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Lion Dancers

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Colorful Lion Dancers from UCLA’s Jade Lotus Lion Dance Troupe

Martine and sat on a ledge in the Maguire Gardens by the west entrance to the Los Angeles Central Library. At 11 am two pairs of lion dancers entered and performed a vigorous dance to open this year’s AAPI Joy: Voices, Then & Now. This is a celebration by various local Asian and Pacific Islander groups of their cultural heritage and the experience of living in Southern California.

After the dancers left, I notices the inscription in Latin above the west entrance: ET QUASI CURSORES VITAI LAMPADA TRADUNT. After doing a little digging, I found the quote comes from Book 2 of the De Rerum Natura (The Nature of Things) by Lucretius and, translated, means “and like runners, they pass on the torch of life.” Very appropriate.

We had attended the AAPI Joy event last year and were happy to find there were even more events scattered across the library premises this year. We attended four of them:

  • The lion dancers
  • Book awards to Filipino-American authors receiving the Carlos Bulosan Book Club awards
  • A Filipino dance troupe called Kayamanan Ng Lahi performing dances from Mindanao
  • The Koto and Nihon Buyo group playing popular Japanese koto music accompanied by dancers

I like the special events put on by the Central Library. Over the last eight years, the library has become a major factor in my life—thanks largely to the opening of the Exposition Line (the E train) on L.A.’s Metro Rail. It has been an unfailing source of great books, an ever-present help to my psyche thanks to the Thursday Mindful Meditation sessions, and a provider of entertainment at their luxurious Mark Taper Auditorium.

My trips to the library downtown are now one of the highlights of my life.

The Lion Dance

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Lion Dancer at Chinese New Year Parade

Lion Dancer at Chinese New Year Parade

I have seen perhaps a dozen Chinese New Year parades, and I am quite used to seeing dragons and lion dancers. What I find interesting, however, is that there are no lions in China, nor have there been for about two thousand years. According to an article in China Highlights:

In traditional Chinese culture, the lion, like the Chinese dragon, was only an animal which existed in myth, and there were no actual lions in China. Before the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), only a few lions had reached the Central Plains from the western area of ancient China (now Xinjiang), due to Silk Road trade.

Stone lions can be seen, however, acting as guardians to Beijing’s Forbidden City (see below). And Chinese images and beliefs relating to the mythical strength of the lion have spread around the world with the Chinese diaspora.

Stone Lion at the Forbidden City in Beijing

Stone Lion at the Forbidden City in Beijing

There are two styles of lion dance, the Northern and the Southern. Although most Chinese-Americans originated in South China, all the lion dancers I have seen at New Years parades were of the Northern type, which is associated with Chinese martial arts organizations. In the Northern style, only one person manipulates the lion costume. According to the China Highlights website, “Northern lion dances are more gymnastic, involving rolling, wrestling, leaping, jumping, climbing, or kowtowing.” It’s quite entertaining to see the feats of gymnastics performed by Kung Fu practitioners.