A large crowd of people, both old and young, were surrounding a vacant plot on a historically famous street named Sint Oh Dan in the Chinatown of Myanmar's Yangon Friday (Feb 23), blocking traffic flow with sound of drum-beating emitting from the center of the plot.

It was a scene that a series of lion dance competitions, involving six amateur lion dancing groups of local Myanmar-Chinese, were taking place and the contests have run for three consecutive nights since Wednesday, the 4th day of the Chinese new year.

The southern-style lion dance competitions were part of the rare activities of the Myanmar-Chinese in celebration of the traditional Chinese new year, or spring festival, and participated by dancing groups of younger generations.

The competitions had to start only on the 4th day of the new year as the participating groups were busy with their new year house-to-house calls at residences of some dignitaries of the Myanmar-Chinese community and some social associations for new year blessing according to the traditional practice of spending the new year days, competition organizer Zhou Baofu, a Guangdong native, told Xinhua.

An hour before the competitions formally started every evening after sunset, separate dragon dance performances were first staged by other amateur dragon dancing groups, winning a wave of applause.

It was secondly followed by lion dance demonstration by older generations. Their style and artistic technique were witnessed by the crowd of audiences.

The organizer continued to tell Xinhua that it was the second-year competitions of its kind. He anticipates that such lion dance activities could be inherited generation by generation, noting that by sponsoring such activities, it can give rise to outstanding lion dancing teams to take part in international events to win pride for both Myanmar and Myanmar-Chinese.

The three-day competitions include ground dancing and on-table dancing, and the event is to a close on Saturday night with a prize-presentation ceremony to be attached, which involves 10 prizes, six for lion dance contest and four for long dragon demonstrations.

The six competing lion dancing groups are "Dragon Tiger", "Blue Blood", "Dragon Head", "Red Lion", "Sky Dragon" and "The Lastdon" while the four other long dragon groups are just for demonstration.

After the scheduled prize-presentation ceremony, the two lion dancing groups which win the first and second prize will repeat their wonderful performances to the satisfaction of the audiences, the organizer added.

Commenting the activities, another local Myanmar-Chinese resident of middle age also spoke to Xinhua with excitement and delight, emphasizing that the activities are significant which not only add to the atmosphere of the festival but also carry through the Chinese culture and traditions.

Editor: Wing