more of a blog post or well. i could write a thesis on this highkey. but more of a post than a guide to lion dance stuff.
i want to discuss luck. i had my first ever talk with a sifu yesterday and it was really eyeopening. i'm very attunted to lion dance wrt its symbolism and .. spiritual? religious? implications; it's been something that i hold up my own beliefs about (ie. a lens view, not a view inherited from family/ world/ school) and is very integral to how i write lion dance and why i perform it.
context on the sifu talk. we were talking about traditional choy chang (采青) and what makes a "complete" chang. we talked about the luoshu square and how that dictates the idea of triplets in lion dance, as well as drives the 3,5,7 star beats, and how to bring luck you have to do a triplet and "close it"/ end it with a 7 star. we also got into the meaning of different props/ changs, which sparked my interest in the topic of luck.
it's very well known that lion dance is performed to bring luck; even if you've never done it, you probably know it happens at new years and is lucky. but the origin of that luck is more complicated than i thought. i was never really taught this per se, but the implications that i gathered was that the lion itself was a lucky creature; inviting it to dance and grace your establisment etc. with its presence and even feeding it hongbao/ money will allow you to benefit from its luck. of course, as a lion, you have to be cordial and be thankful for the support and do tricks and things for the money, but your power and influence are what was bringing the people good fortune. actually, it's quite the opposite.
the sifu talked about how the lion doing work was what brought luck, and so doing stunts or having chang would be more lucky. the harder the chang to solve, the more luck, the harder the stunts, the more luck. this establishes that work (and a specific set of actions) is how the lion brings luck, not the lion itself. i completely agree with him, and this actually lines up even more with what i'd seen in routines before. but there's still a sticking point to me. at least in the way that the sifu framed it, to me it seemed as though he framed the lion in a semi-passive or actually submissive light. the lion's abilities are not what make it bring luck, instead it's playing by the rules of the game, doing stunts or performing changs that people expect/ tell it to do to bring the luck. this was a sort of earth shaking framework to me, and in the moment, i had trouble with how to proceed.
some other context, i'm entering the world of routine writing right now, attempting to choreo and perform a futsan blessing that's based on the three bows of lion dance (or, well, you could frame it as the luoshu square! now that i know that, haha). before this talk, i had my own ideas about how i wanted the lions who performed in this routine to act. i was fascinated in the space that exists between the lion and the person they perform for, and i wanted to showcase the idea that blessings are a lion's job. they take pride in it, and they're very good at what they do, so the routine should seem effortless, but showcase a great attention to detail. i had also read joey yap's book on lion dance, and his discussion of the metaphysical idea of clearing the negative qi from a space is what cosmic blessing (my routine) heavily relies on. the lions cover the full physical space, ushering out the negative qi and making space for more positive energy. this partially lines up with the sifu's framework. the lions are doing work (clearing the energy by performing skillful steps and motions) with intent, and there's repetition of 3 throughout. but i still struggled with the idea of the chang. is the chang what the lion wants? or is it what it needs to actually be able to bring luck?
i have yet to discuss this further with the sifu, which i'd really love to do, but i think i've found a framework for myself that upholds all of the beliefs that i appreciate and ties these in as well. let's start with the lion. lions are alive. they are lil creatures that are brought into this world by a human and that human gives them a certain kind of life, a personality, a motive. all lions are different and therefore will have slightly different opinions on how to go about things, slightly different quirks in their movement, etc. they're spirits, or at least, collectively created spirits if not physical spirits, and so they do have an aspect to them that lets them bring luck to a space. lions are powerful, but they're not unreachable; however, they're not servants or tools, they enjoy luck bringing and choose to do it.
to bring luck, a lion must actively choose to focus on luck bringing, and put effort into it. the amount of luck that it brings is proportional to the effort that it inputs. this means that a simple routine for a baby lion would actually still be quite lucky, since the younger lion needs to put in a lot more effort and attention into performing that. effort is also tied to mental effort/ attention; just because a lion is physically capable doesn't mean it automatically is much more lucky. this means that the luck a lion brings is going to vary quite wildly, even from routine to routine. enter the chang. a business or person hiring a lion has their own interests in mind. they want luck to see their business flourish and grow (or they want one for good press. lol). but since lions' luck varies quite widely from lion to lion, how are they meant to get the bang for their buck? simple. set up a chang for the lion to perform. if you know the lion is exerting mental energy, that's effort that it'll put into the blessing, and expand your luck. as a bonus, if you set up the chang for the lion, you can define the Type of luck they bring as well. different elements like yangcong or juzi signal to the lion it should focus on that kind of luck. the objects themselves aren't lucky, they're symbolic of the energy the lion is bringing to the establishment. similarly, the lion knows its getting paid (funny, but true). the implications of paying a lion are capitalistic and odd, but i think they can figure it out, they're pretty smart. i digress... anyway, the lion also is aware it has to signal things about the luck its bringing to the owner. so it'll perform agreed upon actions (like stacks or stunts) to both boost the luck levels by exerting itself, and directly tell the owner that its doing its job well.
tl;dr, changs exist as a form of standarized communication between the lion and its employer: a way to quantify, identify and direct the type of luck a lion brings to your space. changs are Not simply a way to test lions, push them to their limits, or control them.
i think this theory makes quite a bit of sense to me; it covers the innate motivation of the lion and its special ability to bring luck, while also giving an explanation for the seemingly passive/ submissive acts the lion may perform for others. i don't think its a bad thing to have a lion be more submissive either, but my hesitance to believe that was the full explanation was just because lions have always been respected and talked about as powerful creatures, so it didn't add up. i personally really value the lions as alive guys who are very kind to us and let us as performers have a relationship with them where we get to bring their life to a new dimension, so understanding these sorts of rules with the lion in mind is really important to me!