Our Spring Festival/birthday celebrations for Inverness has now been and gone. The dust has, just about, settled and our students have returned to their regular practice routine. We had a real blast with our lion and dragon dance parade and, if you came to see us, we hope that you did too. We performed displays at various locations across the city centre including Jimmy Chung’s Restaurant, The Eastgate Centre, The Victorian Market, Blacks Outdoor Retailers and outside our very own premises on Inverness High Street. We are honoured to have taken part in the blessing of so many stores around Inverness. It was quite a large undertaking but, with the help of our other schools across the North East from Ellon and Peterhead, we were able to complete around 50 blessings. This is sure to clear the city of evil spirits, at least until next year when ‘Nian’ is set to return for the ‘Year of the Ox’. These blessings are traditional “Choi Chang,” blessings. You can read more about them in our article about Chinese Lion Dance. The Spring Festival lasts for about two weeks so there will still be many more celebrations besides our own. You can check out photos and videos of our parade, blessings and performances on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Please feel free to tag us in your own posts, so we can see them all, with the tags #yhginverness #yeeshungga or #invernesscny20 You can also see many other performances and demonstrations from our Lion & Dragon Dance Team throughout the year. You can even book us for your own celebration, wedding or event.
We also have a Facebook Event Page for our 2021 celebrations. Feel free to like and share this to help us spread the word for next year.
Here are a few photos from our Year of the Rat Celebrations on Saturday the 25th of January 2020. 恭喜发财 (Gung Hei Fa Choy)
Chinese New Year Celebrations for the Year of the Rat 2020
Chinese lion dance is a tradition which is at least 1000 years old. It is a fun, colourful way to bring a party atmosphere to any happy occasion. Weddings, festivals, parties, blessings, shop openings and, of course, Chinese New Year. Lion dance is huge in Asia and in many other parts of the world. As with most Chinese traditions, there are many myths, legends, symbology and folklore attached to these practices. We’ll take a look at the significance of the different lions and explore some of the hidden meanings behind them.
Yee’s North Scotland Lion Dance Team blessing a young couple’s wedding.
Chinese lion dances can be split into two main groups or styles, Northern and Southern. The Northern style is sometimes called Beijing style. It can be very acrobatic. They usually appear in pairs and have long, ruffled, shaggy orange and yellow hair. Dependant on whether the lion is male or female, it will have a red or green bow on the head. Male lions have a red bow and the female has a green one.
Northern lion dance tv spot. Note the coloured bows on the head.
The movements of Northern lions resemble those of a Pekingese or Fu Dog. Stunts and acrobatics such as lifts, jumps, walking on rattan poles, or balancing on giant balls are common. They sometimes appear as a family, with two large “adult” lions and a pair of small “young lions.”
A statue of a ‘fu dog’ guarding a temple, similar to a Northern lion.
Southern lion dance is usually performed as a ceremony or blessing. The ceremonies are performed to bring luck and good fortune. The Southern lions are decorated in many different colours and they have a very uniquely shaped head. There is a mirror on the forehead and a horn above it in the center. The performers animate the lion by flashing the large eyes and flapping the ears. The mouth also opens and closes.
A colourful green lion. Note the mirror on the top.
Southern lion dance is also known as Cantonese style. There are two main groups within the Cantonese style. Fat San (Buddha Mountain) and Hok San (Crane Mountain). There are other groups too, such as Fat-Hok (a fusion of Fat San and Hok San), and the Green Lion (Qingl Shil – popular with the Fukien/Hokkien and Taiwanese).
A selection of southern style lion heads at Yee’s Hung Ga, Inverness
Fat San is common amongst many Kung Fu schools. The movements are very powerful and require considerable strength. The lion represents each individual school and demonstrates a lot of the stances and footwork involved. It also shows how strong the students are. When performing, the most senior students are therefore chosen to represent their school with the lion. It is a great honour for students to be given this privilege.
A famous lion dance scene with a complicated choi chang using Fat San Lions from the film Dreadnaught.
The Hok San style combines a Southern lion head with Northern lion movements. Hok San focuses on life-like, realistic movements, and acrobatic stunts. The tail is shorter on this type of lion. Many lion dance troupes that perform pole (jong) jumping, use this type of lion. You will often see Hok San lion dances using three different coloured lions. A black, a yellow and white lion. The black lion is the youngest of the three. The movements of this lion are performed fast, like a young child with lots of energy. The yellow lion is the middle child, it’s movements are energetic and lively. The white lion is the oldest. You may see many other colours too. A red lion is common at weddings because the colour is considered to be lucky. The red lion also symbolises courage and strength. The green lion, however, represents friendship.
The three coloured Hok San lions. Black, Yellow & White. Performing in front of the Yee’s Hung Ga, Inverness Kung Fu school.
There are also three lions which represent three brothers in arms from the classic, “Romance of the Three Kingdoms.” The characters are Liu Bei, Guan Gong and Zhang Fei. Together they swore a blood oath to restore the Han dynasty. You can read more about Guan Gong and this classical Chinese novel in our article, “Who’s the guy with the big sword thingy!”
Statues of the three sworn brothers who founded Shu Han in the Three Kingdoms Period of China
The Liu Bei lion is the eldest of the three brothers. Yellow is the main colour of his face with a white beard and fur. The imperial yellow colour is significant because it shows that he became the first emperor of the Shu-Han Kingdom. The white beard and fur shows that he was very wise. He has a multicolored tail with a white underside, representing the five elements. He also has three coins on his collar, to show that he is the eldest. The Liu Bei lion is used by kung fu schools or organisations to show that they are well established. He is also known as Rui Shi or ‘Auspicious Lion’.
A Liu Bei lion. Note the yellow colour, white beard & fur and multicoloured tail.
The Guan Gong lion has red as the main colour of his face and a long black beard. His tail is red and black coloured with a white underside and white trim. He has two coins in his collar and is referred to as the second brother. He is also known as Xing Shi meaning ‘Awakened Lion’.
Guan Gong lion with red face, long black beard and red and black tail.
The Zhang Feilion has a black coloured face with a short black beard. His tail is black and white, also with a white underside and white trim. He has bells attached to his body too. He has a single coin on his collar, showing that he is the youngest brother. This Lion is known as Dou Shi or ‘Fighting Lion’. This is because Zhang Fei had a short temper and liked fighting. Kung fu schools that are just starting out or those wanting to make a challenge might use Zhang Fei.
A Zhang Fei lion with a black & white tail, black face and black beard
Choi chang
Choi chang is a Chinese New Year tradition. Shopkeepers, restaurants and business owners attach a red envelope filled with money to a lettuce and hang it above the doorway of their premises. Kung fu schools visit the premises with their lions and perform the choi chang. The lions approach the lettuce inquisitively, with cat-like movements. They will jump up and eat the lettuce, keeping the money, and spitting out the chewed up lettuce leaves around the doorway. This brings good luck to the store during the forthcoming year. “Choi chang,” literally means picking the greens. It is seen as especially auspicious for the lettuce leaves to land on you. Sweeping the lettuce leaves up however, rather than picking them up, is seen as sweeping away the good luck and therefore unlucky.
‘picking the green’
Sometimes the lettuce is hung quite high, 15 to 20 feet. The prize in the envelopes of these lettuces can be quite considerable. Only the most skilled martial artists are able to obtain these lettuces, whilst dancing with a heavy lion head and in front of a watchful crowd. The higher the lettuce, the bigger the challenge and the greater the reward, in the red envelopes and from the crowd. Kung fu schools gain notoriety through this practice and therefore more students too.
Our lion performing the choi chang in Jimmy Chungs restaurant during a Chinese New Year celebration.
Many kung fu schools would take part in the choi chang. Occasionally more than one school might approach the same lettuce. If this is the case, the lions must fight a duel to decide a winner. The battle that takes place is not a street fighting brawl but one that uses the lion’s movements to impress the crowd. The greater the style and finesse from the performers, the greater the audience’s praise. The lions with the highest praise and cheers wins the right to complete the choi chang. The reputation of the schools are at stake during these duels so the performers must act with the highest respect and decorum.
Some famous faces in this clip demonstrate some lion dance etiquette & a battle between rival schools. From the film Martial Club
There are other types of challenges that a lion dance troupe may be confronted with instead of lettuces. Pineapples, bananas, oranges, pots, benches etc have all been used as barriers for the lion to overcome.
A lion dance performances using many obstacles for the lions to overcome. From the film The Young Master
Our own new year celebrations in Inverness will begin on Saturday the 25th of January 2020. We start out at Jimmy Chungs restaurant at 1pm, then on to the Eastgate Centre for about 2pm. We then proceed to the Victorian Market for 4.30pm and finally back to Jimmy Chungs for about 5.30pm for a final dance and some food. We would love for you to come and enjoy our celebration so that we may continue to honour this wonderful festive experience year after year. As always, we value your feedback so don’t forget to tag us in your photos #yhginverness#invernesscny20. You can also email us and let us know what you thought.
