On Friday 20/1, Hong De Lion performed at the first ever Chinese New Year Street Fair in Point Cook. There were street stalls set up in Murnong Street with lots of people at the Fair. A huge crowd gathered for dancing and singing performances earlier in the night. Our lion concluded entertainment for the night by parading down the street and performing on the stage outside Point Cook Town Centre. Our Buddha started off the performance and then awakened our lion. The lion entertained the crowd by throwing oranges to the audience and the Buddha was throwing Chinese 'Red Packet' lollies to the kids. Thank you to Shannon and Kate for booking us for the event. We look forward to next year's CNY Street Fair!

 This year marks our third year of Chinese New Year performances at Melbourne International Airport. For the first time this year, we were performing on the other side! Yes, we all had to bring our passports or drivers licence so that we can go through security and go 'Airside'. We had to hydrate up beforehand as we were not allowed to bring any liquids through security. Our lion had to be scanned through the security scanner, it just fit but the drum did not! It was fun roaming through the new terminals at the airport. Airport staff were handing our HappyLab chocolates to passengers and our lion was giving our 'Red Packet' lollies. There were lots of happy faces at the airport when they saw our lion. Our lion loved eating Happy Lab chocolate balls!!

Our first Chinese performance for 2012 was on Saturday 14th January for Makmur Enterprises (Emperor, Ho Mai and Golden Wok) at two locations. We performed for the very first time at Costco in Harbourtown at 12 pm. As it was our first performance for Chinese New Year, we gave the GM Mr Rudi Tjangdjaja the priviledge of dotting our new lions outside Costco. After awakening the lions, we went inside Costco and performed in front of the Makmur Roadshow display. We managed to avoid the extra huge Costco trolleys during our rove inside Costco! After our performance at Costco, we went to the Makmur head office in Richmond and performed at the factory with the lighting of two strings of firecrackers at the start and the end of the lion dance performance. It was our first time performing inside a factory and due to hygiene, all our performers donned on hair nets including our Buddha!! Thank you to Crystal and Rudi for booking us, it was certainly an interesting experience!
VDO links to our performance:
Costco and A short montage

Our first performance for 2012.

Message from the bride:
"You guys were amazing! So many guests commented on what an amazing performance you did. Thank you so much. We had a wonderful day. You must be busy now coming up to Chinese New Year. Good luck with it all."
Kelly and Andrew.

VDO link

Hong De Wedding lions were out for our last performance for 2011 at Lea and Stephen's wedding in South Melbourne. We arrrived just in time to see a picturesque sunset over South Melbourne. Our lions performed for the guests and bride and groom at a very beautiful venue on the 7th floor at Luminare. Congratulations to the bridal couple.

VDO link

Leading up to Chinese New Year celebrations in Federation Square, Hong De Lion will be conducting lion dance classes at the Amphitheatre in Federation Square. We had our first class on the weekend and created a bit of interest with passers by. Some sat and watched most of our session. We will be there again next Saturday 17/12 and also on Sunday 8/1/2012. Please drop by and say hello. If anyone is interested in trying out a class, come and talk to us.

Hong De lion was at the Victoria State Library forecourt yesterday to help promote Jetstar's special discount fares to Beijing. Our lion and Buddha entertained lunch time crowds enjoying the beautiful Melbourne weather outside the Library. Jetstar staff were handing out pamphlets and Jetstar fortune cookies to passers by.

The finals for the 15th National Malaysian Lion Dance competition was held in the Arena of the Stars in Genting last weekend. A total of 20 teams participated in the Preliminary held over two days. The top eight teams performed in the Finals on Sunday 21/11. With thanks to modern technology, we were able to get live score updates straight from the Arena! We would like to thank Donovan (Khuan Loke) and Gary (Kun Seng Keng) for keeping us updated over the three days.

The Finals results are listed below:
1. Johor Muar Kun Seng Keng 9.20
2. Sabah Tawau Maha Bodhi 9.13
3. Kedah Hong Teck (Hong De) 9.11
4. Kedah Bei Her 9.10
5. Kuala Lumpur Hok Seng 8.99
6. Johor Bahru Kun Seng Keng 8.98 (0.1 deduction)
7. Sabah Yick Nam 8.80 (0.2 deduction)
8. Selangor Sungei Way Khuan Loke 8.60 (0.5 deduction)

Congratulations to all the teams. The top three teams will compete in the International Lion Dance Competition next year, we hope to watch them compete in Genting!

Hong De lions teamed up with Chinese Youth Society of Melbourne and Chinese Masonic Society to help celebrate the unveiling of a statue of Dr Sun Yat Sen in Chinatown Square. This event was opened by Dr Sun's Grand Daughter who travelled from Hawaii with her son. This event is a culmination of a series of events to celebrate the centenary of the Chinese Republican Revolution. We are very proud to be invited by CYSM to celebrate in some of these events. An exhibition of Dr Sun Yat Sen's life can be seen at the KMT building at 109 Little Bourke Street unti 26th November. Thank you to CYSM for organising these events and also for involving us as well.

Youtube link 

 Hong De lion performed for the Atherton Gardens Residents Association on their Multicultural Day in Fitzroy last weekend. The event was largely attended by residents around Atherton Gardens. This the second time we have performed for the Atherton Gardens group. Thank you to Hai for inviting us to perform again.

 Hong De lions travelled to the seaside suburb of Chelsea for the opening of the Chelsea Shopping centre yesterday. The lions attracted a small crowd of Saturday shoppers in the shopping centre. The Mayor of Kingston, Mr Ron Brownless was there to officiate the opening. Congratulations and best wishes to Jenny and Jay!

On the day after our team arrived back from Sentosa, we were out again with our Double Happiness lions at Betty and Kevin's wedding at Willows Reception on St Kilda Road. Our lions greeted the newly weds when they arrived at the reception and escorted them inside with two red ribbons. Once inside, the lions tied the ribbons together so that the couple was joined. The lions entertained guests at the reception with a performance in the courtyard.

Our two day event at Sentosa certainly went very quickly. Our team arrived two days before the competition to prepare for it. We all stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel at Resorts World, which was very nice, overlooking Universal Studios. We must thank Denny Kurniawan (Indonesia Kun Seng Keng) for convincing us to go in the first place, Anton Chandra (Indonesia KSK) and Andri Wijaya (Indonesia Kong Ha Hong) for coaching the team. They were there at all the training sessions with translations going between English, Indonesian and sometimes Chinese! We all got there in the end. Our team performed well, with just two mistakes which cost us 1.3 point deduction from the overall score. Well, at least, we were not on the bottom! This is not too bad considering we were competing against teams that train almost full time! Overall, the experience our team has gained from the competition far exceeds whether we win or lose. Thank you to Kun Seng Keng for inviting us to participate in this inaugural event. We have certainly enjoyed the whole experience and have made new friendships in the lion dance community!

Please click below to see all the team scores, video links and some photos from the events. 

 Hong De Lion Dance is very excited to be invited to the Resorts World Sentosa International Lion Dance Championship on the 28th and 29th October. The Championship is an invitational event with 12 participating teams from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and of course Australia. Please find event details on link below. Our team has been very busy preparing for the competition and will arrive a few days before the event for training in Singapore. This is a unique opportunity for our members to be able to participate in such a prestigious event. We wish our team the very best of luck for the event!! Live scores will be broadcasted on our fan page on Facebook during the event.

RWS Bookings

Hong De Lions were part of the Variety Concert celebrating the Centenary of the Chinese Republican Revolution at Dallas Brooks Centre on Saturday 24th September. It was a long day with rehearsals and two shows at 2pm and 7pm. Both shows were well attended and all the acts were all very entertaining. Our lions were involved in a massed lion dance performance at the start of the shows with 14 lions from Chinese Youth Society of Melbourne and Hung Gar Yau Shu.

Please find our Youtube link for the 2pm performance with 14 lions.