Lions and Tigers and Hong Baos.

Gung Hei Faht Choi! everyone out there. I hope everyone’s been having a good New Year of the Tiger. All week Woo Ching White Crane will be doing a Lion Dance performance and workshop at the Museum of Fine Arts. Its part of their February vacation exhibition about mythical creatures.  I let them all know its Chinese New Year anyway.

Recently we have had so many lion dances and workshops that they are all running into each other. I feel like my life is one big Lion Dance and its kind of difficult getting around with my baby son. I was hoping all these performances would inspire my old students to practice and participate. I guess that has happened to a degree but they look at me so bored and tired even though I am jumping around lion dancing, kung fu ing and talking all at once. I’m tired! We performed at Uphams Corner, St. James Church, Montclair School in Quincy, Sun Life Insurance, and EMC CORP in.  Do a form to give me a break! Well at leastwe all got to see, perform and practice in some different environments. These Corporations that basically have cities in the middle of nowhere are quite impressive, and I had fun pretty getting adults to sing the drum beats and get into the Kung Fu stances just like the kids. ( I think they ha d fun too. No adult takers for trying the lion head. A few drummers though.)

Even New Year’s day when I went in I did not hear any loud Gung Hei Faht Choi’s my way. I demanded they say it before giving themthe red envelopes. After all, if I do not Faht Choi then next year the envelope I give you will still be small. But even if I start making a little more money the envelope will increase. Only one student screamed it, because he knew I was going to give him money. And it’s New Year, that’s what we all want.

New Year’s Day Before going to our St. James Church we did a lion dance  for the school, and for the CCBA building. One guy told us to come and bless his car too. He was straight from China and apparently this is always done to the cars, but I admit it was the first car I have blessed with the head. Lion Dance as a ritual is a bigger deal in China basically because they believe that the dance as well as the use of mystical/superstitious numbers in giving money will have an actual effect on the the physical world. I believe this too basically because everytime I figure certain thing won’t matter that much, the traditional beliefs are proven to me through consequences.

In China the first thing they would bless would be the water wells, and Business owners would spend a lot more money on the lion dances, hanging down not only five story lines of firecrackers that then rolled up in the ground as well, but Five story strings of money, even Hong Kong Money (which used to be worth much more) to make it even more impressive.

Speaking of handing out money, I still have quite a few hong baos left in my pocket which I plan to give to any child who comes up puts his clenched fist inside a closed palm and says in a big loud voice, “Gung Hei Faht Choi!” and hopefully also, “Sun Tai Geen Hong, Sun leen fai lock, and any other  positive new year phrase. Granted I’m not giving out Benjamin Franklins. But hey, better than nothing right? I hope I run into more kids that do this on the 21st when we will be doing the ritual lion dance for all the businesses  in Chinatown. But I’m not giving up the lai sees unless you wish I get rich. So say it loud and say it proud! Gung Hei Faht Choi!

-Adam Cheung

This entry was posted on February 15, 2010 at 5:50 pm and is filed under AROUND C-TOWN, CHINATOWN CALENDAR, WORD ON THE STREET. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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