Taiwan Today

Before their mid-August performance in Riga, Latvia this year, their first-ever in Europe, the members of the Team Win Lion Dance Theatre troupe were filled with excitement and worry. The exotic dance tradition practiced by Team Win, which is based in New Taipei City in northern Taiwan, has its origins in early dynastic China and is popular in areas of Asia such as Hong Kong, Japan and Vietnam. Therefore, the troupe’s members were confident that this uniquely Asian dance ceremony would pique the curiosity of people in the Baltic Sea nation, though no one in Team Win was sure how successful their outdoor performance would be. They need not have worried, however, as the audience’s response exceeded their expectations.

“The people there really loved it,” says Chen Chin-yi (陳晉億), director of the troupe. Although it was raining at first, the sky soon cleared up, and pedestrians in the vicinity flocked to the performance venue in Vērmanes Garden, the oldest public park in the city. The live playing of drums, cymbals and gongs drew curious crowds to the performance of lion-costumed dancers leaping from atop one disc-shaped plate or set of plates to the next, with each plate affixed to the end of a steel pole that stood between 0.6 and 3 meters high. “This was a great boost to our confidence as we started our European tour,” Chen says.

This performance in the capital of Latvia was part of a three-week tour of the region by 10 elite members of Team Win. It was followed by shows in Estonia, Finland and Sweden. Funded by the Republic of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the tour featured eight free one-hour performances and attracted approximately 7,300 people in total.

Chen and his troupe are no strangers to applause, and the shows in Europe continually drew gasps of awe and roars of appreciation from audiences. Team Win, which was founded in 2001, holds a regular schedule of performances at TaipeiEYE, a theater devoted to traditional Chinese and Taiwanese artistic productions that opened in Taipei City in 2004 with funding from a private foundation. In addition, the lion dance troupe travels abroad from time to time. Two years ago, Team Win gave 48 performances at the monthlong World Expo in Yeosu, South Korea. It was the only group from Taiwan to perform at the international event.

Chen, now 35, is the youngest of four brothers and began learning the awakened lion style of lion dance at the age of 9 to perform in the family’s first troupe, the Guang Hui Lion Dance Group. At that time, Guang Hui and other lion dance troupes usually gave shows at temple fairs. “We wanted to change course and began to explore the possibility of performing in theaters,” says Chen Chin-hung (陳晉宏), who founded Team Win along with his brothers Chen Chin-yi and Chen Chin-der (陳晉德), while eldest brother Chen Chin-hui (陳晉輝) stayed with Guang Hui.

Team Win differs from Guang Hui and other troupes in that it adds elements of modern theater such as lighting and staging to its productions. For its 2012 signature performance, Legend of the Awakened Lion, the troupe went high-tech with giant holographic displays of three-dimensional images on the sides of the stage. The troupe also stands out for its attempts to recreate older lion dance-themed stories that most other troupes have forgotten or ignored, and for bringing classical characters to life. Such is the Chen brothers’ dedication to their art, they have even consulted with Lin Min-guo (林明國), a Malaysia-based expert in the profession and a treasure trove of classic stories that can be rendered through the practice. Team Win’s main 2014 production, Wonderful Fate in the Mountain, is based on a popular lion dance story involving a drunken lion and a character known as Lazy Lady who get into an argument, resolve their differences and bring the tale to a happy ending.

“This troupe has a higher goal than other groups. Immediate financial gain isn’t the only thing its members care about,” says Nien Yu-hsiang (念裕祥), an assistant professor in University of Taipei’s Department of Sport Performing Arts. The department, which was founded in 2007, is the only one of its kind in Taiwan’s higher education system and offers courses in disciplines such as street dance and lion dance. Nien specializes in lion dance and wushu—traditional Chinese martial arts—and often visits lion dance troupes around Taiwan. He began to play an advisory role with Team Win after learning about the group’s efforts to establish lion dance as a performing art while preserving its traditions.

Chen Chin-yi, who studied movie and television production in vocational high school, writes two to three new scripts each year, although only a few of them reach the stage. The troupe’s repertoire of large-scale productions now includes his The Rhythm of the Life from 2008 and 2010’s Lives in Temple Fairs. The former features modern dance and live drumming that is meant to represent a mother’s heartbeat as heard by an unborn child. Meanwhile, the latter production is autobiographical in nature, and tells the Chen brothers’ story starting from their childhood spent at temple fairs.

Gainful Employment

Team Win has received support in the form of local government grants most years since 2003. But Chen Chin-hung, who doubles as Team Win’s business manager, is quick to point out that the group relies on commercial performances for 80 percent of its revenue. “There’re more art festivals around Taiwan than before, which has helped increase our opportunities to work,” he notes, adding that lion dance groups are often invited to perform at the opening ceremonies of festivals.

Dennis Huang (黃安生) is the most senior non-family member of Team Win. Now 32, he began working for the group before its official founding 13 years ago. While most people think lion dance work holds little promise for long-term employment, Team Win’s success has changed the situation for performers. “The people around me didn’t mind when I did lion dance in my teens, but they started suggesting that I find a ‘normal’ job as I grew older,” Huang says. As Team Win’s popularity grows, the group is increasingly capable of retaining talent such as Huang. In the troupe’s early years, he was paid only for each performance, but today he receives a monthly salary.

While working to gain a foothold in Taiwan as a performing arts group, Team Win has not neglected the importance of passing down the tradition through education. Five of its members, including Huang, teach lion dance in different schools in New Taipei City. “At the same time, we’re broadening the audience base for lion dance through education,” says Huang, who instructs a group of grade school children in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District ranging in age from 9 to 12. “Students are taught not only lion dance skills, but also the culture and history behind the tradition,” he adds.

Such efforts reflect an encouraging overall trend for lion dance. In societies where Chinese culture thrives such as those in mainland China, Malaysia and Taiwan, competitions between lion dance troupes have served to further the development of the tradition. These bastions of the practice have also endeavored to have lion dance included in the Asian Games as a formal event. The tradition received major official support in Taiwan in 2004 when the central government-organized biennial Citizens Games, which began in 2000, included both dragon and lion dance contests in its list of events. The promotional activities for both forms of dance were originally governed by the Chinese Wushu Federation. In 2003, this role was assumed by the Chinese Taipei Dragon and Lion Dance Federation, which was instrumental in getting the two dance traditions included in the Citizens Games the following year. The organization is a member of the Beijing-based International Dragon and Lion Dance Federation, and holds contests every year to pick performers for major international competitions.

Team Win, however, does not participate in competitive events, preferring to spend its energy on creative productions as a performing arts group. “Everyone involved in the fascinating cultural asset of lion dance should be given credit for promoting the tradition,” says Chen Chin-yi. The growing interest in lion dance can be attributed to the dedication and talent of competition teams and modern performance troupes such as Team Win. By honoring tradition while exploring new frontiers, these groups are helping the practice find new audiences at home and around the world.

The Origins of Lion Dance Traditions

The lion dance tradition in mainland China can be traced as far back as the Tang dynasty (618–907). Initially, the performance was staged only for members of the royal court in the north of the mainland, but over time it spread to the southern regions and beyond aristocratic circles. The two major traditions of lion dance—the Chinese northern lion and Chinese southern lion—differ in various ways. For example, the former often features a pair of lions led by a character holding a spherical object, while this is not the norm for the latter. In addition, with costumes that feature longer and shaggier hair, the dancers in the northern version look more like real lions. The Chinese southern lion, which is also known as the awakened lion, in turn is generally subdivided into two categories, the Foshan lion and Heshan lion—indicating the two lion characters’ places of origin in Guangdong province. The Foshan lion is characterized by its powerful movements, whereas the Heshan lion dances in a more playful, cat-like manner, says University of Taipei assistant professor of sport performing arts Nien Yu-hsiang.

According to the scholar, the most commonly heard explanation for the name awakened lion, or xingshi in Mandarin, is related to China’s vulnerability at the end of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), which fell to the Nationalist government. At the time, China was often compared to a sleeping lion. To boost the morale of the country, lion dance practitioners in Guangdong therefore decided to go by the name awakened lion.

Lion dance was brought to Taiwan much earlier by immigrants from Fujian province in mainland China. This style primarily features a green-faced lion and requires proficiency in wushu. Guangdong natives introduced the southern lion tradition to Taiwan after relocating to the island with the Nationalists at the end of the 1940s. In the late 1960s, they began to pass down the tradition to native Taiwanese. The green-faced lion has declined in popularity in Taiwan over the years most likely because the Guangdong-style awakened lion performs the breathtaking skill of pole jumping, while the Fujian-style lion does not. “There’s no category for Taiwan lion in international competitions, and this has also had an impact on the tradition’s development,” Nien adds.

—Oscar Chung

Write to Oscar Chung at mhchung@mofa.gov.tw