are also placed in the route of the dancing team simply to test its alertness and presence of mind. The challenge to the team is to identify the genuine green lettuce leaf or the vegetable as the case may be and chew off the green part to get hold of the red envelope. Generally, the dance troupe after reaching the green performs a dance routine to the beat of 3-star music – a ritual to fend of rivals that may also be attempting to reach the green. In some really testing situations, the expertise of the dance party is tested by placing coconuts, crabs and even martial arts weapons in a particularly complicated manner to make the approach to the greens as tough as possible. It is perhaps needless to add that once the red goal is reached there is a genuine feeling of mirth and goodwill that floods through all those present – the performers as well as the onlookers, and a spontaneous roar of thunderous joy erupts from the assembled crowd. (Eberhard) References Bodde, Derk. Festivals in classical china. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1975. Bredon, Juliet and Igor Mitrophanow. The Moon Year. New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp., 1966. Eberhard, Wolfram. Chinese Festivals. New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1958. Latsch, Marie-Luise. Chinese Traditional Festivals. Beijing, China: New World Press, 1984. Nee, Charles. "History of Lion Dancing." 2007. Khuan Yee Lion Dance Association. 8 May 2009 . Staples, Michael P. "Lion, Chinese Kung-Fu." Martial Arts: Traditions, History, People. New York: Gallery Books, 1983. Read More