Farewell, old friend!

 On October 23 the San Diego Chinese community lost one of our long-time leaders and he will be especially missed by the San Diego Lucky Lion Dance Troop where I spent about 20 years of my young life. "Uncle" Al Wong was a huge part of my formative years I have lots of fond memories riding in the back of his station wagon crammed in between all of the lions and drums as he drove from performance to performance before I was old enough to drive on my own.

The troop will be honoring him with a filial lion ceremony on January 7 and in addition to the lion obtained by the team I felt it would be a fitting tribute to honor Al and his contributions with a more personalized lion.

Filial/funeral lions are still a rarity not seen by most people and only performed for those deserving special honor. Al was definitely deserving. He was even recognized for his contributions with his own official "Al Wong Day" in San Diego.

He spent countless hours coordinating our performances and managing the team, purchasing equipment, and running our meetings with his stern admonishing of "Either you talk or I talk" when we got a bit unruly and restless.


So what makes a filial lion different than other lions? For starters traditional lions are harbingers of good luck, fortune, happiness, and blessings. Filial lions on the other hand are used for mourning and honoring the passing of an individual so the base color is white (the color of mourning in traditional Chinese culture) and does not have any red or other bright colors associated with happiness found on typical lions.

The red bow tied to the lion's horn which in some stories is said to be the ribbon tied on by the goddess of mercy Kuan Yin to restore the lion's life is similarly replaced with a white bow.

The mystic mirror on the forehead of a lion is said to scatter the spirits but on a filial lion you don't want to disturb the spirit of the deceased so the mirror is replaced by the Chinese character 奠 which is used to designate things associated with finality, death, and the afterlife. Sometimes the character 孝 is used as well, which is the character for "filial" which represents the lion's duty to honor the deceased. On this lion the characters 孝順 (filial piety) are placed on the lion's ears. His eyelids and collar are made of burlap, which is part of the mourning clothes worn in traditional Chinese funerals.

Some personal touches on this particular lion include Al's birth and death dates inscribed on the East (right) and West (left) sides of the lions' Zhao Pai (back designs) as they would be on a traditional Chinese headstone, the Wong family name placed within the center of a funeral wreath and Al's Chinese name (黄炳遜) written on the left side of the wreath's condolence ribbon.

The pompoms on a filial lion match the overall lion's color scheme of white, black and blue (also considered mourning colors) but for this lion I thought it would be more meaningful to use some of the old pompoms from the first lion I ever tried to restore. Al gave the lion to me after it had been retired from our troop and it was really what got me started on my journey to preserve traditional lion craftsmanship. It's fitting that they'll be returned to him in this way. Although there is a bit of color to some of them, they are muted and are there because of their tie to our shared history.

One subtle element on this lion shouldn't be overlooked. On the lion's Soi (side protrusions) the characters 奠 and 孝 are repeated, and were specially commissioned for this lion from a craftswoman in Hong Kong. The characters were made using a special art form known as 花纽 or flower buttons. These are most commonly seen as the fasteners and decorative elements of Cheong Sam dresses and other traditional Chinese clothing. More than just nice designs, the shapes also express the wishes and desires of the wearer so you'll see them in the shape of bats, flowers, and other auspicious Chinese symbols and characters. This craft is listed as one of the Intangible Cultural Heritages of China. Each button takes several precise steps to create out of silk and wire, and these were done excellently by Royce Chau, check out more of her work here: https://www.facebook.com/handmadebyroyce

 

It was an honor to work on this lion, but one thing that it brought home to me is how rusty my painting has become. I wish I could have done a better job to honor everything he's done for the community and for me. Rest in peace, Uncle Al.