Sheffield Chinese Lion Dance Team at Matlock Bath

Derbyshire Times

Sheffield Chinese Lion Dance Team entertain hundreds of visitors at Heights of Abraham, Matlock Bath, to celebrate the start of the Lunar New Year and the beginning of the cable car season.

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:19 Hello, I'm Carl Ngo from the Sheffield Lion Dance Team.

00:24 And our team was set up by Jimmy Wan back in the '70s.

00:28 And he's been doing lion dance all the way through.

00:31 And since he retired, unfortunately he's passed away.

00:33 We've taken over the team in his absence.

00:37 There's a few main stories.

00:40 Like the one that I normally talk about

00:44 is about a demon called the Nian.

00:47 And he used to, in the past, go to attack these villages

00:51 and raid them every single year during spring festival.

00:56 And then because-- so the people were getting very upset,

01:00 so they prayed to the gods.

01:01 So then the heavens answered.

01:03 So they sent out a heavenly lion.

01:06 So the lion battled with the Nian to shoo him away.

01:10 So every year, the people in the village

01:13 would mimic the lion and pretend to be the heavenly lion.

01:17 So they chased away the bad spirits,

01:19 bringing the good luck for the coming new year.

01:21 So our dance is the-- well, a presentation of that, really.

01:26 So the people dressed up as a lion.

01:30 So we walk around, bless people with good fortune, good luck,

01:35 and to be strong, courageous.

01:39 That's what we promote as well.

01:41 And the significance of the letters and orange.

01:44 The letters in Chinese is pronounced "chai."

01:49 And that is luck.

01:53 And also, the orange, that is pronounced "jin."

01:57 So that would be gold.

01:58 So to give letters is to give luck.

02:01 To give the orange is to give gold and prosperity.

02:05 So whoever catches the gold, he passes the whole year.

02:08 [MUSIC PLAYING]

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02:19 [DRUMMING]

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02:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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