I’ve been working in Singapore for a little over a year now, and recently moved into a more dominantly Chinese area. It’s Chinese New Year (CNY) celebrations this month, and yesterday I was introduced to another little cultural difference from anything I’ve seen in Australia. Lion Dancers come to housing apartments and go door to door of Chinese units offering to do a Lion Dance for the occupants. Presumably for good luck for the tennants and a little profit for the dancers. Here’s a video of them leaving one unit and finding another more welcoming.
Not that they restrict themselves to their Chinese compatriots. When they saw me they asked if I wanted them to do a Lion Dance for me, too. I did not really understand what they were asking at the time — it was so unexpected, but by the time I understood I suppose questions about how much would be an appropriate remuneration confused me and I declined their offer.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv70p7_lVtc]
To see the ‘everyday’ type of Lion Dance in action, here is another video I took at last year’s CNY in a food court.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVDdgxLNdhY]
Neil Godfrey
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Ah, Chinese work colleagues have assured me that this door-to-door good-luck service is not the norm. They had never heard of it happening before. They put it down to the hard economic times. Not enough business from the businesses who usually patronize the Lion-Dancers.