Chinese lions dazzle audience
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
When it comes to leaping onto poles 8 feet in the air wearing a full-sized Chinese lion head, 11-year-old Max Malmud was perfectly content yesterday to sit and watch.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Max, a 6th-grader at Le Jardin Academy, and some 4,000 others at the Neal Blaisdell Arena were often stunned by the acrobatics and athleticism of six, two-man lion dance teams that competed at the First Hawai'i World Invitational Lion Kings Competition.
A team from Hong Kong performs a Chinese lion dance at the First Hawai'i World Invitational Lion Kings Competition at the Blaisdell Arena yesterday.
"Sometimes it's a little scary because of the height," said Max, showing off the $12 hand-sized lion head his uncle bought for him. "And it seems kind of confusing."
One of the teams from Hawai'i and one from Singapore — which is the seven-time all-Singapore high pole champion — had scary falls while spinning and jumping on poles topped with only a 14-inch platform.
There were also moments of incredible precision.
Hong Kong's team of boys from the Yau Kung Moon Ha Tak Kin Martial Arts Society gave life to a gold and white lion costume.
They took a nervous, tentative animal afraid of heights and transformed it into a beast that batted its eyes, wiggled its rear end and flew across the Blaisdell Arena for the highest score of the night, an 8.89.
Jeffrey Lam, president of the Hawaii Lion Dragon & Martial Arts Association, originally hoped to have 17 teams from Asia, Hawai'i and the Mainland compete in America's first lion dance competition.
Most dropped out for various reasons, including cost and travel visas.
Even with only six teams, Lam was happy that the first competition came off.
"This is the first time something like this has happened in the United States," he said.
The competition began Friday in the traditional style and concluded yesterday with the "high pole." The teams configured as many as 28 poles in various heights and positions for choreographed routines that lasted from 10 to 12 minutes.
The 10-person teams included boys banging on drums and gongs and clanging cymbals.
The Asian teams varied in age from 11 to 19 and averaged 125 pounds per member. "For the Hawai'i teams," master of ceremonies Paula Young joked, "add 40 pounds."
Lani Maher, a 13-year-old, 8th-grader at Punahou School, came with her parents because she's required to attend three Chinese cultural events for her Chinese class.
Lani, who's half Chinese, had never seen lions dance on poles.
"We just used to seeing them when they open stores and stuff like that," said Lani's mother, Phyllis Horner.
People in the crowd paid anywhere from $25 to $65 and Tasha Wong, a 2nd-grade teacher at Mokapu Elementary, feels she got her $50 worth.
"It's heart-stopping," said Wong, who is part Hawaiian, Chinese, Korean and Portuguese.
Right after she spoke, the Chinese Physical Culture-Jeng Moo team from Honolulu fell twice in nearly the same spot, once sending the lion head crashing face first into a pole.
"That's OK, boys," Didi Lee Kwai yelled from her seat. "I'd be too scared to do that myself."
Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.
