Kung Hee Fat Choy
On Friday night I went with Bill and Eden, who are in town for vacation, to the Chinese Cultural Plaza to see the Chinese New Year celebrations there. Several Chinese clubs and associations were involved in the event. They kicked everything off with a whole mess of lions dancing about. I suspect there was one for each association.
Later on, after dinner at Won Kee, we emerged to watch some seriously acrobatic lion stunts. This club had put up a bunch of wooden platforms, upon which their lion jumped up and down. Remembering that the lion is actually two guys under a lion costume, this is truly impressive.
At first I tried taking pictures with my flash on, but that only illuminated the little flags near me in the foreground and did nothing to light the faraway stage. Finally I tried shooting with no flash, which oddly enough turned out better. I also took video, but I don’t think I’ve got room on this blog for big video files.
Here’s a closeup. Notice the illuminated eyes?
After the number with the wooden platforms, they then brought out these apparati and the lion leaped up onto these tiny footholds and pranced back and forth, leaping from one little disc to another. Wow!
January 30th, 2006 at 3:46 pm
Hey, I were there, too! Although I think I missed this part. The way the crowd was, we could have stepped on each other’s toes and never known it.
January 30th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
Ji-in, it was an awesome crowd. It was obvious that this was a real community event, with mostly locals and only a few tourists. We were amused at the number of parents and grandparents with camcorders pressing close to the stage during the martial arts demonstrations, determined to get a shot of their kids.
January 31st, 2006 at 9:56 am
Nice! Wish we were there!
February 1st, 2006 at 10:28 pm
Dana, were there any New Year celebrations out your way?