Foshan and Fut San

Foshan as the cradle

Foshan (佛山, Cant. fat6 saan1, Mand. Fóshān, "Buddha Mountain") is a city in the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong. Practitioners spell it Fut San, Fat San or Fo Shan, and Vietnamese teams say lân Phật Sơn. In this guide "Fut San" means the older of the two main Cantonese lion styles. The other, Hok San (鶴山), is a later branch. Its founder, Feng Gengzhang (馮庚長, born 1852), studied in Foshan under a fellow villager, Feng Liaoxing (馮了性), and then went home to Heshan to build his own style.¹ Chapter 5 covers Heshan, Hok San and Sar Ping.

Foshan produced a martial lion because it was a city of guilds and workshops. The historian Xie Zhongyuan counts about 90 craft guilds in Ming and Qing Foshan, 32 of them in iron, plus 134 merchant guilds, and a state iron works stood there in 1506. Martial and lion halls grew inside these labour networks.² The best documented is the Hung Sing Kwoon (鴻勝館, Cant. hung4 sing3 gun2, Mand. Hóngshèngguǎn), a Choy Li Fut hall. In Xie's account Chan Heung opened a Foshan branch in 1850 and Zhang Yan renamed it in 1851. By about 1921 there were 13 Hung Sing halls, and the members were mostly poorly paid workers. Their lion societies, such as the Luoyong She (螺涌社), danced to the seven-star drum.^{2, 3} Rivals such as the Zhongyi federation (眾義) taught Hung Kuen and Wing Chun.²

The rivalry was physical. In 1936 a Luoyong She lion and a Zhongyi lion met head-on at a temple festival without exchanging salutes, and fighting went on for six or seven days. Xie uses the episode to show why greeting rules mattered (Chapter 9). After 1945 Zhao Rong (趙榮, 1908-1978), a third-generation Hung Sing disciple, taught about 1,000 students who carried the Foshan lion into villages around the delta. Elders also recalled a "spirit lion" in which a dead master's spirit entered a dancer, which died out after 1949.²

Nanhai, now a district of Foshan, makes the strongest claim to the lion. Xiqiao town calls itself the source of dragon and lion and Wong Fei-hung's home town, and a local saying holds that all the world's awakened lions come from Nanhai.⁴ A 2023 magazine piece counted more than 2,700 lion troupes in Nanhai alone.⁵ China's heritage system treats Foshan as one of three regional centres of "Guangdong lion dance" (狮舞（广东醒狮）, national item III-5, on the first national list in 2006), with Guangzhou and Suixi.⁶ Its named Foshan bearer is Huang Qintian (黄钦添), profiled below.⁷ In November 2025 the 15th National Games held its first lion dance competition, in Foshan, and Guangdong won the southern lion obstacle and traditional events.⁸

Fut San and Hok San side by side

The two styles share a root, so the differences are matters of degree. Sources agree on the headline. Fut San is the kung fu lion, tiger-like, imposing and built on strong stances (硬橋硬馬, Cant. ngaang6 kiu4 ngaang6 maa5, Mand. yìng qiáo yìng mǎ, "hard bridge, hard horse", meaning strong arms and strong stances). Hok San is the later, lighter, cat-like lion. A Heshan heritage feature puts the main difference in the footwork:

Foshan lions are hard bridge, hard horse and imposing; Heshan lions are nimble and lively (佛山狮是硬桥硬马、声势雄壮，而鹤山狮则灵巧活泼).

Heshan heritage feature, The Paper¹

Chinese writers also use the dress names 佛裝 (Cant. fat6 zong1, Mand. fózhuāng, "Foshan dress") and 鶴裝 (Mand. hèzhuāng). Chinese Wikipedia lists a third group, the Suixi lion, as the "new-school Foshan lion" (新派佛山獅).⁹ That matters for evidence, because the only published head measurements found are of Suixi-made heads, not Foshan workshop heads.¹⁸

The Fut-Hok hybrid

A hybrid head, Fut-Hok (佛鶴, Mand. Fóhè, Vietnamese Phật Hạc), takes the pop-out forehead and curved mouth of the Fut San head and the rounder horn of the Hok San head.¹⁶ A Boston troupe, Gund Kwok, says its style is mostly Fat San but it often uses Hok San heads because they look cuter, and it calls the mix Fat Hok.²⁶ A team that leans Hong Kong or Fut San but teaches Sar Ping drumming is making the same kind of mix.

Fut San movement and character

The Foshan lion moves like a martial artist in costume. National heritage portal articles on the Guangdong lion record the pattern: a performance opens with a set of Southern boxing, called "opening the stake" (開樁, Cant. hoi1 zong1, Mand. kāizhuāng); the footwork is mainly Southern-fist horse stances (南拳馬步); the head acts out opening the eyes, washing the whiskers, licking the body and shaking the fur; and plucking the green (採青, Cant. coi2 ceng1, "choi cheng") is called the essence of the awakened lion.⁶ A French inventory adds that structured lion dance first appears in the Foshan region, built on eight movements drawn from eight basic kung fu principles.¹² The Qiu study counts more than 20 step techniques, including the four-level horse (四平馬), meridian horse (子午馬), open-close horse (開合馬) and riding-dragon step (騎龍步), and calls the movement fast, fierce, rigid and abrupt.¹⁷

The classic sequence runs: leaving the cave, coming down the mountain, crossing the bridge, drinking water, plucking the green, drunken sleep, waking, climbing the mountain, and playing with a ball, with the green as the climax.¹⁷ A Nanhai heritage page lists the routines below, credits Wong Fei-hung with the flying-weight green (飛砣採青), bamboo-ladder green (竹梯青) and crab green (蟹青), and names three drum families: three-star, five-star (also called the plum-blossom drum, 梅花鼓) and seven-star.³⁰

Expression is taught as a fixed set of states, and schools list them differently, so "the eight expressions" is a teaching device and not a standard.

The southern lion's body cloth is not a closed tube like the northern lion's. It is an embroidered quilt (獅被, Cant. si1 pei5, "lion quilt") that can cover the dancers, flip up, or spread like a cape in a leap.³² Ye Zhongming, the Foshan instructor below, says old tails were 3 to 5 metres long, so the head dancer balanced alone while the tail dancer copied his one-leg poses and kicked the cloak open.²² He also says the awakened lion, unlike the northern lion, aims at intent and spirit (意在、神似) rather than literal imitation.³¹ Foshan teams still push pole work: a 2022 report on the Foshan Wong Fei Hung team describes a lift-and-leap that carries the lion more than 4.5 metres across 20 or more poles, 0.5 to 3 metres high, with no safety nets.³³

The Fut San head

The Foshan head is built around the face paint of Cantonese opera. The national register sorts Foshan heads into three types. The civil lion (文獅, Cant. man4 si1, Mand. wénshī) carries the Liu Bei and Guan Yu face patterns and is gentle. The martial lion (武獅, Cant. mou5 si1, Mand. wǔshī) carries Zhang Fei's face and is fierce. The youth lion (少獅, Mand. shàoshī) is a mask-type for children's play.¹⁰ The Qiu study adds large eyes with outer corners sweeping back (the "tiger eyes"), a prominent upper jaw, a wide flat mouth with visible teeth and tongue, and 100 or more pom-poms and 300 or more copper mirror pieces on a civil or martial head.¹⁷

Older heads had moving parts that newer ones dropped. English Wikipedia says traditional Fo Shan heads had pop-up teeth and tongue, eyes that swivel, a gilded collar where a troupe's name could be sewn, bristles instead of fur, and a very long tail with a white underside, often belled and patterned with diamonds. Newer lions use fur, shorter tails and fixed eyes, with a curvier tail and no bells.¹⁴ Eyelids, mouth and ears move on modern heads, worked by strings and wires inside.^{34, 9}

Colours and characters

Foshan heads are Three Kingdoms characters on Cantonese opera colours. The traditional set is Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, and a Suixi maker's study adds Zhao Yun, Ma Chao and Huang Zhong, making an emperor and five "tiger generals".¹⁸ Chapter 11 covers colour symbolism in general.

French practitioners add how the colours dance. Liu Bei is nimble and light, Guan Yu is quiet strength rooted to the ground, and Zhang Fei hardly dances because he is too fierce. Colours are not mixed between dancers.¹² A Hong Kong teacher recalls his master's black lion with a green nose, iron horn, ragged ears and a red beard, the red showing the lion had shed blood and won battles.³⁶

The horn is said to stand for supernatural power, the mirror on the forehead repels evil spirits, and practitioners say not to touch either. A French inventory calls the head an "amulet of amulets".¹² Foshan and Suixi heads carry scrolling grass (唐草), Guan Yu's halberd (關刀), key-fret (回紋) and linked pearls (連珠).¹⁸ Li Wei, the national inheritor of Foshan head tying, added an eagle-wing horn, two-dragon eyebrows and two-phoenix cheeks, and made toy and display lions.³⁷

Wong Fei-hung and the Huang Feihong lion associations

Wong Fei-hung (黃飛鴻, Cant. wong4 fei1 hung4, Mand. Huáng Fēihóng) is Foshan's best-known martial hero, and many Foshan lion associations use his name. Wikipedia gives his birth as 9 July 1847 in Luzhou village (祿舟村), Xiqiao, Nanhai, and his death as 17 April 1925 in Guangzhou. His father, Wong Kei-ying (黃麒英), was one of the "Ten Tigers of Guangdong". Wong ran the Po Chi Lam (寶芝林, Cant. bou2 zi1 lam4) clinic in Guangzhou, became chief instructor of the Guangdong civil militia about 1911, and his student Lam Sai-wing carried Hung Gar to Hong Kong.^{38, 39} Guangzhou's copper-and-iron trade funded his first hall, and his students were artisans and small traders.²

His link to the lion is part record and part popular image. Chinese Wikipedia says he was skilled at lion dance and was called the Guangzhou Lion King.³⁹ Zhu Yuzhai's 1933 novel 《黃飛鴻江湖別紀》 repeatedly shows him at god-birthday festivals where lion displays set off fights.² Nanhai heritage material credits him with three greens: flying-weight, bamboo-ladder and crab.³⁰ More than 100 films and series about Wong have been made since 1949, and a wave of Hong Kong Wong Fei-hung films from 1956 to 1969 carried lion titles such as 《黃飛鴻醒獅會麒麟》 (1956).^{38, 32} In the 1993 film 《黃飛鴻之三：獅王爭霸》 (Once Upon a Time in China III, Tsui Hark, Jet Li), Wong wins a "Lion King" contest atop a scaffold.⁴⁰ The CUHK article says the surviving "Foshan Wong Fei Hung lion", kept at the Memorial Hall of the Zumiao temple and the Xiqiao Wong Fei Hung lion school, is black and white with a green nose, iron horn and long beard, a martial type expressing Wong's character as stern inside and kind outside (內威外仁). It adds that the film's bright imperial-yellow lion would have been a capital offence for a Qing commoner.³²

The associations today

The Wong Fei Hung Memorial Hall was added to the Foshan Ancestral Temple (祖廟, Mand. Zǔmiào) in 2001, with an Ip Man Hall in 2002 and regular lion shows, and a Wong Fei Hung Lion Dance Martial Arts Museum occupies the Wong ancestral hall in Luzhou village.⁴² The Wong Fei Hung Cup (黃飛鴻杯) Nanhai international lion dance competition held its 10th edition on 1 October 2014 and followed a 2005 "hundred-lion parade" that drew more than 100,000 people.^{43, 4} The tutorial channel's upload list also names a Foshan Wong Fei Hung Culture Hall opening (title only).⁴⁴

The best documented person is Huang Qintian (黄钦添, Mand. Huáng Qīntiān), a national representative inheritor of Guangdong lion dance, born in 1965 in Nanhai. He began village lion dance at 16 and learned Hung Kuen (洪拳, Cant. hung4 kyun4, practitioner spelling Hung Gar). In 1998 he took his troupe to the Wong Fei-hung Lion Art Martial Arts Hall (黄飞鸿狮艺武术馆), and in 2000 he founded a dragon and lion martial arts association that the register summary calls Zhonglian (中联) and bills as China's first professional lion dance troupe. He has trained more than 2,000 apprentices.⁷ The summary does not give the association's full Chinese name. A Nanhai team named 佛山南海黃飛鴻中聯電纜武術龍獅協會 was men's champion at the 2015 Macau Lion King contest, and the tutorial channel's hashtag is 黄飞鸿中联武术龙狮协会. These appear to be one organisation, but no source says so directly.^{45, 44} A Hung Gar school's travel video visits what it calls the Zhonglian association's centre, with a giant "Lion King of the World" statue and a practice hall.⁴⁶

The Memorial Hall team at the Ancestral Temple is led by Huang Qintian, and its coach is Ye Junchen (葉俊城, a different name from the tutorial instructor's). On 27 January 2025, after cinnabar dotting, the team tied wampee leaves (黃皮葉) to the horns to drive away evil; the leaves fall over time and leave the bare twig seen on many horns.⁴⁷ Chapter 9 covers eye-dotting. Lineage claims also travel: a Hong Kong Hung Gar school traces its teacher's chain from the Monk of Summum Bonum (至善禪師) through Wong Kei-ying, Wong Fei-hung and Lam Sai-wing to its present coach, which is its own unchecked account.⁴⁸ Chapter 13 follows Wong-lineage schools into American Chinatowns.

The seven-part Huang Feihong tutorial series

The first teaching set is a seven-part series, 《广东醒狮》文化传承与狮艺教程 (Guangdong Awakened Lion: heritage and lion-art tutorial). It is posted on the Foshan channel 黃飛鴻龍獅文化傳播 and is about four years old as of October 2026, so around 2022.⁴⁴ The Chinese text is burned into the picture, and the summaries below come from reading it frame by frame. The instructor in Parts 4 to 7 is Ye Zhongming (叶仲铭, Mand. Yè Zhòngmíng). The strap on screen in Part 4 calls him a seventh-generation inheritor of the Wong Fei-hung lineage, and in Part 7 he says his school is Hung Kuen.^{31, 49}

Part 1: the new lion activation ceremony

Before a new lion dances for the first time it must have its light opened and its eyes dotted (開光點睛, Cant. hoi1 gwong1 dim2 zing1, Mand. kāiguāng diǎnjīng), with incense burned and wine offered. A respected elder with a complete family, meaning living parents, children and grandchildren, leads it, and his good fortune is meant to pass to the lion.⁵⁰

1. Offering (祭祀, jìsì). Set out offerings, candles and incense. The elder washes his hands in clear water in which pomelo leaves (柚子叶) have soaked, then lights candles and incense at the altar.
2. Warding off evil (辟邪, bìxié). Holding gold-ingot joss paper in both hands, he walks one circle around the lion lying on the ground, returns to the altar and burns the paper.
3. Pinning flowers and hanging red (簪花挂红, zānhuā guàhóng). He ties gold hairpin flowers (钗花) onto the horn with a strip of red cloth.
4. Dotting the eyes (点睛, diǎnjīng). With a brush dipped in cinnabar (朱砂) he dots eight places in order and calls out one lucky line at each, as the table shows.
5. Sprinkling clean (洒净, sǎjìng). He sprinkles the pomelo-leaf water over the head with pomelo leaves, washing away the old, opening a new chapter and waking the lion.

The instructor adds that each school has its own verses and any version works if it is lucky and reads smoothly aloud.⁵⁰ Chapter 9 compares this order with ceremonies elsewhere.

Part 2: etiquette before the dance

The video notes that the six traditional heads (Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, Huang Zhong) differ in colour, decoration, way of dancing and meaning. The instructor says the awakened lion has customs for each stage: putting a new lion into use, the order of setting out, meeting another lion (会狮, Mand. huìshī) and the dance itself.⁵¹

1. Lay the lion flat. The head player stands to the right of the head and the tail player beside the tail.
2. Salute as a martial artist. Part of lion etiquette is martial arts etiquette, so the players give the fist-and-palm salute (抱拳礼, bàoquán lǐ) before they pick the lion up.
3. Raise the lion. Part 7 shows how.
4. Give the three bows (三拜礼, sānbài lǐ). Facing the host's house, an ancestral hall or a temple, bow first to the dancers' right, which is the building's left and its senior position (大位). Then bow to the dancers' left, the building's secondary position (辅位). Then bow to the centre (正中).
5. Begin the routine. Only then does the performance or set routine (套路) start.

The reason for the order is that the building's left hand is the place of honour, so the senior side is greeted first.⁵¹

Part 3: lion, drum, gong and cymbal

The drum is always a cowhide drum (牛皮鼓), usually the competition-standard one chi eight (一尺八, Mand. yī chǐ bā, about 60 cm across). Copper cymbals (铜镲) raise the excitement, and the gong is named as part of the ensemble. The demonstrator plays six patterns, each tied to a lion action.²³

The lesson he stresses is partnership. Lion and drummer need a tacit understanding (默契, Mand. mòqì). The drummer must learn when this lion is about to turn and change, a new drummer cannot lock in quickly, and even a professional needs a dozen or more practice runs with a lion team before they mesh.²³

Parts 4 to 6: footwork

Part 4 states the principle: the eight expressions, with horse-stance footwork first. The instructor calls the moves hard bridge, hard horse (firm and rooted on landing), so anyone learning the awakened lion must first learn martial arts. He lists the four-level horse, meridian horse (子午马), qilin step, jumping step (跳步), seated-coil step (座盘步, "old tree coiling its roots"), turning over (翻身) and rolling (翻滚).³¹ He teaches the "three bends" (三弯, Mand. sān wān) as every player's base posture: bent legs, bent waist, bent arms. The frames show the four-level horse with feet about two shoulder-widths apart, toes forward, knees bent nearly to 90 degrees, back upright and hands at the waist.³¹ The table collects every step the series teaches.

Part 5 adds head and tail rules. Walking, head and tail do the same step. In a set pose the head player lifts a foot and the tail player drops into the four-level horse to match him, and for a long hold the tail presses his head into the head player's back as a brace. Old long-tailed lions could not do that, because the tail player was busy matching the golden-rooster pose with the cloak, as the film character Ghost-Foot Seven (鬼脚七, Mand. Guǐjiǎo Qī) does.²² Part 6 explains the small steps as the retreating steps of martial arts: after advancing to attack you must fall back to defend, and the small steps come out at once.⁵³

Training: how the master taught stance holding

The end of Part 6 gives the old and new methods. In the old way a student learned martial arts first, and the master taught the four-level horse first, opened by the "three and a half steps" method (三步半开马). The student held the stance (扎马, Mand. zhāmǎ) for one to three months before learning the qilin step, kneeling step, hanging horse and the rest. For children today he walks them through all the footwork once to keep them interested, then has them hold the horse stance for one, two, three minutes. Once a child holds three to five minutes, they practise one stance for a week and switch.⁵³

Part 7: raising the lion and the grips

Raising the lion (起狮, Mand. qǐshī, Cant. hei2 si1) starts with a martial salute, and each school uses its own. The instructor warns that many people grab the lion by the eyes, horn or another part, but there are ancestral taboos about how to pick it up, and a wrong hold brings bad luck. Raising the lion correctly shows respect to the lion and the host family.⁴⁹

1. The lion lies on the ground. Positions are as in Part 2.
2. Give the martial salute. This school uses the Hung Kuen opening salute and the fist-and-palm salute.
3. The head player jumps over to the lion and drops into a single-knee kneeling step.
4. Put the hands inside and hold the frame (框架), never the eyes, horn or ears.
5. Open the four-level horse and hold a set pose while the tail player adjusts.
6. Raise with the arms only, body still, to the high lion (高狮), and stop.

The subtitles do not define yin and yang, but the frames show yin as palm down and yang as palm up, the usual martial-arts convention.⁴⁹

A Shenzhen writer describes the same job differently: the head player's left hand supports the bottom of the mouth, the right hand grips the crossbar inside the head, and cords work the jaw and eyes, while the tail player's thumbs hook into the head player's belt.⁵⁴ The grips are also the subject of episodes 1 and 2 of the 18 Moves series.

The 18 Moves of Foshan Lion Dance

The second teaching set is a Cantonese-language video course titled 《佛山醒狮十八式》 (Fóshān Xǐngshī Shíbā Shì, "The 18 Moves of Foshan Lion Dance"), credited on screen as "The Teaching of Foshan Lion Dance in 2022, Season 1". The Huang Feihong channel announced the start of filming for release in 2022 and posted a trailer. The announcement upload is titled 《广东醒狮十八式》正式开机 ("Guangdong" where the episodes say "Foshan"), so search for both names. The set runs to 20 episodes, and the lengths recorded run from about 2:20 to 3:50. This account was read from the burned-in English subtitles over Cantonese audio.

Who made it is only partly answered. The English trailer says the series is a project of the Foshan City Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, built to connect with overseas Chinese and teach them lion dance (Trailer @ 0:50). Episode 6 carries a 佛山侨联 logo in every frame, which is read as the federation's short name, and episodes 5 and 6 are posted by the channel Jiaqiao Culture (嘉侨文化). The two interviewees whose names were read are Deng Weijie (episode 5) and Xia Zhicheng (episode 6); other episodes credit an unnamed Guangdong lion dance heritage inheritor in a clipped caption. Episode 18 repeats the federation's role in its opening lines, and its clipped speaker captions carry titles, one reading 副会长 (vice-president), with no legible names (Episode 18 @ 0:49, Episode 18 @ 2:08).⁵⁵ The same 佛山侨联 logo shows at top right in a full frame of episode 19 (Episode 19 @ 0:27).⁵⁶ No director, producer or demonstrator is named in what could be read.

The series moves from the hands to the feet to the face. Hand techniques come first, then foot techniques and footwork, then posture and expression, then dynamics, then routines, then a conclusion and two review episodes. The conclusion is a spoken talk on why the course exists, and the two reviews restate its logic and add talks on drum beats and pole lion dance.

Most episodes from 4 onward have the same three beats. A title card at about 0:18 gives the series and episode name. An opening statement of a few sentences says what the lesson is for. Then a "Teaching" caption starts the demonstration, with each move named and its steps given in short subtitle lines. The last minute or so is a talk by a heritage inheritor or the narrator on something other than technique: where the lion came from, how heads are made, how the art is taught, what it is for. The talks are part of the course's aim of teaching culture as well as steps, but they are not drills.

No episode says outright what the "18" counts, and none numbers the moves it teaches. The set has 20 episodes, 17 of them lessons, followed by a conclusion and two reviews. Episode 19 speaks of the "first 18 episodes" of the series as already released (Episode 19 @ 1:18), which fits a title that counts episodes, with the two reviews added afterwards, but that reading is an inference.⁵⁶ The summary table below lists every named technique in all 20 episodes, and it has more than 18 rows.

Trailer: why the series was made

The 5:37 trailer is a making-of with English subtitles. It says COVID interrupted in-person teaching, so the team moved online and shot short videos on basic footwork, the background of lion dance culture and related knowledge (Trailer @ 2:00). It was shot in a studio from scripts with masters invited from several fields, and it presents the series as teaching and popularising the art, not another documentary (Trailer @ 3:20). The aims are to attract younger viewers and refresh how overseas Chinese see the culture. Release was set for the coming New Year, and a further season is mentioned. The opening shots preview the footwork: a low, steady squat, light fast movement, a single-leg stance with the head up and a high leap with a downward look (Trailer @ 0:00). The Huang Feihong channel's own trailer upload is Trailer for the Foshan Xingshi 18 Moves teaching course @ 0:00, and its filming announcement is Announcement of filming @ 0:00.

Episodes 1 and 2: hand techniques

Both episodes run 2:59. Episode 1 (Episode 1 @ 0:50) is about how the two hands carry and shape the lion. The speaker says hand work gives meaning to each movement and that the hold must meet the requirements for applying force. The stance is feet as wide as the shoulders, with the frame carried on both shoulders. In the yang set the palms face up, and in the yin set the palms face down. Two grips are shown: thumbs on top with the four fingers beneath, and thumbs inside with the four fingers outside (Episode 1 @ 1:07). The fingers also control the mouth, eyes and ears, so the hands set the lion's expression. A "one yang, one yin" pairing is described, and the yin and yang hands should be exchanged constantly (Episode 1 @ 1:56). The English description of the same episode calls the double-yang, double-yin and yin-yang grips the basis of every leap, turn and gesture (Episode 1 description @ 0:00, Episode 1 Chinese upload @ 0:00). The Chinese for the grips was not read in the subtitles. The Huang Feihong series earlier in this chapter writes the double-yang and double-yin hands as 双阳手 and 双阴手, and the description uses the same English words. The last minute of episode 1 is a talk on why the art is publicised: it can be performance, exercise or self-cultivation, it is recognised as Guangdong heritage, and the speaker blames its decline on poor use of the culture, not on the culture being absent (Episode 1 @ 2:06).

Episode 2 (Episode 2 @ 0:00) says the lion is gripped one of two ways, chosen by the case, and introduces the one-hand buckle. The buckle grip puts the index finger through the hole and has the thumb buckle the beam, with the frame on both shoulders and a crossbar held in the hands (Episode 2 @ 0:52). Palms face up and three fingers support the tongue, the jaw bar described under the grips earlier in this chapter. The two-hand buckle has both hands buckle the tongue, which gives free control of the head (Episode 2 @ 1:34). The older Chinese description of episode 2 asks whether you know the single-hook and double-hook hands, 单扣手 (dān kòu shǒu) and 双扣手 (shuāng kòu shǒu), as well as the yang, yin and yin-yang hands (Episode 2 description @ 0:00). The subtitles call the same grips "buckle" with one hand and with two, which is how kòu is rendered here. That match between the description and the subtitles is this guide's own. The episode closes with lion culture: the traditional "toothbrush hair" lion, said to be the one in common use in modern history, a strict face-painting tradition with the Bei, Guan Gong and Zhang Fei lions named (the first is probably Liu Bei's, by this guide's reading), and Foshan as the birthplace of Cantonese opera and a base for making lion heads (Episode 2 @ 2:06). The head types are covered earlier in this chapter.

Episodes 3 and 4: foot techniques (step forms)

Episode 3 (2:52) opens by saying step forms and footwork are the most basic movements. Squat low and steady, and move as if drawing a bow to shoot an eagle while looking for openings higher up (Episode 3 @ 0:00). The demonstration, at about 1:12, gives a single-leg stance and a bow step (Episode 3 @ 1:12). For the single-leg stance, stand on the left foot, sit back over the centre of gravity, then lean forward. The subtitles give a weight cue of clear emptiness and fullness: weight moves between the empty leg and the full leg. For the bow step, step the left foot forward with the toes turned in, straighten the right leg, bend the knee into a half squat, stretch both arms forward and lean forward. The gaze moves in all directions and should look awe-inspiring without showing anger. No subtitle strips were captured between about 0:38 and 1:11, so that stretch is silent or was missed.

The talk (Episode 3 @ 1:51) compares Northern and Southern lions. The difference is put down to geography and local environment. The Northern lion is wrapped more tightly and its skill is closer to acrobatics. The Southern form was traditionally performed by a single lion, so teachers study one lion's framework in depth, with step form, footwork and expression worked out together and matched closely to the drum.

Episode 4 (2:50, Chinese title 步法（下）, on-screen English title Step Forms second part) says step forms come from a transformation of basic footwork and are tied to lion actions such as standing, walking and a startled movement, so the right step form and footwork must be chosen for each action (Episode 4 @ 0:37). The three step forms are below, with times accurate to about 3 seconds.

1. Kneeling step (Episode 4 @ 0:51). Right foot forward, knees bent, squat low. Sit back on the calves with the arms stretched forward. Lean slightly and look ahead.
2. Lunging step (Episode 4 @ 1:05). The left foot leads the drop into a full squat. The right leg falls back into a flat lunge with an inner buckle. Switch sides as needed.
3. One-leg step (Episode 4 @ 1:22). Left leg straight, right leg lifted, with the knee lifted over the waist, as the subtitle puts it. Stand firm with the arms stretched forward, then lean forward and look ahead.

The talk is about keeping tradition alive. The lion head was made lighter, a change credited to a Guangdong lion dance heritage inheritor, dated to the 1980s and linked to Malaysia. A lighter head makes jumping easier and lighter heads are now common, though some traditional heads are still heavy (Episode 4 @ 1:52). Good performance still needs real skill, yearly competitions have kept traditions alive, and the Foshan City Lion Dance Association publishes local competition rules (Episode 4 @ 2:19). The section on Malaysia and light competition heads later in this chapter follows this change.

Episode 5: footwork, first part

A studio montage, a Chinese couplet and an aims statement open the episode (Episode 5 @ 0:25). The couplet says that high and low, empty and solid movement shows the lion's might, and that shifting and leaping move like riding the wind. Practising step forms (步型, Mand. bùxíng, fixed foot positions) and footwork (步法, bùfǎ, moving steps) teaches the basic lower-limb methods of lion dance and trains leg speed and strength. Each pattern is shown first with a bare lion-head frame and then by a full red lion, with English subtitles and brush-calligraphy Chinese captions carrying the instruction (Episode 5 @ 0:46). No voice is heard during the demonstration, so the instruction is in the subtitles and captions only.

1. Inserting step (插步) (Episode 5 @ 0:51). Start in the horse step (马步) holding the lion in front and squat slightly. Stand straight on the left foot, lion head held high. Insert the right foot backward so only the toes touch the ground lightly. Reset the right foot and repeat the other way.
2. Jumping step (跳步) (Episode 5 @ 1:09). Shift your weight to the right. Push off the ground and jump. Step to the right and land firmly. Lean forward and look ahead.
3. Opening and closing step (开合步) (Episode 5 @ 1:25). Push off both feet and bring them together in the centre. Land on the forefeet and separate them quickly. Lean forward and look ahead.

The episode then interviews Deng Weijie, introduced as the municipal inheritor of Guangdong lion dance heritage and chairman of the Foshan Dragon and Lion Sports Association (Episode 5 @ 1:45). He traces awakened-lion culture to the shengong opera (神功戏, Mand. shéngōng xì, rendered "Magic Kungfu Play" in the subtitles) and opera-troupe culture, which improved the custom's props. He gives the Peach Garden Oath of Liu, Guan and Zhang as the background story, blending benevolence, loyalty and chivalry into a patriotic culture. By the late Qing and early Republic, after the Opium War, Europe's "sleeping lion" idea about eastern countries led lion dancers to call on people to wake, so "sleeping lion" (睡狮) became "awakening lion" (醒狮). Chapter 2 weighs this name story.

Episode 6: footwork, second part, and the Fozhuang and Hezhuang lions

The intro sets two styles side by side (Episode 6 @ 0:25). The Fozhuang lion (佛装狮, "originated in Foshan", shown as a yellow lion) combines form and spirit, pays attention to technique and stance (功架), and is vigorous and powerful. The Hezhuang lion (鹤装狮, "originated in Heshan, Jiangmen", shown as a red lion) has light equipment, flexible footwork and exquisite technique. The colour pairing comes from picture timing, not from words. The demonstration has the same bare-frame-then-red-lion pattern as episode 5.

1. Small running steps (小跑步) (Episode 6 @ 0:49). Stretch both arms forward in a gripping shape, as if holding the lion. Move the feet forward slightly and alternately. Lean forward and look ahead.
2. Kylin (qilin) steps (麒麟步) (Episode 6 @ 1:04). Turn the left foot to the right, step forward and stretch out the leg. Squat on both legs and lift the right foot off the ground. Turn the body left and step forward with the right foot. Swing the two feet and switch continuously.
3. Two big moving steps (两步大移, this guide's reading of a stylised caption) (Episode 6 @ 1:24). Stand in the horse step and move the left foot forward. Step immediately with the right foot to form the horse step again. Keep the steps coherent, about 15 cun each (about 50 cm; the English subtitle says about 20 inches), and move the feet forward alternately with the grip kept on the lion.

The episode ends with Xia Zhicheng (夏志成, Mand. Xià Zhìchéng), a provincial inheritor and honorary president of the Foshan Dragon and Lion Sports Association (Episode 6 @ 1:49). He says the Foshan head's profile is defined by its facial make-up, built from the Guan, Zhang, Zhao, Ma and Huang faces (the subtitles give only surnames), and that Liu Bei has a reddish-brown "pig-liver" forehead and a pink face. He gives the four major procedures of head making: tying, paper pasting, writing (including painting the patterns) and decorating with fur (Episode 6 @ 2:28). The craft section below follows those four.

Episode 7: footwork, third part

Episode 7 (2:35, upload title 步形（下）) confirms the footwork block has three parts. It opens by saying the Southern lion's theme is plucking the green (Caiqing), that different Caiqing arrays tell different stories, and that the dancers' skill shows the lion's fearlessness, awareness and courage (Episode 7 @ 0:25).

1. Two small moving steps (Episode 7 @ 0:49). Feet as wide as the shoulders. Stand in the horse step and move the left foot forward, then bring the right foot up at once to form the horse step. This pairs with the "two big moving steps" of episode 6. By analogy the caption would be 两步小移, but that is an inference and was not read.
2. Probing steps (Episode 7 @ 1:06). Look around and explore while walking. The subtitles attach a story: the lion meets lingzhi (Ganoderma lucidum) and approaches carefully so as not to disturb it, then wins a strong attack and grows in strength. The lingzhi piece is also in the traditional routine table earlier in this chapter.
3. Leaping steps (Episode 7 @ 1:24). Bend the left leg into a one-leg step. Push the right leg and extend the body. Jump on the left leg and alternate left and right.

The talk (Episode 7 @ 1:43) is about character. A lion role is tied to a set of moral virtues, and a dancer who only plays the part without living it falls short. The model is the Guan Gong lion: the dancer has to take on Guan Yu's identity and think about what kind of man he was, his conduct and his mindset. Only full immersion lets the dance be performed fully, and basic skill alone is only surface level (Episode 7 @ 2:31).

Episode 8: posture and expression, first part

The title word 形神 (xíngshén) is the same "form and spirit" that episode 6 used for the Fozhuang lion. The opening says happiness, anger, sorrow and joy each need the right degree of expression, carried through movement, and that the lion's forms are built by imitating a real lion's habits, actions and expressions (Episode 8 @ 0:27). A first pass gives one cue for each: happiness is a joyful step in a broken rhythm, anger is shown with graceful movement, sorrow is eyes closed and standing steady, joy is a leap and a step (Episode 8 @ 0:45). The teaching section (Episode 8 @ 1:00) then demonstrates three moods.

1. Happiness (Episode 8 @ 1:03). Horse step with the head swinging gently. Step lightly with the head held high. The drum beat is cheerful and the lion winks and smiles.
2. Drunk (Episode 8 @ 1:18). The head hangs, the steps drag and the lion feels dizzy. Eyes half open and half closed, trembling slightly. The drum is light, and the look is drunken without the lion being drunk.
3. Anger (Episode 8 @ 1:33). The king of beasts is angry and the drum quickens. Bow step with the head shaking, eyes glaring and mouth roaring.

The talk is on inheritance (Episode 8 @ 1:54). Dragon and lion culture is taught through school lectures, starting from basics so students can grasp it easily. A few are picked out and taken on by a master for deeper in-person teaching. Some stop once they know a little of the culture, and others carry on to compete and win honours for Foshan.

Episode 9: posture and expression, second part

This episode (2:23) runs four states in a row (Episode 9 @ 0:25).

1. Sleep (Episode 9 @ 0:25). The head hangs, the steps drag and the eyes are sleepy. Squat first, then sit, with the eyes slightly closed. The head nods often in a light, sound sleep.
2. Wake up (Episode 9 @ 0:40). The king of beasts wakes suddenly with eyes wide open, looks around and dances vigorously.
3. Still (Episode 9 @ 0:55). Stand in the horse step looking ahead. When the drum rings the lion freezes and looks left and right, eyes steady and mouth slightly open.
4. Move (Episode 9 @ 1:06). Lift the head to begin, open and close the mouth, and step exactly on the drum beat with the feet moving with the body.

The talk is the origin debate (Episode 9 @ 1:19). The speaker says the origin has long been disputed, that the dance is a cultural product shaped by people in daily life, and that the widely held view is that lions were not native to ancient China. The historical record puts lion culture at more than 2,000 years, back to the Han dynasty, introduced from the Western Regions along the Silk Road (Episode 9 @ 1:45). Most records describe the Northern lion dance, which spread to Lingnan and gave rise to the Southern form, and the form danced today is said to be about 400 years old (Episode 9 @ 2:09). Chapter 2 weighs these dates.

Episode 10: posture and expression, third part

The opening describes a lion that looks suspicious, lacks confidence and moves like a lost soul (Episode 10 @ 0:23). The expression has to be vivid and built from small changes in the mouth, body and eyes. The subtitles name "meaning" (intent) as the essence of the Southern lion dance (Episode 10 @ 0:49), which looks like the 意在、神似 idea Ye Zhongming gives earlier in this chapter, though the Chinese was not read here. The teaching section (Episode 10 @ 0:52) shows three states.

1. Startled (Episode 10 @ 0:55). The king of beasts looks left and right, and the body and legs tremble. Stand still, stare and open the mouth (Episode 10 @ 1:04).
2. Suspicion (Episode 10 @ 1:12). Eyes wide open, head turning slowly. Out of doubt and disbelief the lion does not dare to move.
3. Fear (Episode 10 @ 1:29). Stretch forward, then shrink back, which the subtitle says is to draw the distraction (its meaning is unclear). Hold the mouth slightly open and the eyes wide (Episode 10 @ 2:01).

The talk is known here only in summary, with no cue timeline: from about 2:08 it says lion dance grew with merchant sponsorship, that businesspeople took it up to promote their trade through sponsored teams and company names, and it ties this to the plot of the Wong Fei-hung films. The films are covered earlier in this chapter.

Episode 11: posture and expression, fourth part

The opening shows a lion that looks around many times and leans out eagerly to probe (Episode 11 @ 0:23). The subtitles call the postures the outward expression of the Southern lion's inner world and say performance and sound must join through tacit understanding. Pitch and rhythm (high, low, rising, falling, light, heavy, slow) and the urgent strikes of gong, drum and cymbal are tied to changes of mood (Episode 11 @ 0:52). The teaching section (Episode 11 @ 1:10) gives four moves.

1. Find (Episode 11 @ 1:14). Look left and right and turn vigorously, with the head and mouth moving with the drum beat. Raise the head, then lower it, as if scanning the crowd.
2. Probe (Episode 11 @ 1:16). When the lion is in danger it probes and scouts. The front claws and hind legs extend forward to test, from high to low, to measure the distance.
3. Look (Episode 11 @ 1:43). Stretch the head, open the eyes, look near and far. Swing the head left and right and turn to look, then shake it vigorously.
4. Wait (Episode 11 @ 2:06). The subtitle reads "wait, then delay". Step left and right, cross, and shake the eyes and mouth. Look around, then stop abruptly.

The talk is about training (Episode 11 @ 2:18). The activity has grown, with more young enthusiasts, and hobbyists are now trained in an amateur way. The traditional pattern is a martial-arts squat held for at least three months of basics (the line is cut off at the frame edge), whereas now the teacher should cultivate the student's interest first and basic skills after (Episode 11 @ 2:37). That matches the Huang Feihong master's account earlier in this chapter of holding the horse stance for one to three months in the old way and keeping children interested first today.

Episode 12: dynamics, first part

The opening asks for movement that is extremely quiet and swift, like a hare, with dodging and rolling that reads as flying. The key to dynamics is showing the lion's strength and swiftness, and the movement must be clean and clear. The subtitles give a flowing image of stars chasing the moon (Episode 12 @ 0:22). The teaching section (Episode 12 @ 0:51) has three parts.

1. Tumbling (Episode 12 @ 0:54). Roll horizontally, toss and move. The front paws and hind legs shrink and stretch.
2. Horse stance (Episode 12 @ 1:06). Stand firmly in the horse stance with the lion's head held up.
3. Lying and moving (Episode 12 @ 1:12). Use strength to build momentum and make a bow step forward. Step backward and withdraw, catch, then release. Take off quickly, seeking advantage and avoiding disadvantage, with the eyes opening and closing, one in front and one behind (Episode 12 @ 1:24).

The talk is long, running from 1:40 to past 3:18, and asks whether the spirit of lion dance is still needed (Episode 12 @ 1:40). The answer is yes at every stage of a country's life. The values it names are loyalty, righteousness, benevolence, courage and filial piety, and patriotism is said not to mean loving the country blindly but guarding one's family as part of it. It ends on what the lion dance industry hopes for at openings, celebrations and festivals, which is smoothness and a longing for a better life (Episode 12 @ 3:04).

Episode 13: dynamics, second part

The topic is leaping and jumping, and it needs the tail player (Episode 13 @ 0:27). The tail player holds the head player's belt tightly with both hands, and the two lift the lion's head together with the help of waist strength, then match the lion's footwork and expression to show its flexibility (Episode 13 @ 0:30). One caption line puts the belt in the head player's hands, but the cue order begins with the tail player and the Shenzhen account earlier in this chapter has the tail player's thumbs hooked into the belt, so this guide follows that reading. The teaching section (Episode 13 @ 0:51) has two moves.

1. Leap (Episode 13 @ 0:54). Lift hard and jump with the front paws. Kick the legs outward and step up quickly. Step forcefully and shake the lion's head to show authority.
2. Jump (Episode 13 @ 1:13). Lift the waist and kick the claws with joy. Jump in small, hurried steps, moving left and right. Be curious and not afraid of danger.

The talk gives the series' most useful rule (Episode 13 @ 1:30). The speaker says the core of learning lion dance is the framework, meaning posture and movement. To go forward, step backward first so there is space. To turn left, swing from the right first so the body supplies the power. To lift the lion's head, let it squat down first, so the waist strength helps the jump and the picture looks vivid (Episode 13 @ 1:36). The English subtitles give this word as "framework", which is probably the 功架 of episode 6, but that is an inference.

Episode 14: dynamics, third part

The Southern lion raises its head with style, and the posture should be dexterous and carry good intent. Dynamic performance rests on footwork and expression, with the front paws and hind legs moving together with the posture, and blinking eyes and mouth are what win applause (Episode 14 @ 0:28). The teaching section (Episode 14 @ 0:52) is about the head rising and falling.

1. Head up and mouth work (Episode 14 @ 0:57). Stand in the horse step with the head held high. Open and close the mouth, with the eyes wide and bright.
2. Sit, test and cross (Episode 14 @ 1:12). Sit. Test left and right and cross the steps. Step slowly, and the lion pauses as if meditating.

The talk introduces Caiqing arrays (Episode 14 @ 1:28). There are many kinds, and four are named: seven stars accompany the moon, three-star arches, snake green and centipede green. The subtitles do not explain how any of them is danced. The narrator says he did not know many arrays until he went to the countryside, and that young people know little of them. His advice is to learn from mistakes, ask local villagers to show you, stay humble, and then you will not panic at a lion dance in any situation (Episode 14 @ 1:58). Seven stars accompany the moon is also in the routine table earlier in this chapter.

Episode 15: dynamics, fourth part

This episode teaches the lion's character through small reactions. The lion has a golden mane, jade-white teeth and a proud male bearing that looks gentle yet startles other males, and performers must understand and feel that character (Episode 15 @ 0:27). Three reaction cues follow: a lion that sees red is startled, one that sees a column bites it, and it likes to lick its claws (Episode 15 @ 0:40). The teaching section (Episode 15 @ 0:51) has three parts.

1. Squat and small jumps (Episode 15 @ 0:51). Squat, then take small jumping steps with the head swung left and right.
2. Bite (Episode 15 @ 1:00). Stare and open the mouth, moving with the drum beat. Look around and open and close the mouth. Turn the head slightly sideways and bite sharply.
3. Lick (Episode 15 @ 1:12). Cross small steps while stretching the claws forward. Lick the mouth gently, to be charming (Episode 15 @ 1:22).

The talk says the lion dance carries human spirit (Episode 15 @ 1:34). It should combine ritual, righteousness, benevolence, wisdom and a fifth word that is clipped at the frame edge. That spirit shows in Caiqing and in the use of platforms, stools, props and utensils, which fit the posture and expression to the audience, and the dance is called a widely accepted display of temple-fair and street culture (Episode 15 @ 1:57). The subtitles give no step counts for these moves.

Episode 16: routines, first part

The English on-screen word is "Skills" and the Chinese upload word is 套路, which usually means a set routine. The opening says posture and body form are closely linked and that distance and height vary. Lion dance technique is divided into three kinds of posture, the high, middle and low frames, and the "three frames" combine body form with horse steps and rest on the basic footwork of martial arts (Episode 16 @ 0:37). The teaching section (Episode 16 @ 0:57) names the horse step the Siping horse step. Siping is pinyin for 四平, so this is read as the four-level horse of the Huang Feihong series. The Chinese was not legible in episode 16, but episode 19 writes the step as 四平马步 (sìpíng mǎbù), which confirms the match (Episode 19 @ 1:56).

1. High frame (Episode 16 @ 1:09). Use the Siping horse step with the head held high, eyes looking far and the head raised forward. Shake the head left and right with delight.
2. Middle frame (Episode 16 @ 1:33). Use the low Siping horse step with the head at middle level, level with the shoulder, raised and looking forward.
3. Low frame (Episode 16 @ 1:46). Head raised in front and no higher than the shoulder. Look down at the ground with fear and doubt.

The second half is about etiquette when teams meet (Episode 16 @ 2:00). When two teams meet on the street, the other team performs on low piles, and the subtitles say to bow three times and not do high-pile lion dance, which shows politeness and respect. Everyone then takes cautious steps, and after the three bows the teams exchange cards, each team having its own, like business cards (Episode 16 @ 2:48). This guide reads "piles" as pole work (桩), but the subtitles do not say so, and the trailer glosses "high-pile" as lion heads held high, so the term is unsettled.

Episode 17: routines, second part

The longest episode with a recorded length (3:47) names "Kylin steps cross" as a step and says three bows to the lion and three tosses of the lion are routine exercises with some jumping, where the lion's head swings as if to advance or retreat (Episode 17 @ 0:27). The teaching section (Episode 17 @ 0:57) gives three pieces.

1. Three bows to the lion (Episode 17 @ 1:06). Jump lightly on one foot with the lion's head striding backward. Take big steps forward while the head strides down, then small steps back to the starting place.
2. Kylin step (Episode 17 @ 1:21). Turn the right foot to the left and squat down. Hold the head high and step forward with the left foot. Swing the two feet back and forth continuously. This is the mirror of episode 6, which turns the left foot to the right.
3. Three tosses of the lion (Episode 17 @ 1:37). Raise the head, throw left and turn right. Use the Siping horse step with the head swinging gently, and a bow step forward that tries to advance but retreats instead (Episode 17 @ 1:43).

The last section, "Future plans", is about the series itself (Episode 17 @ 2:00). It says the course has had many positive responses from overseas groups, and the clipped credit on screen names a member of the Chancheng District Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese in Foshan and the 13th CPPCC Foshan Municipal Committee. It is meant to give young overseas Chinese a vivid way to inherit lion dance culture. The plan has three steps: production of dragon and lion products, with factory research to cut prices and raise quality (Episode 17 @ 2:30); teaching, where the coaching team already teaches in kindergartens, schools and universities and graduates return to Foshan as local teachers (Episode 17 @ 2:58); and research, through a heritage studio working with universities (Episode 17 @ 3:27).

Episodes 18 to 20: conclusion and review

Episode 18 (Episode 18 @ 0:00, about 2:38) is titled Conclusion, and episodes 19 (Episode 19 @ 0:00) and 20 (Episode 20 @ 0:00) are Review (1) and Review (2). The uploads write the Chinese titles with 总结 (zǒngjié, "summary") for episode 18 and 回顾 (huígù, "looking back") for the two reviews. None of the three has the "Teaching" caption that opens a demonstration in the lessons, and none introduces a new move. Each opens with the same title card as the lessons, at about 0:18 to 0:23, and then runs a spoken talk over interview and performance footage, with the Chinese line above the English line. The first talk line comes at 0:49 in episode 18 and at 0:27 in episodes 19 and 20.^{55, 56, 57}

Episode 18, conclusion. The talk makes five points.⁵⁵ It calls traditional culture the tie by which the Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese reaches overseas Chinese, and Foshan lion dance a crucial part of Foshan's traditional culture; the speaker hopes that culture will be carried forward (Episode 18 @ 0:49). It says lion dance culture has reached many fields and periods, that wherever Chinese live there are dragon and lion dances, that the Foshan lion is the most typical of them and part of Lingnan culture, and that the dance has gradually moved from folk performance to a sports activity (Episode 18 @ 1:06). It puts the martial base first: a dancer without a martial arts framework cannot use the waist or step correctly, good lion forms follow from proficient footwork, and learners should be humble and lay a martial arts foundation before practising with the lion head (Episode 18 @ 1:46). A saying then ranks Chinese dragon and lion dance first in the world, Guangdong's first in China and Foshan's first in Guangdong, which is the course's own claim, not a measured ranking (Episode 18 @ 2:04). The close returns to overseas Chinese: those who go abroad remain Chinese, and young overseas Chinese can keep an emotional tie through lion dance, inherit the heritage and build cultural confidence (Episode 18 @ 2:08). Nothing is subtitled after about 2:25.

Episode 19, review (first part). This is a talk that restates the course's logic, not a lesson.⁵⁶ It opens by saying that excelling at lion dance takes constant practice, that the "eight states" of the Southern lion dance (南狮八态 nánshī bā tài) centre on awakening (醒), and that technique (技) and art (艺) are two levels. Technique is the basic skill, and art comes only from learning the framework in full and drilling the basics, at which point the sleeping lions wake (Episode 19 @ 0:27). With solid basics the dancer moves naturally and joins posture to expression (Episode 19 @ 0:57). Three English-only lines follow that read as section titles: how an individual and a lion become one, the saying that practice makes perfect, and the moves to be practised (Episode 19 @ 1:07). The second half says that after the first 18 episodes came out, many viewers wanted to learn, and that beginners need to see how steps, footwork, postures, expressions and movements make the art (Episode 19 @ 1:18). Four pairings follow. On flat ground a stable stance such as the Siping horse step is usual (四平马步, Episode 19 @ 1:56), and the kylin step (麒麟步) is used to change moves (Episode 19 @ 2:04). A lion that sits, watches and thinks needs posture, expression and step form together (Episode 19 @ 2:13). A blink must suit the lion's type, and the rope is pulled fast and hard to show anger (Episode 19 @ 2:37). Long and short distances, and how to think like a lion at close range, are posed as questions and answered only in general: follow step form, footwork and hand technique (Episode 19 @ 2:24). The subtitles describe no move step by step.

Episode 20, review (second part). This talk turns to the drum and to pole work.⁵⁷ It opens with the maxims that learning has no shortcut and should go step by step, calls lion dance culture long-lived and all-encompassing, and says that beyond the basic framework the drum beat is an important part, with lion and drum coordination making the performance livelier (Episode 20 @ 0:27). It then separates the basic ground lion (地狮 dìshī) from the harder high-pile lion dance (高桩醒狮 gāozhuāng xǐngshī), which needs a solid base (Episode 20 @ 0:52). After about ten seconds with no subtitles, a caption introduces a section on practising drum beats together with movements, and the talk names the seven-star and three-star drum beats (七星鼓, 三星鼓点) among those met most often in traditional lion dance (Episode 20 @ 1:14, Episode 20 @ 1:25). The main point on drumming is that lion dancers and drummers must cooperate, and that training should cover drum, music and lion together, not only solo skill (Episode 20 @ 1:36). No beat is played or notated in the subtitles. The last minute or so presents high-pile lion dance as the competitive sport the traditional dance has grown into, with fast development over the past two decades or so alongside sports competition (Episode 20 @ 1:54). The array has 21 plum-blossom piles, the highest 2.8 m and half of the lowest above 2 m, and dancers complete a set routine in 7 to 10 minutes (Episode 20 @ 2:17, Episode 20 @ 2:35). The close says that joining the traditional dance to the basic skills of competitive sport, plus later training, improves performers (Episode 20 @ 2:49). The pile and height figures are the episode's own; Chapter 14 covers competition.

Every named technique in one table

Chinese names appear only where this chapter has a source for them, as explained in the coverage note above. "Not read" means the Chinese subtitle was unreadable, not that the move has no name.

Compared with the Huang Feihong series

Both sets name the same core steps, and the table gives each step side by side.

The two sets overlap on about a dozen steps and grips and agree in kind on all of them, but they are built for different learners. The Huang Feihong series is a seven-part martial course of 2 to 4 minutes a part, with Ye Zhongming, who says his school is Hung Kuen, teaching Parts 4 to 7: it opens with the lion activation rite, etiquette and the drum, then teaches stances from the horse upward and advises holding a stance for months. The 18 Moves is a 20-episode course of similar-length parts organised around the lion's behaviour: it starts with the grips, spends two episodes on step forms and three on moving steps, then gives four episodes to moods, four to dynamics and two to routines, and nearly every episode ends with a talk by an inheritor or the narrator on heritage, teaching or character. It gives expression four whole episodes, with a short demonstration for most states, where the Huang Feihong series introduces its eight states in Part 4 alongside stances. It also adds the three frames, the back-before-forward framework rule, the tail player's belt grip and the etiquette between teams. It was made with overseas Chinese learners in mind (the trailer and episodes 17 and 18 say so) and carries English subtitles over Cantonese audio, while the Huang Feihong series has Chinese text burned into the picture. Read together, the Huang Feihong series supplies the martial base, the ceremony and the drum, and the 18 Moves supplies the mood sequence and the routine pieces. That division of labour is this guide's synthesis, and episodes 18 to 20 do not change it. Episode 18 puts the martial base ahead of lion-head practice, and episode 20 talks about drum beats and pole lion dance without teaching a drum pattern or a ceremony.

Lion-head craft (紮作)

Status and the four steps

Foshan lion-head tying is on China's national intangible cultural heritage list as 彩扎（佛山狮头） (Mand. cǎizhā, Cant. coi2 zaat3, "coloured tying"), item VII-66 in the second batch of 2008, in the traditional fine arts category. The protecting unit is the Foshan Folk Art Research Society Co., Ltd.¹⁰ VII-66 is one national item with regional sub-entries, including the Pizhou paper-plastic lion head of Jiangsu (a northern head, bold and humorous, said to be over 500 years old) and Fenghuang paper-craft in Hunan.⁵⁸ The register says the Foshan craft originated in the Ming, rose formally under Qianlong, draws on Guangdong stone lions and aims at likeness of spirit. It names two bearers, Li Wei (黎伟, born November 1945) and Li Wanzhen (黎婉珍).¹⁰ Makers in Foshan, Heshan and Hong Kong all use four steps, written 扎, 扑, 写, 装.^{5, 59}

1. Tie (扎, Cant. zaat3, Mand. zhā). Bend bamboo strips into a skeleton and fix the joints with gauze paper and paste. The Li family uses bamboo, paper and iron wire, keeps the frame symmetrical and calls it the hardest part, with more than 1,300 knots.¹¹ Gaoming maker Tan Zhiming lists eight framing processes (frame, upper-mouth bamboo, middle bamboo that fixes the shape, forehead, densifying bamboo, mouth, nose, cheeks) and about 1,800 joints. He soaks split yellow bamboo (黄竹) for seven days and nights and sprays it with sulphur against insects.⁶⁰ A Hong Kong programme wraps every joint two or three times with gauze paper and paste.⁶¹
2. Paste (扑, Cant. pok3, Mand. pū; some write 朴). Lay gauze paper over the skeleton, then layers of paper with starch paste. The Li family uses gauze plus three layers inside and outside, seven in all, strong enough for an adult to stand on.¹¹ Tan buys traditional pasting paper from Wuzhou in Guangxi, over 200 km away, and uses five layers where others use two or three.⁶⁰
3. Paint (写, Cant. se2, Mand. xiě, "write"). Draw the face and patterns with a Chinese brush, then coat with protective oil. The Li family calls painting the most exciting part, because the frames are alike and the painting makes each head unique.^{11, 61}
4. Assemble (装, Cant. zong1, Mand. zhuāng). Fit eyes, beard, hair or fur, the forehead mirror, a movable jaw, eyelashes, ears and ornaments, and pom-poms once the varnish is dry. In the Li account the oil makes the head shiny and rainproof and the jaw goes on last. Pulling a string inside blinks the eyes, and pushing the jaw closes the mouth.^{11, 62, 61}

Numbers from the makers

Foshan workshops and masters

The family says Tsui Hark asked it in the early 1990s for hundreds of lion heads for the film and that the giant head took a whole month. Once Upon a Time in China III opened in Hong Kong on 11 February 1993.^{11, 62, 40} One figure exists for the scale of Foshan's head industry: output reached 3,000 lion heads a year in the 1970s, though whether much of it was for export is unverified.⁷²

Hong Kong paper-craft and the heads Chinatowns bought

Hong Kong paper-craft (紮作, Cant. zaat3 zok3, Mand. zhāzuò) covers lion heads, dragons, qilin, lanterns and paper offerings, and was inscribed on Hong Kong's first intangible heritage list in 2017.⁷³ Its steps match the four above.^{59, 61} Pieces are essentially scale models burned after ritual use, except dragons and lions, which are kept, and the humid climate helps explain why few old heads survive.⁷³

The 1960s row matters for Chapter 13. Whether a "Hong Kong style" head is a distinct type is unverified, because no source found defines one. One maker active now is Hui Ka-hung (許嘉雄, Cant. heoi2 gaa1 hung4) of Hung Sze Lau (雄獅樓). He grew up in a martial arts school family, made his first head at 11 and taught himself, then served a 13-year apprenticeship in a Western District paper shop, starting on funeral offerings. He was named the youngest master successor in the 2017 listing.^{64, 74} He designs heads light and agile because modern lion dance is a sport, rejects 3D-printed heads as soulless, and says he learned by watching and "stealing" skills. His commissions include the 2019 Dai Gum Loong dragon for Bendigo's Golden Dragon Museum (9-foot head, 120 m body, 7,000+ hand-sewn copper scales) and life-size paper versions of HSBC's stone lions.^{64, 74, 75} Leung Yau-kam (梁有錦), founder of Sang Wo Lung (生和隆), came from Shunde in 1930 and said that in the 1980s and 1990s fewer than ten people in the trade were all-round craftsmen.⁵⁹ Paul Chan Lai-cheung said in 2012 that the frame, tied in a D shape and wire-reinforced, is the hardest part.³⁴

Malaysia and the move to light competition heads

Malaysia became the other big exporter of heads. Siow Ho Phiew of the Wan Seng Hang workshop in Shah Alam has made heads since 1986 and exports to Australia, France, the US and China. His heads use a rattan skeleton, chosen over bamboo for flexibility and durability, and he sells traditional yellow-and-white (Liu Bei) and red-and-black (Guan Yu) lions beside shocking-pink and electric-blue heads.⁶⁵ A Paris team says France has no master makers and its teams buy in Asia, especially Malaysia, on price and quality.¹² Ipoh maker Teh Wing Liang makes sizes 1 to 6, with sizes 2 and 2.5 the most popular.⁷⁶

Lim Meng Kok (林明國, Mand. Lín Míngguó, nicknamed "Lao Fuzi", 老夫子, spelled Lam Meng Kok in some sources) is a maker featured in two workshop videos. Those two videos could not be read, so this account comes from a New Straits Times profile, a Malay newspaper summary and a 2025 Genting documentary. Lim, 79 in February 2026, is a former ice-cream-factory machinist who began when his troupe could not afford a replacement head. He founded the Wai Mou Lion Dance Association in Selangor, has made about 6,000 heads by hand, and ships to Hong Kong, mainland China, Indonesia and the Philippines.²⁵ The documentary adds that he ties heads with rattan because it is softer, springs back and is safer, pastes gold and silver paper on every head for protection, and claims to have been first to make blue, orange and other non-traditional colours.⁶⁶ Kosmo says a ministry and the lion dance federation named him a lion dance master in 2022, and gives size 3 as the local standard at about 2 kg against about 7 kg for size 1.⁷⁷

Makers on different continents describe the same push toward lighter, more flexible heads.

The shift has a standardising edge. Huang Tao, a provincial bearer in Suixi, says the heads in the Suixi Lion Dance Culture Museum have become the worldwide standard for traditional southern lion heads and that a sport needs standardised equipment, a self-report from an interested party.¹⁸ Suixi heads are made on an assembly line, and Suixi's Li Zujie built the first luminous LED lion in 2013; his factory makes more than 10,000 lion-dance items a year for more than 20 countries and regions.^{18, 78} A Heyuan village lion company founded in December 2018 earned 11.4 million yuan in 2019 and exports to Southeast Asia and North America.⁶⁷ Singapore's Henry Ng Hong Kiang is believed to be the only full-time traditional lion-costume maker there, and Ho Chi Minh City workshops sell Phật Sơn, Hạc Sơn and Phật Hạc heads, with Bành Chí Hùng saying fewer Hoa families follow the craft than before.^{29, 28} In Huế, Trương Như Rem's workshop makes about 500 heads a year, and local makers say the eyes decide the lion's personality.⁷⁹ Chapter 12 covers these regions.

What this chapter could not settle

• The CCTV lion-head documentary and the two Lim Meng Kok videos: not researched.
• What the "18" in the course title counts. No episode says outright, and the phrase "the first 18 episodes" in episode 19 points to episodes, which is an inference.
• Whether the "Zhonglian" association in the register summary, the 2015 Macau champion team and the tutorial channel's association are one body.
• The relationships among Li Wei, Li Wanzhen, Zhou Jiaxin and He Yubin, and the Chinese characters for Zhou Jiaxin, He Yubin and "Shishi Ruyi".
• A measured weight comparison of Fut San and Hok San heads, and a price for a Li family head today.
• Whether the youth lion (少獅) is still made, and what it looks like.
• Competition rule limits on head size and weight, covered in Chapter 14.