Folk

Coronavirus casts shadow over Lunar New Year and lion dancers for the second year running

Read more

The upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations across Australia have either been cancelled or scaled back due to ongoing uncertainty and public health concerns from the pandemic.

The annual celebration, which falls on February 12 this year, usually attracts up to 1.5 million visitors to Sydney, making it the largest event of its kind outside of Asia.

But this year, the City of Sydney has turned to events on a smaller scale.

In Melbourne, Year of Ox celebrations in Chinatown will go without the spectacular Millennium Dragon dragon parade.

With coronavirus hitting Australia at the time of last year’s Lunar New Year, many traditional lion and dragon dance troupes have had their activities nixed two years in a row.

Melbourne’s Chinatown is usually alight with colour and noise during Lunar New Year.(ABC News: Jarrod Fankhauser)

‘A lot quieter this year’

Lion and dragon dances, dating back thousands of years to the Han Dynasty period (202 BC-AD 220), are a colourful, noisy form of street performance.

Dancers are required to be fit and flexible as lion and dragon dances bear closer resemblance to martial arts than other forms of folk dancing.

Young people perform a dragon dance as smoke from fire crackers rises in the background.
Year of the Ox celebrations have been scaled back in many Australian cities in 2021(ABC News: Jarrod Fankhauser)

Performances usually take place during festivals and special occasions and are aimed at warding off evil spirits, bringing good fortune and entertaining an audience.

Together with firecrackers, bright costumes and high jumps for lettuce — in Chinese, the pronunciation of “lettuce” is similar to “fortune” — the lion and dragon dancers visit one business after another, accompanied by clashing of cymbals and beating of drums.

Franklin Chan and Andy Wang are captains from one of Victoria’s largest lion and dragon dance troupes — the Chinese Youth Society of Melbourne.

They say the bookings for this year are down at least 60 to 70 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels.

“It’s a lot quieter [this year],” Andy said.

Lion and dragon dancers Franklin Chen (L) and Andy Wang
Chinese Youth Society of Melbourne members Franklin Chan, left, and Andy Wang.(Supplied)

The troupe were unable to train together between March 2020 and early January this year, and have only recently started to meet.

But to be COVID safe, the dance troupe divided the entire team into many smaller “training bubbles”.

Second year in a row that COVID has impacted celebrations

Last year’s Lunar New Year celebrations were cancelled halfway through due to Australia’s first confirmed COVID-19 case on January 25 — which was Lunar New Year’s Day in 2020.

Cecilia Hsieh, chairperson of Hong De Lion Dance Association, remembers vividly how a booking was cancelled just as they were about to arrive at the performance venue in Melbourne’s Glen Waverley, where the country’s second case was confirmed.

“On the way there, the [restaurant] owner rang me and said, ‘Look, we have got no customers tonight. So don’t come,'” she said.

“We were just a block away.”

Cecilia said that in other years the troupe received many bookings, but that many were cancelled in 2020.

Two male drummers and a female cymbalist perform with Lion dancers behind them.
Face-to-face training has only just resumed for many dance troupes.(ABC News: Jarrod Fankhauser)

Training for lion and dragon dance troupe members focuses on fitness and skills development — generally taking years of hard work for a dancer to master the techniques.

But the Jow Ga Kuen Martial Arts Association, based in Melbourne’s western suburbs, can no longer afford its training facility due to the pandemic.

Founder Frank Lam said the Association had been forced to relocate to a Chinese temple to continue training free of charge, but had lost some members due to the change.

People practice the Chinese lion dance
The Bendigo Chinese Association Lion Team hasn’t been able to start its recruitment process for new members.(ABC News: Tyrone Dalton)

The Bendigo Chinese Association Lion Team is one of the oldest lion dance troupes in Victoria.

With more than a century of history, it faces similar challenges.

Apart from low numbers of bookings for this year’s Lunar New Year, the group has been unable to start recruitment for new members.

“The majority of [recruitment] is straight after Easter. People, particularly the kids, they’ve seen the lions, dragons, so exciting. And they want to join,” said Clinton Miller, who leads the Bendigo team.

A man smiles at the camera
Clinton Miller says Bendigo’s Easter Fair drew him into the dance troupe.(ABC News: Tyrone Dalton)

Last year’s Lunar New Year was meant to have been celebrated with lion and dragon dances, drums and 100,000 crackers in Bendigo’s Dai Gum San Precinct — but the holiday passed by silently.

The 150th Bendigo Easter Fair was cancelled in April 2020 because of the coronavirus outbreak.

“We’ve lost members during COVID … Obviously, we can’t do [lion dancing training] until you know we’re in a COVID safe space,” Clinton said.

Chinese lion dance at Chinese New Year in Bendigo
Past Lunar New Year celebrations have been good for attracting new dancers.(ABC Central Victoria: Larissa Romensky)

As a team sport, lion and dragon dancers are required to have regular trainings.

Hard lockdowns in Australia last year made that impossible. Many dance troupes only managed to restart face-to-face training in December or January.

Some jokingly say that they have gained “pandemic fat” and it would be hard to perform difficult manoeuvres such as lift-ups.

Dancing continues with the help of Zoom

COVID-19 has meant many troupes had to train by watching videos of previous performances.

Others took advantage of video conferencing technology to expand training across state borders, sharing skill sets and experiences.

A group of young men practice their routine outside.
Dance troupes have been forced to be creative due to the pandemic.(ABC News: Jarrod Fankhauser)

The Bendigo Chinese Association Lion Team’s instructor Wei Tong said they also used their online training to teach Chinese language and culture, especially how to write Chinese characters for “happiness”, “good luck”, “prosperity” and “peaceful”.

He said this was to help their members, who are mainly local Caucasians, to fully understand the rituals.

Looking after members’ mental health was also on the agenda.

Two male and a female performer sitting on the ground taking a break during lion dance practice.
Many international students in Australia are drawn to lion dancing.(ABC News: Jarrod Fankhauser)

Once dominated by young Chinese men, the dancers are now much more diverse in terms of gender and cultural background.

Some troupes now consist of 70 per cent women and girls.

Madison Lu is an actor who appeared as a primary school student on the ABC children’s show, Little Lunch.

Madison Lu on Little Lunch (L) and now as a dragon dance performer
Madison Lu on Little Lunch, left, and now as a dragon dance performer.(ABC)

More than six years ago, she joined a lion and dragon dance troupe, wanting to combine her language study with cultural performance.

“I was looking for something that incorporates athleticism and music and culture. And lion dancing just seemed like the perfect thing,” Madison said.

“At first, it was a little bit intimidating seeing mainly guys do it. But there are a few girls that I’ve seen, and I was very inspired by them. And everyone in the team was very welcoming.

Lion dance and romance

Lion dancing has also proven popular with many international students too.

Athesvara Dirghar came from Singapore and is currently studying zoology at Melbourne University.

A young female young male and an older female stand with lion and dragon costumes and props
Dragon and lion dancing attracts a diverse array of community members.(ABC News: Jarrod Fankhauser)

“I actually found them through Facebook … it’s like a different community, with more diverse backgrounds, people from everywhere. And it’s good to get like a different perspective of lion dance outside of Asia,” he said.

Lion dancing can sometimes lead to romance too.

Melbourne-based couple Anna Duong and Albert Nguyen started as partners in lion dance — forming the head and tail of the lion.

A couple does lion dancing together (L) and takes a selfie
Melbourne couple Anna Duong and Albert Nguyen met through lion dancing.(ABC News)

After several years, the pair are no longer just partners in dancing, but romantic partners.

“It brings people together,” Anna said.

“It is not just us that got together through lion dance,” Albert said.

A young man lifts the chinese lion head above his own head during a performance.
Australia’s first COVID-19 case was detected last Lunar New Year’s Day.(ABC News: Jarrod Fankhauser)

Anna and Albert say just like being in a relationship, you cannot avoid ups and downs in life — so responding positively is the secret to success.

Many in the sport say despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, lion and dragon dancing will emerge stronger than ever.

“We’ve been through a tough year. And I think the most that we can ask for is for everyone to look out for each other,” said Andy Wang of the Chinese Youth Society of Melbourne.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
Chinese lion dance training

Read more

Related Articles

Back to top button