Lion Dance Marathon

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Lion Dance Marathon
Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 1:58PM / Standard Entry / Wushu / Members only
7 comments
I was going to watch The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor with my mom today, but canceled our date with Jet because I got an email from Marla yesterday about the Self-Help for the Elderly lion dance fundraiser. Originally, we thought it was last Saturday (when we were in Disneyland), but it was actually today. Even though I don't know how to lion dance, I figured I'd still go and maybe help with playing instruments or something. So I went down to the Jackie Chan Senior Center on Geary at 10:30 AM.

Martial arts/lion dance schools volunteered to lion dance to merchants around the city to fundraise money for Self-Help for the Elderly. Kei Lun Martial Arts and SF Wushu offered to help cover the Richmond District. Basically, people from Self-Help would come along and go into the stores and restaurants to ask for donations. If a donation was given, they asked whether they wanted us to dance inside or stay outside and if they wanted firecrackers or not. As I wasn't performing, I was asked to be the liaison between the Self-Help people and the performers, so they told me what each place wanted as we went down the street and I passed that information along to the performers.
One thing that seems to impress the older generation is when you can speak Chinese. Haha. I accidentally busted out some Cantonese at one point because I wasn't sure whether the Self-Help people understood English or not and the face of the Self-Help lady I was talking to lit up. She kept complimenting me and telling the other people how "smart" I am for being able to speak both Chinese and English. Was kinda embarrassing in a way because I'm nowhere near fluent or anything. They just said things that were basic enough for me to understand and respond to. Did make me feel good, too, though, and gave me a little more confidence to speak in Cantonese whenever I could.

The shuttle took us out to my neighborhood first and then back to Geary, where one store generously donated $500. Sifu met up with us when we got to Clement and I offered to play cymbals at this point because I pretty much had the drum beat engrained in my head. We took a break while the Self-Help people met up with the other lion dance group to see how much ground they covered. Turned out that they already finished both sides of the street, so we called it a day. 5 hours of lion dancing for a good cause.

Click here to view some other photos from the lion dances.

Entry comments (7)

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silky
posted on Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008 1:18PM [Report]

5 hours lion dance - that sounds kinda tough...I hope you could raise a lot of money..
janechu
posted on Monday, Aug 11, 2008 3:25PM [Report]

a great cause =) hahaa... I can totally imagine the reaction on people's face about being "smart" to speak both chinese and english... hahaa...
narom
posted on Monday, Aug 11, 2008 11:20AM [Report]

I'm sure Jet would understand as its for a good cause. ;-)
JRS
posted on Monday, Aug 11, 2008 8:03AM [Report]

Hee hee...obviously Flagday hasn't seen all of JET's movies to know that some girls do Lion Dance (with a female lion, of course)!!!!

It's really great that you got to participate after all in this event.  It's way more important and you can see Jet in his movie on another day.

Congrats on being able to whip up some fine Canto for the seniors!  They're probably still talking about "that nice young girl who is so smart!"  =)
Flagday
posted on Monday, Aug 11, 2008 4:56AM [Report]

Sounds like a good, and long, day. Can "girls" lion dance? Or is that not the tradition? I've seen some lions that looked like pretty coquettish girly lions with fluttery eyelashes, etc. Glad you're bustin' out your Cantonese. It really is good to reinforce it in public too. You're so SMART!
peachey
posted on Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 11:43PM [Report]

Oh, there's a JC Senior Ctr? Didn't know that. Are there more than one in SF?

You did a good thing or two, Cass. Chahng-chahng-chahng-chahngchahng. lol
JoanneSanderson
posted on Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 4:23PM [Report]

Aw that's great that it was this week instead. Glad you got to help out,. The lion dance was a nice idea.
I'd love to be able to speak Cantonese in more than basic hello's. It was lovely when I was in Hong Kong and I spoke a few words...I got extra food for it., but it was the respect I got that made me happy =)