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Dragon's Head

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R1230719L  (Camera: Ricoh GX200)

As the Chinese New Year is approaching, of which this time the new year day falls on 3 February, chances are that you will see some lion dances.  With a bit of luck, you may even see dragon dances!

There is a vivid depiction of a dragon dance by Martin Booth in his memoir Gweilo, which is about his childhood in Hong Kong:

Gweilo: Memories of a Hong Kong Childhood"Finally, to the clashing of cymbals and striking of hand gongs... stilt-walkers and jugglers followed the lion, there was a gap and then the dragon arrived on the scene.  It was magnificent.  Its head was at least nine feet high, excluding the  horns on top.  Its mouth -- red-mawed and lined with white teeth -- was big enough for me to have sat in.  The mouth was operated by a man walking in front of the dragon with a pole connected to the dragon's lower lip, whilst the remainder of the head was held high by one man.  As with the lion, he swung it to and fro, lowered it to the ground then looked at the sky, in time to the percussion instruments.  Several yards in front of the dragon pranced a man with a paper fish almost as big as himself on the pole, with which he teased the beast.

"Behind the head was a one-hundred-year-long reptilian body constructed of coloured cloth painted ins cales and stretched over a series of bamboo hoops.  Under this danced several dozen men, only their legs showing and giving the dragon's body the appearance of a multi-coloured circus centipede.  The body curled in on itself, twisting across the road and generally behaving in a serpentine fashion...."


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