VICTORIA -- With Chinese New Year celebrations being cancelled due to the pandemic, the iconic Lion Dance won’t be performed as usual in Victoria’s Chinatown this weekend.
Instead, the Lion Dance will come to life online thanks to the Wong Sheung Kung Fu Club, a non-profit organization that also teaches and performs Lion Dancing in Greater Victoria.
The club has put together a video featuring a traditional Lion Dance performance that will be posted to its website on Chinese New Year, Feb. 12, 2021.
“In order to maintain traditions and culture and give some sort of normalcy this year – it was a good way to give back to the community and let people enjoy Chinese New Year,” says Daniel Low, a long time member and Lion Dancer and drummer at the Wong Sheung Kung Fu Club in Victoria.
“Instead of coming here to Chinatown and having thousands of people coming down to celebrate with us like past years; they can celebrate it in their own way, and we want to ensure the tradition continues,” he said.
Many hours have gone into the creation of the Lion Dance video, according to Low. Several of his relatives and members of the Kung Fu club worked together to record drum audio for the dance. Then they preformed the Lion Dance to the recording.
It was the best way to produce the video safely with COVID-19 safety measures in mind, by keeping the amount of people involved to a minimum.
“It gives people a way to celebrate,” says Low, “But in a safe way.”
The video will also feature some Kung Fu demonstrations from previous Chinese New Years celebrations in Victoria’s Chinatown.
The Lion Dance is a symbolic Chinese folk tradition dating back thousands of years and is an essential part of Chinese holidays. The Lion Dance is performed at events and celebrations to ward off evil spirits and bring good fortune, happiness and prosperity.
The physically demanding traditional Lion Dance is typically performed by Kung Fu practitioners. The skills needed for lion dancing include strength, stamina, flexibility, balance, and the ability to visualize and improvise dramatic movements.
The weight of the ornate lion head requires a dancer with strong shoulders and arms, and the footwork during performances incorporates various kung fu stances.
There are two performers per lion, the head and the tail, which requires coordinated moves, giving the illusion the lion is one.
Besides the dancers, a Lion Dance team also consists of a drummer and instrument players (usually a cymbal and gong); they create the rhythm and beat for the dancers to move to.
The Lion Dance is an important part of traditional Kung Fu schools, like Victoria’s Wong Sheung Kung Fu Club, which was established in 1974 by the late Master Sigung Wong Sheung. The club has practiced and performed Lion Dancing for several decades, with the tradition being passed down from one generation to another, along with its Hung Fut-style Kung Fu teachings.
“The Lion Dance is very symbolic for Chinese New Year. The purpose for the lion dance is almost like a cleansing,” said Low.
“What it’s supposed to do is scare away the evil spirits that are kind of lingering,” he said. “I think there’s no (better) year to scare away some bad mojo than this year!”
The link to this year’s Lion Dance performance will be posted on the Wong Sheung Kung Fu Club’s YouTube channel and website on Friday. You can watch the teaser video for performance here.
Low wishes the community a Happy New Year and adds, “On behalf of the Wong Sheung Kung Fu Club and the Chinese community, Gung hay fat choy,” which translates to “wishing you great happiness and prosperity” in Cantonese.
2021 is the year of the Ox, starting from Feb. 12, 2021 (Chinese lunar New Year Day) until Jan. 31, 2022.
