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Understanding the Chinese lion dance

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The lion dance may be somewhat overplayed in international Chinese events, but that shouldn't undermine the dance's legitimacy, relevance and importance in Chinese culture.<!-- --> </br><!-- --> </br>The lion dance isn't unique to Lunar New Year and is often a part of festival celebrations -- featured in everything from welcoming parties to workplace feng shui blessings to shop-opening ceremonies.<!-- --> </br><!-- --> </br>While at first glance the dance seems to be a cacophony of noise and whirlwind of blurry lion head swinging, it's actually a complicated and significant series of, at times, difficult movements.<!-- --> </br><!-- --> </br>To better understand the dance, we teamed up with Allan Ha, the dragon and lion dance team leader of Ha Tak Kin Martial Art Society Ltd. in Hong Kong. Ha and his team show and explain the basic moves of one of the most popular lion dances -- the "drunken lion."<!-- --> </br><!-- --> </br>This dance reflects a popular Chinese martial arts technique, the drunken fist.

The lion dance may be somewhat overplayed in international Chinese events, but that shouldn't undermine the dance's legitimacy, relevance and importance in Chinese culture.

The lion dance isn't unique to Lunar New Year and is often a part of festival celebrations -- featured in everything from welcoming parties to workplace feng shui blessings to shop-opening ceremonies.

While at first glance the dance seems to be a cacophony of noise and whirlwind of blurry lion head swinging, it's actually a complicated and significant series of, at times, difficult movements.

To better understand the dance, we teamed up with Allan Ha, the dragon and lion dance team leader of Ha Tak Kin Martial Art Society Ltd. in Hong Kong. Ha and his team show and explain the basic moves of one of the most popular lion dances -- the "drunken lion."

This dance reflects a popular Chinese martial arts technique, the drunken fist.