Different Types of Lion Dance

After I had post the information about the lion dance, my friends had ask me that isn't that there is some more others Lion Dance? Ya, there is some more others type of Lion Dance. After I had found for the information, and now I will post it out to share for who had interest on it.

The Lion Dance that I had post yesterday, is called Southern Lion Dance. There are some more Lion Dance which called Northern Lion Dance, Green Faced Lion Dance, and Unicorn Dance.

The Green Faced Lion, is the most revered of all lion dances. it has a flat menacing face, and designed to look extremely cruel and ferocious, the green lion can only be danced by the most skilled and dexterous of kungfu practitioners. This dreadful lion was invented during the Manchu reign, and dancing the lion signifies the fall of the manchus. The violent appearance is meant to illustrate the inhuman manchurians who massacred thousands of chinese. Its brows are actually twin steel swords measuring a foot and six inches each. The body is 18 feet long - and is used to conceal weapons.

In some events or like having a Chinese Parade ("You Sheng") - when a Green Faced Lion enters, the dragon, the unicorns and all of the lions(include Southern and Northen Lion) all bow down to revere and respect it. And some people will feel scared when looking on it and the sound which had made out by it. (Wanna be close with it, just try to go for the chinese parade when there having it.)

After the Green Faced Lion, then will be the Northen Lion Dance - the northern lion is more furry. It's quite logical really, since northern states of china are generally colder. Their colours are usually red or orange, sometimes green. Though nobody knew for sure when the Northen Lion was initially spotted, there were speculations that it was sighted during the Tang Dynasty. The dance however was believed to have originated thousands of years ago. The Northern Lions resemble the pekingese dog and often prances after a ball in their dance. The bow on their heads give their gender away - red for males, and green for females.

For the Southern Lion Dance, I think I no need to said more about it already, because for my yesterday blog I had mention on it already. But for add in some information, the Southern Lion comes with the following features:- The Rainbow coloured, the white faced, red faced and the black faced depicting the three heroes of the 'Three Kingdom' era.

Lieu Pei type ~~ with yellow head, white hair, white eyebrow and white beard and the drawing of an eagle on its' head representing the gentle quality. The body is made of rainbow coloured cloth cut in triangular shapes with rabbit fur trimming. This is a tame lion.

Guan Gong type ~~ This lion has a red face, black eyebrows, long beard, green nose and a purple horn. The body is of red, black, and green cloth cut into triangular shapes.

Zhang Gei type ~~ This lion has a black face, black eyebrows, green nose, iron horn, red eyes and rugged ear. The body is of black and white triangular cloth. People called this the awakened lion.

Lastly, it will be the Unicorn Lion. The unicorn dance is next in rank, which is hakka in origin. Its head scoops to the left and right continually in a figure of eight.

(information taken from: http://www.eatingchaos.com/archives/2007/02/the_different_t.htm)