The lion dance, brought to the first US Chinatowns in places like San Francisco and New York in the mid-1800s by Chinese immigrants from the south, has become an iconic part of Chinese New Year celebrations around the country after more than a hundred years.
A longtime cultural tradition, Chinese people perform the lion dance during Spring Festival, which begins from Feb 17 this year, to bring good luck, prosperity and fortune while warding off evil spirits and bad energy for the new year.
It's a symbolic ritual rooted in ancient legends, where the lion's ferocity and loud music scare away monsters like the mythical nian, signifying triumph over adversity and welcoming a fresh start.
There is no official data to indicate how many lion dance teams there are in the US, but it's undeniable that the lion dance is everywhere in cities with a large Chinese community, such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and Houston, during Spring Festival celebrations that usually last 15 days.
According to insiders, a well-equipped lion dance team usually does 30 to 50 performances every year for the Spring Festival in Houston.
One such team is from the Shaolin Temple Cultural Center in Houston. They get booked for close to 40 performances for various organizations and businesses to celebrate Spring Festival, said the center's master Shi Yan Chan.
More than a hundred of the center's wushu (martial arts) students can perform the lion dance, said Shi, and there are more than 20 core members dedicated to the lion dance.
Spring Festival has gained wider appeal, and the lion dance has been closely associated with the holiday, making it a must-have for public celebrations.
"We have done the lion dance for about 20 years," Shi said.
The Space Center Houston has scheduled lion dances for two days straight this year.
"Watch this incredible traditional Chinese dance in which the dancers are masked and costumed to resemble lions," Space Center Houston explained.
For New Year festivals across the city, the lion dance plays an integral part. The vibrant drum sound and the colorful lion's interactions with the audience make it a favorite spectacle year after year.
In New York's Chinatown, an area of about 5 square kilometers in lower Manhattan with a population of around 150,000, lion dance performances during the Spring Festival have been a tradition since the 1800s. Performed for hours at a time and many days throughout Spring Festival, it has become one of the major symbols for Chinatown and a centerpiece of ethnic tourism that often draws thousands of spectators.
High-traffic lion dances are also held in Hudson Yards, Seaport, Flushing, Sunset Park and major museums and malls across the Big Apple, making it the city with arguably the most lion dances across the US.
For many US cities, the Spring Festival celebration is not complete without lion dances.
