Lion Under Glass

(originally published February 24, 2012)

Nestled in the Asian/Pacific Thematic Historic District of San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter is a great little museum. The Chinese Historical Museum is comprised of two buildings on opposite corners of Third and J. The original building used to be a mission building built in the 1920s to be an outreach and community center to the Chinese in San Diego at the time. Behind this building is a small Asian garden and fish pond.

Across the street the rotating exhibits are housed in the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Extension. Just in time for the Chinese New Year (February 23 this year) a new exhibit opened featuring traditional new year prints, a small collection of tiger hats, a performance dragon, and a late entry to the lineup: the restored lion.

The curator, Alex Chuang, was kind enough to allow me to display the lion and as we emailed back and forth about the details the plan grew until I had to borrow a minivan to take all of the components down south. I'm glad Alex had the foresight to ask probing questions about how to go from, "Hi, I have something people might like to see" to a real museum-quality display.

Between the Hoi Gung ceremony and the museum display there was only a week to prepare everything including deciding what to display, how to arrange it, and all the signs to create. Good thing my wife and I love a challenge and work well under pressure.

So, here's what we came up with. Let me know what you think and if you get a chance, go see it in person. Pictures just don't convey the same scope as seeing it in real life.

Click any picture for a larger version.

It was fun trying to come up with a way to fit everything into the space requirement without it looking crowded. I was also trying to come up with some sort of order so the display would take the viewers through a logical progression of the project.

Coming up with signage that would be interesting to both lion dancers who know their stuff and the general public was a bit of a challenge. Good thing my wife is an excellent editor! Figuring out where to place each sign in the display presented other issues as well.

I also decided to reuse the poster we made for the Beyond the Pride exhibit. Even though it says, "There's still more work to be done" in big red letters on the bottom, it gives a good background on the project and has a lot of information on the process so I thought it'd still be relevant. Besides it'd be a shame to have made a poster like that only to be used once!

I recruited my kids to help arrange the displays so setting them up at the museum was a real family affair. The "Littlest Petshop" toys didn't actually make the cut for the final display, but my daughter thought she'd bring them along anyway.

The main display case is right at the entrance to the exhibit so you can't miss it. The frame in the second case is also from an old Lo On Kee lion around the same age as the restored one. Eventually it will also go through the restoration process.

The third case has a collection of parts showing the variety of pieces that make up a lion. Parts from a variety of lions and makers were chosen from my collection to show the similarities and differences.

One of the best comments I've gotten is from the museum staff who said that many people don't bother to read the signs on display pieces, but so far everyone has taken the time to read mine. Guess all the time and effort my wife and I put into them was worth it! Read on and let me know what you think.

Here are a couple of the other items on display:

There are a few signs that I didn't get good pictures of so if you want to read them all you'll have to go visit America's finest city and spend the $2 for admission to the museum. The rest of the exhibits are more than worth the price.

After this exhibit closes some other venues might be interested in displaying it down the line (details will be posted here if anything works out), but I don't have any set plans. If you know of a location or event that would be interested in showing it feel free to let me know.

Open Your Eyes and Wake Up!

(originally published February 12, 2012)

I may have mentioned before that lions are seen as agents of heaven, used to frighten evil spirits away and bring a blessing to those for whom it performs. Before it can do that however it needs to be blessed or awakened by going through a special ceremony known as the Dim Jing (點睛) or "Eye Dotting" ceremony. Red paint mixed with whiskey and held in a piece of hollowed out ginger is brushed onto key parts of the lion imbuing it with a strong spirit to carry out its work. In Chinese culture, red is the color of happiness and celebration, and in this case the color of blood to represent the life being instilled in the new lion. In days of old it really was blood, squeezed from the comb of a live rooster, that was used in the ceremony and some groups still use cinnabar powder for this.

Tray of Implements: Following Chinese principles of Yin and Yang, the whiskey and ginger are both considered strong Yang elements and will give the lion characteristics such as strength, confidence and intelligence.

During the ceremony other symbolic elements are attached to the horn of the lion. The horn of a lion is considered its link to heaven and a source of its power. Adornments used here strengthen the link and add wishes for additional blessings. For instance the golden flowers with the peacock feather symbolize a high rank, and the green onions are homonyms for intelligence. The red ribbon tying it all together shows that the lion is tamed and is performing for a happy occasion.

This ceremony is also known as Hoi Gung (開光) or "Opening Brightness." In many cultures the eyes are considered the windows to the soul, so this ceremony opens the eyes and lights the soul of the lion.

Many other people have written extensively about the ceremony so rather than just reiterate what they've said here are a few links if you're interested:

• Hoi Gwong (開光) - Giving Life to the Lion
• Hoi Gong - Eye Dotting

Now, on to the pictures! Click any picture for a larger version.

The setup, lions eat lettuce (more on that in my next blog post)

and the money in the red envelop is an offering to the team performing the ceremony.

The bills attached to the golden stem are folded in the shape of a RuYi Scepter

which represents fulfilled wishes.

Marty Chiu, who donated the lion for the restoration, dots the mirror.

Hungry after being "asleep" for so long, the lion stalks his first meal.

The lettuce represents wealth so when the lion throws or spits it out,

it represents spreading the wealth.

After the main part of the routine the newly awakened lion greets the other lions from the troop.

It was great to see people who could remember the original Lo An Kee lions admiring and appreciating the restoration. Vince Chan and Yogi Tam even got under the lion to demonstrate the powerful traditional movements that are rarely seen in today's modern performances.

We were also honored to have a special guest, Ryan Au in attendance all the way from the San Francisco Bay Area. Ryan is a fellow lion builder and has his own lion dance blog where he explores many aspects of the art.

Special thanks to the Vince Chan, Yogi Tam, and the Immortals Lion Dance Team of Los Angeles for helping with the ceremony.

Many people have asked, "Now that the restoration is done what are you going to do with the lion? It'd be a shame to just put it into storage." I couldn't agree more! The lion is currently on display at the Chinese Historical Museum in San Diego. If you're in the area please stop by to check it out. I understand the exhibit that it is part of will be running at least through March. More on this in my next post, stay tuned!

Finishing Strong

(originally published January 1, 2012)

As the year came to a close the final order of parts arrived from China on the afternoon of December 29, a late but very exciting and welcome Christmas present! So as you can imagine it was a mad dash to finish up by the end of the year. Luckily the last stage of the process, embellishing, is also in some ways the quickest. A lot of time was spent cutting rabbit pelts into strips and sewing the bristle hair attachments onto the head, and I pulled an all-nighter on December 30-31, but overall it was much less intense work than the other stages. Even something as repetitive as gluing on the 263 silver scales was much less tedious that the papering stage. In many ways this was my favorite part since you can really see everything coming together in the last few weeks.

Click any picture for a larger version.

Here's some shots of the embellishment process:  

Creating a paper pattern before cutting the eyelids out of cloth can save you from a costly mistake. The gold rope is traditionally made from paper rope covered with gold foil, but using this gold braid instead was a time saver. Bristle hair is attached to several different areas on the lion head. Rabbit fur is glued on to accentuate the curves of certain parts. The lion's mirror is usually surrounded by a single strip of rabbit fur. I've always thought it would look nice with a second strip of a contrasting color for emphasis.

And here's the finished product! 

Looking back at the state of this lion before the project started you can definitely see a restoration that is true to the original yet has some enhancements that make it stand out even more from the cookie-cutter lions prevalent today.

Even still, there are some things that just can't be replicated. For example, greater range of color choices aside, for sheer volume there's just no beating the old pompoms. It's things like this that keep me waxing nostalgic for the heyday of lion craftsmanship.

Old and New On the left, the original nose pompom--approximately 13cm diameter. On the right, one from the new set a mere 8cm. No comparison.

Although this project is now complete, there is still a lot I need to learn and I can definitely use practice on everything Corey taught me so far. I am very grateful to Corey and ACTA; especially Amy Lawrence who patiently guided us through the process, Suzanne Hildebrand who was instrumental in getting this blog going, and Russell Rodriguez for spending a day documenting our work and facilitating fruitful discussion on the history of the lion dance and it's role in Chinese culture. And of course a very special thank you to my wife and kids for all their support and understanding while I was working on this! I know it has been an awesome and life-enhancing experience for me and I hope it has inspired a new generation of lion dancers take the time to repair and build lions with the love and care they deserve.