The business of lion dance

The short version

Lion dance has always been paid work at New Year: the red envelope on the cheng is the fee (Chapter 10). What has changed since the 1990s is that a small number of troupes now run as companies. They have offices, salaried staff, brand partners, summer camps, merchandise and bases in more than one city. Most troupes are still clubs of volunteers and students that earn almost all their money in one fortnight a year.

This chapter covers how that money is organised: where it comes from, who sponsors whom, what competitions pay, and what a young dancer can realistically build a living on. Booking prices and the cost of heads and contest entry are in Chapter 15. Very few troupes publish accounts, so most figures here are the troupes' own words in news features and social media. They are marked as such.

Where the money comes from

Troupes that run as companies

Four organisations, in Foshan and Shanghai, Hong Kong, San Francisco and Kuala Lumpur, show what a lion dance business looks like when it works. Their histories are elsewhere in the guide (Chapter 12, Chapter 17). Here the question is how they make money.

Ha Kwok Cheung: from family workshop to a mainland company

When Ouyang Xiuming (歐陽秀明/欧阳秀明, Cant. au1 joeng4 sau3 ming4, Mand. Ōuyáng Xiùmíng) took over as the troupe's fourth-generation manager, it was a family workshop with the shop in front and the home behind. It had no accountant and no administrative staff, and quotes were written by hand. She introduced company rules, job roles, standards and a reward-and-penalty system. She also moved the business into event planning, art exhibitions, event production and performance services, and her staff now write the master of ceremonies' script and the running order for each event.²³ She is frank about the result. The number of shows went up, but profits did not rise much.²³

The troupe entered Shanghai in 2010 by approaching Hong Kong-funded brands and companies there. It then built a chain of bases in Guangdong: a training base in Zhaoqing (2021), a training and demonstration base in Gaoming, the family's home district (2022), a heritage base in Jinwan, Zhuhai (2023), and in July 2024 a factory building of about 3,000 square metres in Foshan. The last is the Lion Dancer Dream Factory (獅人夢工場/狮人梦工场), which holds training floors and a lion-head workshop. Its stated aims are to raise young dancers' income and give them security of employment.²³ She also says Hong Kong's schemes for attracting talent do not fit traditional lion dancers.²³

The Foshan base's own RedNote account shows what it sells. Its profile line is "camping themes, dragon and lion shows, event planning".¹⁹ In 2026 the site:

• consecrated a 2.1-metre statue of Guan Di in a hall of lineage displays;⁶
• took bookings for visits and private lessons, and users search RedNote for its ticket prices;¹³²⁴
• ran an eight-day boarding camp (18-25 July) for ages 7 to 12, with head painting, drumming and Yau Kung Mun kung fu;¹³
• held an open high-pole night on 26 July for southern lion dancers from other troupes, who signed up by QR code;²⁵
• put on a Mid-Autumn show at a Foshan mall, with LED lions and a golden dragon made of light strips. The public could join the parade by buying a 38-yuan carp or lion lantern;²⁶
• closed in September for a full rebuild of the site.²⁷

Posts by malls and visitors place the troupe at Shanghai IFC, Kerry Parkside in Pudong, LEGOLAND Shanghai, Taikoo Li in Chengdu, Hang Lung and Times Square malls in Dalian, Super Brand Mall and the Peninsula Shanghai.²⁸ In Hong Kong it also dances on Sha Tin race days.²⁹ Competition doubles as marketing. At a 2026 China-Malaysia contest in Guangxi, its Hong Kong development fund won gold in high pole, the Foshan base won gold in traditional lion, and a Guangxi Yau Kung Mun base won bronze.³⁰

Keung's: the "trend lion" and brand work

Keung's Dragon and Lion Dance Team (姜氏金龍醒獅團) works out of a unit in a Kwai Chung industrial building and calls itself a "star troupe".³¹ Its income is mainly commercial: hundreds of shows at New Year and about 20 bookings a month in quieter periods.³ What sets it apart is brand work, led by the youngest of three brothers, Jerry Keung (姜偉池), whom the press calls the face of the "trend lion" (潮獅).³

In Hypebeast's 2016 film the brothers explain the strategy in their own words. Brands "like A Bathing Ape and adidas" asked to work with them on new lion costumes to show that lion dance can be connected to trends. With adidas's help the team runs a competition every year. Their next goal was an indoor lion dance stadium, because some moves are dangerous and athletes need a safe place to train.⁴¹ The team's motto, "the lion king is useless" (獅王無用), comes from the same outlook. Jerry Keung says it reminds students that trophies matter less than humility.⁴²

The team's own pay history shows how thin the margins were. In 1997 Jerry Keung kept the school going by working as a film assistant director for more than HK$20,000 a month, and his first school coaching job paid HK$4,500 a month.³ A generation later the head coach's son, Jay Keung Fung, trains as a full-time athlete.⁴³ When the team travels, sponsors still matter. Its 2024 Malaysia trip thanked two Malaysian food companies, a jerky maker and a restaurant group, and two honorary team leaders.³¹

LionDanceME: volume in San Francisco

LionDanceME was founded in 2012 by Norman Lau, who began at nine in a Chinatown youth group his father started. It presents itself as part of the Yau Kung Moon and Ha Kwok Cheung lineage (Chapter 12).⁴²⁰ Its volume is the highest found anywhere:

• 300 shows by May 2022;⁴⁴
• about 300 in two months in early 2024, which Mission Local called "arguably the world's most active lion dance group";⁷
• "more than 700 shows a year" by 2026, according to a San Francisco news anchor.¹⁴

Clients include tech companies, Las Vegas casinos and politicians courting Chinese American voters.⁷⁴ Lau has also added a print shop, a photo booth, a nonprofit called Primed, a juniors program and the high-school program.⁴⁴²⁰ He describes the strain plainly: demand, he wrote in 2022, "is one thing i can not complain about", but the support work was overwhelming him.⁴⁴ The same anchor says the troupe's top performers are "turning lion dance into a real career", and that Lau hopes to see it become an Olympic sport.¹⁴ The troupe sends dancers abroad too, including a member who competed in a high-pole contest in Foshan in October 2024.²⁰

Volume brought conflict. In 2024 the city granted the troupe a year of weekend street closures on Grant Avenue for its shows. Merchants appealed, and both sides gathered petitions of more than 1,500 signatures.⁷

Lo Fo Chi Enterprise: the workshop as employer

Lim Meng Kok's head workshop in Kuala Lumpur is the clearest case of a maker's business sitting at the centre of a network (Chapter 17). In 2020 a team of eight made 10 to 20 heads a month for buyers in China, the US, the UK, France, Indonesia, Japan and Australia.¹⁸ Heads sell for RM2,000 to RM9,000, his daughter Lim Seow Ling now runs the business, and his diary of judging, exhibitions and workshops is booked months to two years ahead.⁴⁵ The workshop's Facebook page has kept a 2023 notice hiring painters and general helpers pinned at the top.⁴⁶ In 2025 Lim said two or three apprentices had stopped learning the craft under pressure from their parents. Workshop disciples can dance only at New Year, when production pauses, which cuts what they earn. He works every day of the year until New Year's Eve and dances with his own troupe on the first day. Two Texas troupes ordered 40 heads, and he could finish only 20 in a year.⁴⁷ A Vietnamese maker who studied his heads says Malaysian troupes accept a lighter, less durable head because they replace their lions every year.⁴⁸ Cross-border design is now a product line as well. Since 2023 Lim has tied frames that the Hong Kong maker Winner Made paints in Hong Kong patterns, for buyers in Hong Kong and the United States.⁴⁹

The craft pipeline is narrow. Hong Kong's Hui Ka-hung, of the Hung C. Lau workshop, co-runs a government-supported training programme that takes about 100 students a year, of whom only two or three enter the trade.⁵⁰

Sponsors, patrons and public money

Sponsorship takes five forms, and each buys something different.

Tang Puay Sen puts the contrast bluntly. In his account, troupes in China and Taiwan rely on government funding, while his troupe relies on local businesses, corporations and the Chinese community.⁵³ Malaysian podcasters look to other models. The hosts of the LongShi Stories podcast, Yu Heng (于恒/于恆) and Ivan, point to Hong Kong's Keung's (姜氏金龍醒獅團/姜氏金龙醒狮团, which the captions call the Jiang Family Golden Dragon Lion Dance Troupe) as an example, citing a collaboration that put a lion head in an adidas pattern (they are unsure of the details), and say proposals to big companies may be accepted more readily in Hong Kong than in Malaysia, though Malaysia is not impossible. LongShi Stories EP.0 @ 35:58, @ 37:11.⁵⁷ Season 2 of the podcast was sponsored by Coach Han (汉教练/漢教練) of the Yahya Awal dragon troupe in Johor Bahru and by Mr. Frey of Sixbase Holdings, says the description of its first episode, and its Instagram offered 15 limited-edition mini lion heads (5 Heshan and 10 Foshan, 10 x 10 cm, resin gypsum) at RM238 each in September 2025 as a fundraiser for the podcast.⁵⁸⁵⁹

The competition circuit and what it pays

Prize money is better read as marketing than income. Each competition lion in Singapore costs S$1,200 to S$1,500, and Yiwei owns about 50.⁵⁶ A Johor team spent RM80,000 to win the 2026 Malaysian title, four times the champion's prize (Chapter 15). The return comes later, in bookings, sponsors and students.

Can you make a living? The paths open to a young dancer

From performing alone, in most places, no. In Singapore, Rice Media found that nobody supports themselves as a full-time lion dancer. Yiwei's head coach works in logistics, members are students or have day jobs, and dancers get a transport allowance of at least S$20 per show.⁵⁶ At a Hong Kong mall blessing in 2026, a performer gave base pay of about HK$600 a head, about HK$800 with red packets, and said the work runs on "passion rather than income".⁶³ Malaysia is mixed. In 2021 its federation said professional dancers are on a monthly payroll, while Kun Seng Keng of Muar, with dozens of world titles, says its members are not.¹⁵³ Jason Tan of Kwong Ngai (光藝龍獅體育會/光艺龙狮体育会) says he makes his living from lion dancing, takes no money from his father, who heads the troupe, and attends business classes three days a week; he agrees that only two large Malaysian teams run lion dance as a profession, his own and one from Rawang. LongShi Stories EP.2, Jason Tan @ 55:14.⁶⁴ Jason Loh of Penang's Mei Hu says his members work day jobs and practise in the evening, that competition prize money is so low that, shared across a team, it does not cover expenses, and that he prefers having no boss because a monthly wage would fix his schedule. LongShi Stories EP.6, Jason Loh @ 39:51.⁶⁵ In Indonesia, Hery Lim, deputy secretary-general of FOBI, says lion dancers recognised as athletes receive a monthly income. LongShi Stories EP.1, Hery Lim @ 19:18.⁶⁶ Guangzhou is the clearest professional market found. In 2023 it had 773 lion teams and more than 16,000 dancers, of whom 39 teams and nearly 500 people were professional.⁸

Competitive careers are short. A Keung's veteran told ViuTV in 2022 that by about 28 he knew his athlete days were over. He went back to run his family's cha chaan teng and still dances. Malaysian interviews give a similar picture. Liu Jun Lin (刘俊霖/劉俊霖) of Penang's Hong Guan says athletes' careers last only a few years, that lion dance may be over after graduation and that players over 30 can no longer compete. LongShi Stories EP.5, Liu Jun Lin @ 1:08:32.⁶⁷ Jason Loh, who was 32 at the time of the interview, says some teams' dancers go on into their 40s and his own senior brothers danced until almost 40. LongShi Stories EP.6 @ 10:06.⁶⁵ A schoolmate who joined after secondary school works in marketing and handles the team's outside relations. In the same programme Jerry Keung says parents are puzzled to see a child kneel to a master, since nobody kneels to learn football or skateboarding. The team explains the ceremony and lets families choose.⁴²

A career is therefore usually a mix of the paths below.

The film effect. The animated film 雄獅少年/雄狮少年 (I Am What I Am, 2021) took about 249 million yuan at the box office, and its lion movements were drawn from Huang Qintian's team.⁷¹⁵¹ The 2024 sequel earned far less. No source links either film to measurable growth in troupes or enrolment. The Ha Kwok Cheung troupe uses the film's title as shorthand for the young dancers it wants to employ.²³

The hard parts

• One season pays for the year. When Malaysia banned New Year lion dances in 2021, bookings fell by 90 percent, and the federation warned that at least 1,200 troupes could go bankrupt.¹
• Thin margins. A Malacca troupe president reported that after expenses, about RM200 is left from an RM888 show for a 40-member team.⁷² The Ha Kwok Cheung troupe found that more shows did not mean much more profit.²³ Teh Wing Liang (郑永樑/鄭永樑) of Ipoh says commercial shows there are few beyond Mid-Autumn and Chinese New Year, that clients often try to lower fees, and that Kuala Lumpur's malls give its teams a show every month, which the interview links to their steadier contest entries. LongShi Stories EP.4, Teh Wing Liang @ 55:14.⁷³ Liu Jun Lin of Penang says Kuala Lumpur is naturally more expensive but Penang's fees are not much lower, and some groups perform for free. LongShi Stories EP.5 @ 49:44.⁶⁷ Jason Loh of Penang says the state usually hosts one international competition a year, so entering in Kuala Lumpur or Johor makes the cost "a huge problem", and that Lunar New Year income pays for competitions and equipment. LongShi Stories EP.6 @ 47:49.⁶⁵
• Space and noise. Yiwei trains in the car park of an industrial building to avoid residents' complaints.⁵⁶ Keung's describes limited training space and frequent noise complaints.⁴³ LionDanceME's street permit drew a formal appeal.⁷
• Policing and image. Hong Kong requires a police permit for public lion dances and runs criminal-records checks on performers, which its security chief defended in 2022.⁷⁴ On the older triad stereotype, see Chapter 13.
• Quality under volume. In 2026 a Tsuen Wan mall's New Year blessing was criticised online as lacklustre, and performers answered by pointing to their pay.⁶³
• Losing people. Craft training places few graduates, and troupes lose members as they age out (Chapter 15).⁵⁰ The Ha Kwok Cheung troupe also says Hong Kong's talent schemes do not fit lion dancers.²³ In Johor Bahru, Coach Han says an agreement signed with National Taiwan University of Sport guarantees admission to dragon dance team members and is to be promoted through the national dragon and lion dance association, and, the day after the signing, that a scholarship might start the following year. LongShi Stories EP.3, Coach Han @ 29:07.⁷⁵ He says the idea came from a June trip to a contest in Taoyuan, where the dean of a coach's university told him its lion dance team was short of students, and that many members of his own troupe, which the episode description credits with seven consecutive national titles and five world titles, come from single-parent families. @ 32:43.⁷⁵ He sees graduates returning as sports teachers, nutritionists or full-time coaches, and says that in his own generation the livelihoods were making dragon heads or making and selling the dragon's body (the captions say "back"), and that he tried full-time instruction and could not afford a car. @ 34:46.⁷⁵

What this means for a Boston team

• Count the season. Log every booking with its date, type, fee and crew size. The troupes that grew, such as Soaring Phoenix and LionDanceME, can state their numbers.
• Build a second season. Mid-Autumn is the obvious one. The Ha Kwok Cheung troupe let the public join its parade for the price of a lantern, and Boston has the August Moon Festival (Chapter 15). Summer camps and school residencies are the others.
• Sell visibility, not charity. What brands bought from Keung's and Yiwei was visibility on heads, uniforms, social posts and mall stages. A local bank, restaurant or developer can sponsor a head, a camp or a season in the same way.
• Pay something. Even Singapore's champions only get transport money, but a stipend, meals and a record of hours keep teenagers coming back.
• Keep the line between selling and sacred. Lim Meng Kok will change colours but never the mirror or the horn (Chapter 17), and the busiest troupes still dot eyes and bow (Chapter 9).
• Show students the ladder. The paths that pay are coaching, judging, making, event work and content, built on competition results (Chapter 14).

What this chapter could not settle

• Published accounts of any lion dance company: revenue, payroll or profit.
• The share of a troupe's yearly income that comes from New Year, beyond coaches' statements that it covers the year.
• Published price lists for performances in Hong Kong and the mainland.
• Whether the Ha Kwok Cheung troupe's Foshan site has reopened after its 2026 rebuild, and what its tickets cost.
• Whether 獅子與我 (2016) was a film or a television production.
• Prize money at the MGM Cup and the Wai Mou and Fellowship cups.