Chinese Lion Dancing and the Good Ol' Grateful Dead

Chinese Lion Dancing

Chinese Lion Dancing and the Good Ol' Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead, a band beyond description.
From Masters of Kung Fu, October 1994, pp56-61.
By Gene Ching (Gene@KungfuMagazine.com)

It is a space where the ancient rites of Dionysian festivals are played out amongst the most modern light and sound technologies. Traveling wannabe Yogis meet with pseudo Tai Chi players beside mock Semazen (Dervish) whirlers and tie-dyed hippies for a chance to lose their ego in dance. With fans that practice indulgence to a degree that would make a tantric Buddhist smile, and put out enough calories to break the average aerobics instructor, the good ol' Grateful Dead is much more than your average rock concert. This is the band that consistently ranks as one of the nations highest grossing tours, performing some eighty shows per year. They have undoubtedly the most loyal following of fans (just ask any "Deadhead" what they think of the band and your bound to get an earful), and have recently found favor with the second lady and once head of the controversial Parental Music Rating Commission, Tipper Gore. If you have never been to a dead show, you are missing one of the major cultural events of America, the flashback to the sixties.
One of the most unique aspects of the Grateful Dead is that they perform their shows without a music set list. Unlike most bands, which choreograph every detail of the concert, the Dead play to the moment, and each night will be a different show. For certain holidays, they may incorporate the celebration into their concert. Since 1985, the Dead have honored an event with which we are all familiar, one that goes back over 4000 years, Chinese Lunar New Year festival.
Rock, Roll, and Gung Hay Fat Choy
In America, it is easy to overlook the realities of Asian culture and fall back on stereotypes. Certainly, you would not expect to find an expression of traditional Chinese culture at a Psychedelic Rock concert. Always the innovators, the Grateful Dead did get their start in San Francisco, and had enough exposure to San Francisco's Chinatown to want to make their New Years event as authentic as possible. For their first attempt in 1985, they hired a traditional Chinese orchestra for an opening act, and two martial arts troupes to perform a Kung Fu demonstration and Lion Dance during the Dead's set. The Dead Crew certainly had the best intentions, probably assuming that more is better, but as we all know, this is an invitation for disaster. Anyone who has spent any time at all in the martial arts world is painfully aware of the egotistic rivalry and petty feuding that can occur between different schools. Different troupes might consider their mutual invitation to a single event as an opportunity for their hosts to challenge both schools with a contest to see which one is superior. Furthermore, without prior knowledge about the relationship between these schools, such an invitation is certainly to be avoided. There might be some blood feud that has generations of history behind it, and this is exactly the sort of situation where that would erupt into violence. Unfortunately, a small conflict did arise between these two performance troupes. The show went on, but a fight backstage, even a tiny scuffle, was the last thing the Dead had bargained for, and this left ill feelings about ever hiring another martial arts troupe.
Almost a decade later, we can easily dismiss this event as a bad trip. We can forgive the Dead Crew for their naiveti. After all, this was a rock and roll concert, not the back alleys of Chinatown, an both troupes should have been a little more aware of their surroundings. A fight in the "peace and love" environment of a Grateful Dead show is, to put it mildly, inappropriate, especially amongst invited performers. However with little more than the context of the incident, it would be hasty to pass any sort of judgment. The eighties were a more volatile time for the martial community. Certainly, we did not enjoy as wide spread acceptance in America as we do today, with mainstream children's movies depicting Ninja Turtles and martial arts video games everywhere. Nowadays, we can see the Grateful Dead Chinese New Years show as rare opportunity to demonstrate the skills of our discipline before a large and open-minded audience. With the current fervor for unification of different Chinese styles and a general sentiment of cooperation, we seek to mutually increase awareness and educate the public about our martial heritage. We should be eager to work together to explore new horizons and make an effort to integrate with other expressions of popular culture.
More than a Flash in the pan
Despite an unfortunate beginning, the tradition of Chinese New Year was upheld by the Grateful Dead. They continued inviting traditional Chinese musicians, dancers, and acrobats to open the shows, but no more martial artists. However, the Dead still wanted to have a parade during their portion of the show, so loyal supporters and members of the Dead "family" pulled their resources to create their own Chinese New Years, and formed their own Dragon Crew. The first thing they did was acquire an authentic Dragon head from Hong Kong. Next, they built a body made crimson, white and indigo lame fabrics over a bamboo frame, with the signature Dead logo of a thirteen-point lightning bolt running up the spine. Finally, they joined the pieces by soliciting the help of other Deadheads to contribute their own hand decorated neck scales in a program nicknamed "mail-a-scale". And so, a new dragon was born, one like no other in the world, a synthesis of traditional Hong Kong craftsmanship, American ingenuity, and community support. It was appropriately named, "Flash".
Since then, as the popularity of the Chinese New Years show grew, many additions have been to Flash's entourage. Three deities, the God of Scholars (Fui Sing), God of Longevity (Shou Lao) and God of War (Guan Gung) are incarnated as giant parade puppets. The Eight Buddhist Symbols (Canopy, Conch-shell, Fish, Lotus, Mystic Knot, Parasol, Vase, and Wheel of Law) are represented with large banners. A crimson Phoenix flies through the show in the form of a great kite. Some creatures were created for single appearances, such as a Ram, a Rooster, huge Snake banners, a baby Dragon named "Sparky", and for the year of the Dog, a skeleton Dragon named "Rock". For the year of the Ram, a statue of Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, was erected reminiscent of Tianamen Square. Recently, the year of the Rooster marked the return of some martial artists to the Dead scene, in the form of Chinese Lions.
Two Lions in Babylon
The presence of a Lion intimidates evil spirits, which makes them an essential element in New Years celebrations to bring luck and prosperity. Fortuitously, two used Lions (a yellow "flower" head and a blue "fighting" head) were acquired by the Dragon Crew from the Wing Lam Kung Fu School, to be renovated and "psychedelized" like Flash with glitter and sparkle so they would show well under the concert lights. Each head was refitted with Halogen light eyeballs and rainbow mylar eyelids. Great care was taken in following the traditional pattern of paint. Much of the intricate detail of the Lion would be lost in front of a concert audience, so an emphasis was placed upon what would read well from stage. The yellow lion was named "Sky" and the blue was named "Sun" after the lyrics of one of the more popular Dead songs, "Scarlet Begonias". They were awakened by the honored guest of the Year of the Rooster, guitarist Carlos Santana.
Lion Dancing in the Oakland Coliseum is nothing like opening a restaurant or marching in a street parade. For one thing, the Lion dancers can never see very well and rely upon their drummer to cue them with specific beats. The Chinese New Year parade takes place during the portion of the show known as "drums", which is a free form percussive duet between the band's two drummers, Bill Kreutzmann and Micky Hart. Kreutzmann has been in the band since 1965. Together with Hart, they are known as the "Rhythm Devils". Hart, a European Judo champion and Smithsonian archivist of ethnic music, has studied Berimbau (the capoeira percussive bow) with the master player Airto Moreira and was trained as a rudimentary (military) drummer. However, neither musician plays traditional Chinese drum, nor could they even see the Lions from stage to coordinate had they that inclination. Remember, this band plays live music jams, not recitals, so the parade cannot be choreographed to the music because no one knows what it will be until it is played. The Lions had to rely on lighting cues, and that most valued attribute, instinct.
Most of the movements of Lion dancing are tight and sharp, attempting to shake to pom-pom-like balls of "steam" that envelope the head so they demonstrate the dancer's wrist strength. This effort becomes lost from only a few rows away, needless to mention the opposite side of the auditorium. The gestures of the dance had to be big so that everyone could see. This show was a sold out, and the entire crowd was standing. Any form of low dancing was obscured, which left only high dancing and flying kicks. The Lions had to dance high enough so that they could be seen above the standing, screaming crowd.
Hunting for Lions in the Haight Ashbury
Performing a Chinese Lion dance has always been a demonstration of martial skill, beyond the scope of the average Deadhead. The costume of the Lion is an obstacle that can only be overcome by good Kung Fu. The Lion head is heavy and unwieldy, requiring strong wrists. Fast hands are needed to manipulate the eyes, ears and mouth easily. The tail must have stamina to endure the dance with their body bent forward, so it is impossible to take a full breath. Only the legs of the dancers are exposed to display the ability of their stance work. Customarily, only the strongest students were permitted to dance in the Lion, since it was a representative of the kwoon at public events and symbolic of the Sifu, and there was always the possibility of challengers. The Deadhead Dragon crew could build a Dragon and even make it dance with some practice, but an authentic Lion dance requires real Kung Fu.
As fate would have it, your author is both Lion dancer for the Wing Lam Kung Fu School in Sunnyvale, CA and a volunteer for a division of the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic, known as Rock Medicine. Rock Medicine provides free, non-judgmental, first aid at public events such as rock concerts. My role with the organization is as supervisor for the Psych squad, primarily to negotiate with combative patients and intense psychedelic reactions. Personally, it is an opportunity to use my martial skills as a healer as many of my Sigung (grand masters) did. Having been an intimate part of the rock music industry through my work for the clinic, I was very familiar with the Grateful Dead. When their Dragon Crew asked me to assemble a Lion dance troupe, I was honored to serve. The fundamental reason for the practice of kung fu is to be strong enough to help others, and to help the Grateful Dead celebrate my own culture was an offering I could not refuse. I was delighted to find that some of my classmates and friends from other schools were also interested in volunteering their time for a unique project.
Psychedelic mutation or spiritual transformation?
Here is a gathering of people seeking to celebrate a time-honored ritual from another culture, with no guidance but their own hearts. The members of the Dragon Crew did their own research and shared their findings with each other, trying to find meaning in this foreign event with which they were committed. They built an altar and burned offerings of incense and paper money in hopes to find favor. When was they last time that this important ritual was observed at a martial arts event? Often, in these days, it seems that most martial artists are more concerned with acquiring another trophy than honoring their ancestors. These Deadheads volunteered their time, weeks ahead of the show, spending every night and their weekends building costumes and training their bodies with the Eight-sections Brocade and Qigong exercises. They put out an inspiring amount of personal effort to become worthy vessels for the creatures and deities they would animate for only 15 minutes with no thought of personal reward except for the chance to participate. What they may have lacked in discipline and proper etiquette, they compensated for with tremendous spirit. The novelty of the experience for many of the participants gave the rituals a revitalized freshness, like the discovery of a new perspective.
Ultimately, everything can be measured in terms of validity. When so much energy and effort is spent in pursuit the moment, what is the value of that experience? On the most simplistic level, in terms of Kung Fu, we can ask would it work in a real fight? For the Grateful Dead, was the audience entertained? Given the nature of combat, whether a technique works or not, is primarily dependent on the actual situation. Even the most flowery and preposterous move could be effective if your opponent does not see it coming. For the Dead, well, Deadheads seem to enjoy any colorful break from the norm. When something happens above and beyond the music that they came to hear, their experience is even more satisfactory.
On a deeper level, we can ask will Kung Fu work outside a real fight? Will it honor the tradition passed down by my teachers? Will it better the quality of life? For the Grateful Dead Chinese New Years show, the Dragon Crew sought to be authentic, as well as effective, and achieved some level of spirituality for all those involved. For our noble art of Kung Fu, these questions will always remain. When our traditions lack spiritual depth or morale responsibility, they become nothing more than an addiction to violence. If Kung Fu is to remain valuable, these questions can only be answered by each of us, with every new day, through devoted and authentic practice.
The Author will like to Gratefully thank Rebecca Nichols and Suzy Barsotti from Bill Graham Presents, who both thought the Grateful Dead had as much place in Master of Kung Fu, as a Kung Fu teacher had at the Grateful Dead.

Notes on photographs:
#1: A Chinese Lion attentively listening to the Rhythm Devils with 17,000 Deadheads behind waving Buddhist banners. (c) BGP, photo by Ken Friedman.
#2: Flash. Just a head above the rest of the Deadheads. (c) BGP, photo by Jeff Warren.
#3: Flash and the God of immortality, amidst the mist of fire extinguisher clouds, chasing the pearl of wisdom. (c) BGP, photo by Bruce Cook.
#4: Rock. Flash's psychedelized and skeletonized incarnation flies over the crowd for the year of the Dog. (c)BGP, photo by Barry Toronto.
#5: Shaolin teachers Lori White and Gene Ching entertain the Deadheads during set break with a lion dance. photo by Janet Gee.
#6: The lions waking up back stage. Note the Grateful Dead "Steal your face" skull emblem with the yin yang symbol on the back of the Lion's collar.) photo by Janet Gee.
Sorry no photos now but come back in a few months when we get OK's to post

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