Liondance

In a most unusual turn of events, a travelling liondance troupe performed on my front porch today. It's too distressing to explain the convoluted circumstances that gave rise to such an eventuality, so suffice to say that my mother had seized her opportunity when the troupe came a knocking on our door.

My younger cousins were present as well, and it was only a matter of time before they started directing some extremely disconcerting questions at us. Namely, :

1. What is the liondance held for?
2. What is the red ball that the lion is pursuing?
3. What is the significance of the loud accompanying 'music'?
4. Won't the guy at the back have to sniff the front guy's butt?

To tell you the truth, I don't know. I needed Google to help me, when by birthright I should have bloody known the whole thing by heart. My dad's right, if an ang moh was there and asked me, and I couldn't answer, where can I possibly hide my face? It's like I'm genetically Chinese, but culturally Junk.

I suspect I'm not the only one though. Which other nation publishes in the national newspaper 'A Complete Guide to the Truths and Myths of CNY'? It's not a good enough excuse, but spare me for the moment, I'm still grappling with the notion that Chinese culture, distilled and refined over thousands of years, is going to stop with Me, at least in my family.

Bleah.