{"id":7460,"date":"2018-05-27T20:01:42","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T00:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=7460"},"modified":"2018-10-09T17:42:18","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T21:42:18","slug":"lion-dancing-jongs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/05\/27\/lion-dancing-jongs\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare East Coast Demonstration Of Chinese Lions Dancing Across Tall Poles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThey\u2019re basically rising their lives for our tradition,\u201d Mai Du, championships director and federation co-founder, told the crowd that come to see the jong performance at the first United States Dragon & Lion Dance Federation National Championships<\/a> at Quincy High School today.<\/p>\n

The championships attracted lion and dragon dancing teams from across the United States for events from Friday to Sunday. Chinese lion dancing \u201cis considered a harbinger of happiness, prosperity, good luck and wealth,\u201d according to the competition program. It\u2019s accompanied by live drumming, cymbals and gongs.<\/p>\n

\"USDLDF<\/a>
USDLDF Dragon and Lion Dance National Championships at Quincy High School Gymnasium, May 27, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

One of the most sensational types of lion dance performance is the jongs\u2014in which duos perform their dance balancing atop and hoping across a sequence of 22 poles, toped with small platforms, that begin just over 2 feet high and reach more than 8 feet up at the tallest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe East Coast has rarely if ever seen a jong performance,\u201d host Connie Wong told the crowd.<\/p>\n

Sadly organizers were forced to cancel this morning\u2019s jongs competition because of a set-up problem that caused them to be unable to keep some of the metal poles from wobbling when danced upon. Instead, they opted to give a demonstration, in which Sing Yung Dragon and Lion Dance Association from Honolulu, Hawaii, showed how they dance atop the poles\u2014but for safety\u2019s sake did it without wearing their masks and costumes.<\/p>\n

\"Jongs<\/a>
Jongs (Freestyle) lion dance demonstration at USDLDF Dragon and Lion Dance National Championships at Quincy High School Gymnasium, May 27, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As they jump from pole to pole, the player in the tail often lifts the front player over his head by the front player\u2019s pants and belt. \u201cThe tail player will do something of a dead-lift technique,\u201d explained Kevin Lau, who performs the tail of the Honolulu association\u2019s green lion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of trust with your partner but also timing,\u201d Lau said.<\/p>\n

Howard Hui, who plays the tail of the Honolulu association\u2019s blue lion, said, \u201cAt first, poles were really scary. But as you keep walking it and jumping the gaps, you get used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Jongs<\/a>
Jongs (Freestyle) lion dance demonstration at USDLDF Dragon and Lion Dance National Championships at Quincy High School Gymnasium, May 27, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jongs<\/a>
Jongs (Freestyle) lion dance demonstration at USDLDF Dragon and Lion Dance National Championships at Quincy High School Gymnasium, May 27, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"USDLDF<\/a>
USDLDF Dragon and Lion Dance National Championships at Quincy High School Gymnasium, May 27, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jongs<\/a>
Jongs (Freestyle) lion dance demonstration at USDLDF Dragon and Lion Dance National Championships at Quincy High School Gymnasium, May 27, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jongs<\/a>
Jongs (Freestyle) lion dance demonstration at USDLDF Dragon and Lion Dance National Championships at Quincy High School Gymnasium, May 27, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jongs<\/a>
Jongs (Freestyle) lion dance demonstration at USDLDF Dragon and Lion Dance National Championships at Quincy High School Gymnasium, May 27, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jongs<\/a>
Jongs (Freestyle) lion dance demonstration at USDLDF Dragon and Lion Dance National Championships at Quincy High School Gymnasium, May 27, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jongs<\/a>
Jongs (Freestyle) lion dance demonstration at USDLDF Dragon and Lion Dance National Championships at Quincy High School Gymnasium, May 27, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Drumming<\/a>
Drumming during USDLDF Dragon and Lion Dance National Championships at Quincy High School Gymnasium, May 27, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThey\u2019re basically rising their lives for our tradition,\u201d Mai Du, championships director and federation co-founder, told the crowd that come to see the jong performance at the first United States Dragon & Lion Dance Federation National Championships at Quincy High School today. The championships attracted lion and dragon dancing teams from across the United States […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[212,111,119,110],"tags":[371,41,372],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7460"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7460"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7469,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7460\/revisions\/7469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}