Part of the training when I go to Malaysia is lion dance performances and the thing that surprises me is the sheer volume of performances done by my Shifu. On this visit, I watched the opening of a new tile factory & showroom and the opening of the new Meiban Dyson washing machine plant, which by coincedence had some people from England there doing the opening.

We arrived at the venue in an open top lorry with the troupes flag blowing in the wind and the team playing the drum and cymbals on the way. The event that we was participating in was The Sacred Buddha Tooth Relic Exhibition 2004 at the Singapore Expo, I was in one of the 30 new lions that was having it eyes dotted for the occasion as part of the Opening Ceremony. It was a high profile event with guests going thru a metal detector and a bag search to be able to see the exhibition. After the VIPs dotted the eyes we done a waking up sequence and a simplified Bai Si Men (bow to 4 doors) routine that was done in unison also 2 dragons and 9 Koi carp fish were playing and I would imagine looked pretty impressive from the audiences point of view.

Over the next few days, I tagged along with shifu as he went to teach his classes this included Kuan Ti Temple in Pelangi, Zhao Ta Yao Shuai Desa Harmoni, and MCA in Kang Kar Pulai. Unfortunately, I did not manage to go to see Kota Tinggi Wei Wu who have competed in the Nationals and at the Genting World Championships and Taman Johor MCA this time. These teams have a good standard and I always learn a few new innovations from them.

After the ceremony, Lioncity presented me with a  nice t-shirt sporting the SGWutan.com logo and we took some pictures together

I met up with Jeffery Tan who coaches Boon Lay Community Centre Dragon & Lion Dance Troupe and Wen Yang. I originally met Jeffery in Jingmen, China when he was with the Sichuan Tian team. We were attending an International competition, which went badly for my team as I dropped the head player during practise and that kind of put an end to any hopes of performing on the jongs.

Jeffrey very kindly took time out to invite me to his troupes training session, which takes place at the Boon Lay community centre. The training I saw took place in the outdoor basketball court as they were practising on the gao jong (poles). He had two teams training for an upcoming competition, one of the head players was walking with a limp as he had an accident before I arrived but still managed to jump like around like a springhare. Accidents are obviously a major concern for any team training on poles but I have to hand it to Jeffery on the safety side of things as he had many crash mats along the entire length of the poles.

Also, the really great thing to see was the little kids (I think they were around 11 years old) jumping on top of the poles with some skill. Other teams I have visited have also had young kids really focused on their training and it is great to see because most kids are only focused when they are playing on their game boy or sending sms to each other.

Jeffery got his troupe to perform a dragon dance that was good even though he said they have not practised for a few months. Afterwards he took me to a local hawker centre for dinner and I managed to impress one of the food stall owners with my four words of Mandarin. After dinner, he took me to see a dragon and lion manufacturer, this guy works from his house but creates some really beautiful lions. I noticed that he tends to go for the tiger claw (3 stripes) design on the skin, which is really a Singapore trademark. He had a huge stack of photos of lions that he has made and supplied to teams all over the World. He mentioned that he does most of his work during the night as it is the only time when he concetrate, because during the day there a lot of disturbances such as the telephone. He also makes the 9 Koi Carp fish that accompany the Dragon dance. The fish are meant to form into the dragon and you will see they all look different and bring their own qualities to the dragon.

The next day Jeffery took me to a company that makes flags and "wow" the flags they made were really the best I have seen. Jeffery mentioned to me that he hates to come to this place because he always ends up ordering new stuff. I cannot blame him, because I wanted to order something but then the owner made the mistake of giving me a catalogue with all the designs and my brain went into meltdown by the sheer volume of designs. When i visitied they were making a standard (Big Centre Flag) for a Japanese troupe. The things that make his flags stand out are the flourescent inks and fabrics he uses. These make the flags quite expensive but the extra cost is worth it.

Kwong Siew opened a new branch in Permas Jaya, this is where all the hung gar and lion dance training takes place, the original building is still in place on Jalan Wong Ah Fook. Jalan Wong Ah Fook was actually named after a rich Chinese immigrant who helped develop the area and the Kwong Siew premises was donated by him in the late 1800s. The Kwong Siew Wai Kuan was built for immigrants from Canton to meet up with fellow Cantonese immigants. There is also a Hainanese Associaton and a Hokkien Association represesenting people from those regions. One of the seniors told me that  they only used to teach Cantonese people Hong Quan and Lion Dance. Unfortuantley some of these associations are not attracting the new generation to their activities like they used too and a lot of these places are a pale comparison of what they used to be.

The new branch in Permas Jaya is a 3-storey building and boasts the full set of 18 weapons displayed beside an altar to Kuan Gong.

This new branch is much better for training as the original building was right next to City Square which is a big shopping centre and is now owned by the Singapore government (is Singapore starting to buy up JB?).

It is also very close to the customs check point, so that area is extremely busy and when you trained you use to draw an audience, a couple of times I felt tempted to go round with a hat collecting money from the audience.

On this visit, I managed to witness the 5-element fist, arrow fist, tiger fork and double broadswords being played by students. My Shifus senior and his disciple Mr. Goh took me for Yum Cha (drink tea); actually, I opted for Ais Milo (ice Milo) and told me about the Kwong Siews history and recent activities. Their main concern was that there is no interest from the new generation in the traditional arts and we discussed various ways in which we could re-kindle and maintain an interest.