Chasing the Dragon

1.46K

Brian Moylan

02/03/11 06:58PM

Filed to: Pic Of The Day

[During a Chinese New Year celebration in New York's Chinatown, a dragon dances at the entrance to a store to bring it luck in the Year of the Rabbit. Image via AP]

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hspace 02/04/11 11:46AM

That's 100% not a dragon. That's a two-man lion dance costume. One handles the head, the other the rear. The eyes, ears and mouth can be articulated. The Dragon dance is different - usually held up by poles, and involve many more men to perform.

hspace 02/04/11 11:56AM

The lion in this pic looks pretty small. Usually the lion head is bigger and very heavy (I tried holding it once).

Kids doing the lion dance have to hold up the head the whole time, and still articulate the eyes to make the lion seem lively and "cute". Sometimes while doing crazy martial arts stunts.

World Lion Dance championship:

[www.youtube.com]

hspace 02/04/11 11:59AM

Oooh look, there are both lions and dragons in this one, from Hong Kong

[www.youtube.com]

pseudorocket 02/03/11 11:46PM

This one looks more like a lion?? Specifically, the southern lion?? Lion dance is part of the new year ritual. Northern lion has a more "golden" look...

[en.wikipedia.org]

hspace 02/04/11 11:50AM

@pseudorocket: Good link. Yeah besides differences between countries - different parts of China, and different dialect groups have different lions.

Green lions are pretty cool too, although not mentioned in the wikipedia article.

prostule 02/03/11 08:34PM

Your headline makes me want to smoke some black tar heroin.