For most people born in Canada, the Lion Dance remains a potent symbol of the Lunar New Year. But Lion Dances at annual Chinatown parades don’t represent the breadth of the East Asian and Southeast Asian diaspora with Chinese ancestry.
LunarFest GTA will touch on this topic in a free panel discussion at 12:15 p.m. on Saturday (February 21) at the Varley Art Gallery of Markham. Entitled Lion Dancing: Who Is Really Dancing?, the event will address several important questions, such as who gets to represent a culture?
It will also tackle how traditions evolve when they cross borders, as well as the line between appreciation and appropriation. In addition, panelists will examine the impact of stereotypes in shaping public understanding of cultural practices.
“Lion dancing becomes a starting point for examining these broader dynamics, particularly within diasporic and multicultural contexts like Canada,” the LunarFest GTA website states. “Rather than offering definitive answers, the panel emphasizes open dialogue and multiple perspectives.”
Panelists include Centennial College marketing professor Dr. Tulsi Dharel. He is a former president of the Canadian Multicultural Council and a founder of several organizations dedicated to cultural preservation.
Second-generation Chinese Canadian educator Joanne Wong will also offer her perspective at the event. She is the co-creator of “A Story of And”, a resource that uses East Asian racism to promote reflective conversations on humanity’s interconnectedness.
A third panelist, Diana Webley, is senior manager of arts and culture at Harbourfront Centre. It presents more than a thousand events annually, often reflecting Toronto’s distinct cultures. She is also a part-time professor at Centennial College.
Also on the panel is LunarFest founder Charlie Wu, who is on the board of the Canadian Association of Performing Arts. Audience members will have a chance to ask questions.
Lion Dances differ by region
As for the Lion Dance, it manifests itself quite differently, depending on where one might be in East Asia. The Chinese version usually involves two dancers, with one manipulating the head as the other manipulates the tail. It’s often accompanied by gongs and cymbals, along with a powerful drumbeat.
The Chinese lion dance is often associated with good luck and fortune. There are Northern Lion and Southern Lion variations, with the Southern Lion Dance most commonly performed at Lunar New Year events in North America.
Within the Southern Lion Dance, there are assorted styles, such as the Fut San or Hok San. These names often reflect where these dances originated. There is also a Green Lion Dance linked to Hokkien-speaking people from Fujian Province and Taiwan.
Interestingly, lions are not indigenous to China, even though they appear as stone guardians in the culture. The first recorded lions were gifts from Parthian Empire envoys to the Han emperor. This occurred in 87 CE, according to the Beijing-based publication The World of Chinese.
Unlike the Chinese lion dance, the Korean Bukcheong Saja Noreum (Lion Mask Dance of Bukcheong) is a traditional folk play. Legend has it that this performance expels evil spirits and brings peace.
There is also a Vietnamese Lion Dance, which is often performed during Tet (Lunar New Year) and the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Vancouver Lion Dance website says that it takes inspiration from the Chinese Lion Dance, often descending from the Fut San school.
Political history shapes cultural traditions
According to Hawaii Pacific University instructor Tsun-Hui Hung, “the style of the Lion Dance in Taiwan has diverged from its original Chinese form” due to Taiwan’s separation from China.
“The Hoklo communities from southern Fujian Province, who were part of the Qing (1644–1911) immigration from the mainland to Taiwan, may not have brought or sustained Lion Dance practices during the beginning phases of their immigration,” Hung wrote in a scholarly paper in 2015. “However, to protect themselves from Taiwan’s original, non-Chinese inhabitants, or from competing immigrant Chinese clans, a tradition of martial arts training developed.
“This training apparently included the use of shields emblazoned with a lion totem, reflecting the Chinese association of the lion with physical agility and power,” Hung continued. “It is not clear to what extent the use of lion totems was married to the Lion Dance form. But even as late as the beginning of the twentieth century, the Lion Dance in Taiwan featured the use of a rattan, translated as lion ‘shield’ rather than a lion ‘head’.”
Moreover, Hung pointed out that larger geopolitical developments have affected the Lion Dance in Taiwan. When Taiwan became a Japanese colony in 1895 following the first Sino-Japanese War, he noted that students on the island began learning science, mathematics, Western musical instruments, and baseball. However, the Lion Dance and other traditional cultural and sports activities were not part of the curriculum.
Japan retained Taiwan as a colony for 50 years until it was defeated in the Second World War. Hung explained that it wasn’t until 1991 that Taiwan’s Ministry of Education began funding Lion Dance clubs in primary and secondary schools and universities. In recent years, Lion Dance has become a competitive sport in many countries, often featuring impressive acrobatics and martial arts.
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