The Young Lion Dancers are an energetic, enthusiastic and dedicated group of children and youths who practice, promote and perform the traditional Chinese Lion Dance. They are all members of the
Brief History of Lion Dancing
Chinese Lion Dancing is a very old tradition, which, according to the first written documentation from Buddhist monks, dates back to 250BC.
One day a Buddhist monk appeared at the palace and declared he could find the lion. The emperor gave him permission to search for the lion. Soon, the Buddhist monk not only found one, but two lions using traps. However, instead of killing them, he was convinced he could train them to perform tricks. Once he trained the lions, he asked the emperor to see them perform. The emperor was so excited, he invited his entire court to see them, then commanded the Buddhist monk to take the lions to every village within the kingdom. The monk traveled for many years, going from village to village until the lions grew old, could no longer perform and soon died.
Then the emperor heard the news he was saddened, refused to eat and grew weaker each day. The wise men were fearful that the emperor would die. When the Buddhist monk appeared before the wise men, he suggested he could train young children to perform like the lions used to perform. They gave the monk permission and he trained the young children. The emperor was so pleased when he saw the children’s performance, like his first request with real lions, he asked the monk to travel throughout the kingdom so his people could see the young lion dancers. Thus, lion dancing was born.
The Chinese believed that the dancing lions with the gong, cymbals, drum and noise from the fire crackers would ward off or drive away the bad or evil spirits, wicked demons or ghosts and scare away anything that might be hiding that would otherwise bring bad luck.
Lion Dancing Today
Lion dancing as we know it today, would normally be performed during the Chinese New Year, at the dedication of new temples or buildings, opening of new businesses, festivals, birthdays, celebration of the birth of a baby in a family or any joyous or happy celebration.
The lion dances around to seek out and scare or chase away any evil spirits and then bows three times to the person or persons being celebrated. An old Chinese lion dance tradition, as some may have seen, is to hang a tangerine and some red paper bows at New Year celebrations. The red paper in Chinese symbolizes good luck, the tangerine represents gold or prosperity. The lion will eat the tangerine and the red paper bows and then throw back out the tangerine rinds (representing gold) to those people around him. Those people lucky enough to catch a piece or pick up a piece of the rind and put it in their pocket for a day will have good luck and prosperity for the coming year.
Another lion dance tradition is to feed the lion lucky money in red paper envelopes or “laycee”. Whatever the amount donated, it is believed to be returned to you ten fold. When the lion receives the red envelopes the lion will return three bows to you. The three bows represent the highest esteem or respect and the lion recognizes your contribution and honors you for it.
Requests for Appearances
The Young Lion Dancers group began with just eight students and today boasts 22 very talented you
ths ages 5-16 years old. Some of our first members have gone on to college, graduated and are now raising families.
The Young Lion Dancers perform primarily on weekends for club functions, birthdays, baby parties, schools, churches and at senior centers. If you would like to have the Young Lion Dancers perform for your function please email us the date, time and location and we will let you know if we can accommodate your request. Remember, they are students and study is important to them.
For more information about the Young Lion Dancers, please contact Clifford Yip by emailing info at chinesecommunitycenter.com (replace at with the @ symbol and remove all spaces – this is to keep down the spam from Internet bots).