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Malaysia Has Turned Lion Dancing into a Gravity-Defying Extreme Sport

147 points by clockworksoul 6y ago

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
cs702 6y ago
I just clicked on the video and... holy cow, there are two grown men inside a giant, heavy, furry, lion costume, jumping from pole to pole, many feet high, while being able to look only through little holes in the costume, surely with zero peripheral vision. If someone had told me people would do this as a competitive sport, I would have said, "no way... why would anyone risk their limbs doing that?" Reality is indeed stranger than fiction.
- ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
  When I took Kung-Fu (many moons ago), we practiced Lion Dancing for the Chinese New Year Parade. All the Kung-Fu schools sent teams. It was hard. That costume is papier-mâché, but still weighs a ton, and you have to be constantly dancing for at least a half hour. I never got good at it (I'm fundamentally bad at athletics -long story), but I have a lot of respect for the art. The really hard stuff is the Peking Opera Form of Kung Fu. That will lay your ass up in hospital, if you screw up.
- WalterBright 6y ago
  > many feet high The article said they trained with the poles low to the ground. But even so, it looks very dangerous if one makes a tiny mistake. So do the gymnastic routines that are done in the Olympics. The reason I failed at gymnastics in school was I was unable to commit to the moves (if you didn't commit, you would hurt yourself).
  - Blikkentrekker 6y ago
    No mistakes are made, however. Repeat something often enough, and one wil be able to do it with perfection without any mistake. A concert pianist is also able to perform for hours without mistake, and he would easily do so blindfolded, simply because he has done it a thousand times.
    - capableweb 6y ago
      > No mistakes are made, however. Let's be realistic though, even experts fail sometime, but what sets them apart is the recovery and continue to train to have less mistakes, or even work in the mistakes so you don't notice. Many pianists make mistakes look like improv, and the audience won't notice the difference. Since the topic is Lion Dancing, the very first video linked in the article has a part where the team does indeed fail, timestamped it for you here: https://youtu.be/fKEoe4ANGOU?t=291 https://youtu.be/fKEoe4ANGOU?t=291 Same goes for anything really. Figure skating is very hard and the ones competing in the Olympics are the best of the best. But still, push yourself hard enough and eventually you'll fuck up somewhere, even if it's just a tiny bit. Even the pros does that, and some would argue you're not pushing yourself hard enough if you're not on the brink of failure.
      - Blikkentrekker 6y ago
        > Let's be realistic though, even experts fail sometime Is that truly so? I think many concert pianists will live their entire life without a single noticeable mistake at a live performance. The unlikeliness of this event is what qualifies them for this vocation. > Many pianists make mistakes look like improv, and the audience won't notice the difference. I think this is very much wrong, — hitting either the wrong note, or accidentally striking in between two keys, will not sound as though it be improvation, but as a clear, false note and it certainly does not take an expert to notice this. > Same goes for anything really. Figure skating is very hard and the ones competing in the Olympics are the best of the best. But still, push yourself hard enough and eventually you'll fuck up somewhere, even if it's just a tiny bit. Even the pros does that, and some would argue you're not pushing yourself hard enough if you're not on the brink of failure. Figure skaters fail because they would not win if they only did what they knew they would never fail. It is a matter of a risk–reward strategy needed to take first place, — this is not needed for concert pianists who do not compete against one another.
        capableweb 6y ago
        > I think many concert pianists will live their entire life without a single noticeable mistake at a live performance. I don't know what concerts you've gone to, but to the ones I've gone to, I've definitely heard mistakes from the pianists sometimes and a quick search on Google reveals it's a lot more common that you think, especially since you think that these masters (because I do think they are masters, don't get me wrong) never ever make any mistakes in their entire life. And no, playing the wrong note is not the only mistake you can make as a pianist. Most mistakes are simple mistakes that can happen to anyone. The reason you haven't noticed them so far, is that most professionals are very good at hiding their mistakes on the fly and not draw attention to it, so you think everything is well. But if you have a keen ear and you're familiar with the piece they are playing, you'll definitively notice some mistakes sometimes. It's not the end of the world though, and I personally think it brings a more personal touch to the performance.
- joshspankit 6y ago
  At the end of the second video the dancers have the lion do a backflip. The athleticism and skill is awe-inspiring.
  - johnchristopher 6y ago
    It's a front-flip. Which is still very impressive.
    - joshspankit 6y ago
      Thanks for the correction. It was clearly so stunning that my eyes played tricks on me
      - johnchristopher 6y ago
        Your mention of a backflip got me watching the video a second time, I couldn't picture how they could do that without a huge height difference between resting poles and then there's the horizontal distance to cross.
        joshspankit 6y ago
        Before I saw it I couldn't picture how they could make a front flip happen either
rstuart4133 6y ago
To me dragon dancing has always been oriental idiosyncratic thing I thought I would never understand. But geeze, nobody could not appreciate the strength and skill on display in that video. They were tossing each other in the air while the pole they were balancing on was wobbling, all while making the damned thing blink for christsakes. The theatrical element added by the costume was icing on the top. Well done, Malaysia.
philliphaydon 6y ago
:( This year Lion Dancing was banned for CNY in Singapore to prevent gathering, because it's crazy fascinating to watch in person.
herunan 6y ago
Those double stack moves are incredible. Two people pulling that kind of leap of faith in such a synchronised way while not being able to see anything takes a lot of practice and trust. I’ve never seen this before, and I’d pay to watch it in real life. This reminds me of so many lesser known extreme sports and traditions that are endemic of different parts of the world. For instance the castells (human towers) from Catalonia: https://youtu.be/SQM4qbwyxCM https://youtu.be/SQM4qbwyxCM
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
teh_klev 6y ago
I know we're not supposed to complain about website behaviour. But why, in this community, that seems to be sensitive about privacy, do we allow posts from a site that simply forces users to accept their cookie policy that has no opt out to view their content. And to be honest their content is a blender full of re-regurgitated chum drawn from wikipedia and other sources rather than original material.
- Temasik 6y ago
  because Chinese?
qzw 6y ago
What I've learned from a misspent youth watching way too many kung fu movies is that all Asian art forms boil down to who has the best kung fu.
yaacov 6y ago
I saw some of these people last lunar new year in KLM, just performing on the street in front of a pretty large (spontaneous) crowd. The acrobatics were really impressive. The performers looked like young teenagers who were having much more fun than I did at their age. Looked pretty dangerous though!
55555 6y ago
They fall off at 4:50
trungdq88 6y ago
It would be 10x more interesting to me when the lion mimic cute animal behaviors instead of jumping on poles. Things like scratching ears, walking/running/jumping (legs movements), showing emotions (ears, eyes, tail), etc. All of the lion dances I have seen in the past are all trying to impress viewers by doing dangerous stuff: climb, jumping on high poles, split fire,... I mean that is a lot of work, but not that impressive, as I can clearly see 2 grown ass man under the cape most of the time. If anyone have a good lion dance video as per the description above, please send me, I really appreciate it.
- trungdq88 6y ago
  Something like the yellow lion in this video from 4:17 https://youtu.be/0Mg0cn26IoA https://youtu.be/0Mg0cn26IoA
- johnchristopher 6y ago
  The first video has the lion scratching his ears when on the poles. I thought they made a good impression of a live and cute giant quadruped.
Temasik 6y ago
doesn't look fun at all

147 points by clockworksoul 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

I just clicked on the video and... holy cow, there are two grown men inside a giant, heavy, furry, lion costume, jumping from pole to pole, many feet high, while being able to look only through little holes in the costume, surely with zero peripheral vision. If someone had told me people would do this as a competitive sport, I would have said, "no way... why would anyone risk their limbs doing that?" Reality is indeed stranger than fiction.

ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
When I took Kung-Fu (many moons ago), we practiced Lion Dancing for the Chinese New Year Parade. All the Kung-Fu schools sent teams. It was hard. That costume is papier-mâché, but still weighs a ton, and you have to be constantly dancing for at least a half hour. I never got good at it (I'm fundamentally bad at athletics -long story), but I have a lot of respect for the art. The really hard stuff is the Peking Opera Form of Kung Fu. That will lay your ass up in hospital, if you screw up.
WalterBright 6y ago
> many feet high The article said they trained with the poles low to the ground. But even so, it looks very dangerous if one makes a tiny mistake. So do the gymnastic routines that are done in the Olympics. The reason I failed at gymnastics in school was I was unable to commit to the moves (if you didn't commit, you would hurt yourself).
- Blikkentrekker 6y ago
  No mistakes are made, however. Repeat something often enough, and one wil be able to do it with perfection without any mistake. A concert pianist is also able to perform for hours without mistake, and he would easily do so blindfolded, simply because he has done it a thousand times.
  - capableweb 6y ago
    > No mistakes are made, however. Let's be realistic though, even experts fail sometime, but what sets them apart is the recovery and continue to train to have less mistakes, or even work in the mistakes so you don't notice. Many pianists make mistakes look like improv, and the audience won't notice the difference. Since the topic is Lion Dancing, the very first video linked in the article has a part where the team does indeed fail, timestamped it for you here: https://youtu.be/fKEoe4ANGOU?t=291 https://youtu.be/fKEoe4ANGOU?t=291 Same goes for anything really. Figure skating is very hard and the ones competing in the Olympics are the best of the best. But still, push yourself hard enough and eventually you'll fuck up somewhere, even if it's just a tiny bit. Even the pros does that, and some would argue you're not pushing yourself hard enough if you're not on the brink of failure.
    - Blikkentrekker 6y ago
      > Let's be realistic though, even experts fail sometime Is that truly so? I think many concert pianists will live their entire life without a single noticeable mistake at a live performance. The unlikeliness of this event is what qualifies them for this vocation. > Many pianists make mistakes look like improv, and the audience won't notice the difference. I think this is very much wrong, — hitting either the wrong note, or accidentally striking in between two keys, will not sound as though it be improvation, but as a clear, false note and it certainly does not take an expert to notice this. > Same goes for anything really. Figure skating is very hard and the ones competing in the Olympics are the best of the best. But still, push yourself hard enough and eventually you'll fuck up somewhere, even if it's just a tiny bit. Even the pros does that, and some would argue you're not pushing yourself hard enough if you're not on the brink of failure. Figure skaters fail because they would not win if they only did what they knew they would never fail. It is a matter of a risk–reward strategy needed to take first place, — this is not needed for concert pianists who do not compete against one another.
      - capableweb 6y ago
        > I think many concert pianists will live their entire life without a single noticeable mistake at a live performance. I don't know what concerts you've gone to, but to the ones I've gone to, I've definitely heard mistakes from the pianists sometimes and a quick search on Google reveals it's a lot more common that you think, especially since you think that these masters (because I do think they are masters, don't get me wrong) never ever make any mistakes in their entire life. And no, playing the wrong note is not the only mistake you can make as a pianist. Most mistakes are simple mistakes that can happen to anyone. The reason you haven't noticed them so far, is that most professionals are very good at hiding their mistakes on the fly and not draw attention to it, so you think everything is well. But if you have a keen ear and you're familiar with the piece they are playing, you'll definitively notice some mistakes sometimes. It's not the end of the world though, and I personally think it brings a more personal touch to the performance.
joshspankit 6y ago
At the end of the second video the dancers have the lion do a backflip. The athleticism and skill is awe-inspiring.
- johnchristopher 6y ago
  It's a front-flip. Which is still very impressive.
  - joshspankit 6y ago
    Thanks for the correction. It was clearly so stunning that my eyes played tricks on me
    - johnchristopher 6y ago
      Your mention of a backflip got me watching the video a second time, I couldn't picture how they could do that without a huge height difference between resting poles and then there's the horizontal distance to cross.
      - joshspankit 6y ago
        Before I saw it I couldn't picture how they could make a front flip happen either

rstuart4133 6y ago

To me dragon dancing has always been oriental idiosyncratic thing I thought I would never understand. But geeze, nobody could not appreciate the strength and skill on display in that video. They were tossing each other in the air while the pole they were balancing on was wobbling, all while making the damned thing blink for christsakes. The theatrical element added by the costume was icing on the top. Well done, Malaysia.

philliphaydon 6y ago

:( This year Lion Dancing was banned for CNY in Singapore to prevent gathering, because it's crazy fascinating to watch in person.

herunan 6y ago

Those double stack moves are incredible. Two people pulling that kind of leap of faith in such a synchronised way while not being able to see anything takes a lot of practice and trust. I’ve never seen this before, and I’d pay to watch it in real life. This reminds me of so many lesser known extreme sports and traditions that are endemic of different parts of the world. For instance the castells (human towers) from Catalonia: https://youtu.be/SQM4qbwyxCM https://youtu.be/SQM4qbwyxCM

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

teh_klev 6y ago

I know we're not supposed to complain about website behaviour. But why, in this community, that seems to be sensitive about privacy, do we allow posts from a site that simply forces users to accept their cookie policy that has no opt out to view their content. And to be honest their content is a blender full of re-regurgitated chum drawn from wikipedia and other sources rather than original material.

Temasik 6y ago
because Chinese?

qzw 6y ago

What I've learned from a misspent youth watching way too many kung fu movies is that all Asian art forms boil down to who has the best kung fu.

yaacov 6y ago

I saw some of these people last lunar new year in KLM, just performing on the street in front of a pretty large (spontaneous) crowd. The acrobatics were really impressive. The performers looked like young teenagers who were having much more fun than I did at their age. Looked pretty dangerous though!

55555 6y ago

They fall off at 4:50

trungdq88 6y ago

It would be 10x more interesting to me when the lion mimic cute animal behaviors instead of jumping on poles. Things like scratching ears, walking/running/jumping (legs movements), showing emotions (ears, eyes, tail), etc. All of the lion dances I have seen in the past are all trying to impress viewers by doing dangerous stuff: climb, jumping on high poles, split fire,... I mean that is a lot of work, but not that impressive, as I can clearly see 2 grown ass man under the cape most of the time. If anyone have a good lion dance video as per the description above, please send me, I really appreciate it.

trungdq88 6y ago
Something like the yellow lion in this video from 4:17 https://youtu.be/0Mg0cn26IoA https://youtu.be/0Mg0cn26IoA
johnchristopher 6y ago
The first video has the lion scratching his ears when on the poles. I thought they made a good impression of a live and cute giant quadruped.

Temasik 6y ago

doesn't look fun at all