“When we speak about the culture of lion dance, it involves the ‘habits’ and ‘tendencies’ of the lion — essentially the nature of the ‘lion’.
It’s been about 40 years now. From my days of hands-on coaching, I learned if things turns out well, it is the best; but if it not, it is alright. Today, my disciples call the shots independently. If I continue to direct them, it is shameful… This means that we didn’t educate them and we have taken our duties lightly.
The art and knowledge of lion dance does not only lie in the lion’s movements, the heart of real inheritance of tradition and culture lies is in its undying spirit of education and moral values.
There’s a saying “competition comes second, friendship comes first”. I think this is nonsense. When you compete, “competition comes first, friendship comes second”. In a lion dance competition, attitude is everything. It would be ideal to to have both spirit of competition while valuing friendship, but if you compete half-heartedly, it would be better not to compete. Once you made up your mind to compete, then be your best and aim to surpass yourself every time you compete.
This work is not about personal reputation or the spotlight. We look at the things other troupes are doing, and if there is something worth admiring, we will look to them as role models. As practitioners, we have to learn to be sympathetic and lend others a hand to really push forward (the culture and practice) together.
The concept of passing down traditions and culture (to the next generation) is fluid. If a culture is healthy and strong, there’s little need to worry about it fading away and being lost to time. What we need to be worrying about is whether we are doing our best within our own generation and worrying whether there are any black sheep that may spoil the whole herd.
Even if practitioners do not perfect the craft itself, they should at least learn how to be a decent person. They should not make the excuse of saying they did not receive education and permit themselves to be uncivilised. This is just unacceptable and self-deceiving. Also, we are living at the age of the internet, where with one slight misbehaviour, you will realise in no time how other people judge you as a person.” – Master Siow of the關聖文化宮 Kun Seng Keng Lion and Dragon Dance Troupe.
The above interview was conducted in Mandarin.
Photo and story by Dao Hong, Humans of Kuala Lumpur.
Photostory by Mushamir Mustafa
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(This post was first published on February 17th 2018)
