Bitter Lake is a 2015 BBC documentary by British filmmaker Adam Curtis. It argues that Western politicians have manufactured a simplified story about militant Islam, turning it into a good vs. evil argument informed by,  and a reaction to, Western society's increasing chaos and disorder, which they neither grasp nor understand. The film makes extended use of newsreels and archive footage, and intersperses brief narrative segments with longer segments that depict violence and war in Afghanistan.

Plot
Bitter Lake attempts to explain several complex and interconnected narratives. One of the narratives is how past governments, including Russia and the West, with their continued, largely failing, interventions in Afghanistan, keep repeating such failures, without properly understanding the country's cultural background or its past political history and societal structure.

The film also outlines the US's alliance with Saudi Arabia, especially the US's agreement to buy Saudi oil, for control of a key energy supplier during the cold-war era, with Saudi Arabia gaining wealth and security in return. Part of the agreement provided that Saudi Arabia was allowed to continue its violent and fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, Wahhabism, free from external influence. Saudi support for Wahhabism fed many of the militant Islamic forces from the 1970s to the present, including the Mujahideen, Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State.

Curtis describes the film as an attempt to add an "emotional" dimension to the context of the historical narrative in order to draw its audience in – hence its over two hours in length and availability exclusively through the BBC iPlayer – in order to give the viewer something beyond the disconnected news reports they're usually fed from most traditional broadcast journalism, along with putting historical facts in a truer broader context.

BBC iPlayer has given me the opportunity to do this - because it isn't restrained by the rigid formats and schedules of network television. [...] I have got hold of the unedited rushes of almost everything the BBC has ever shot in Afghanistan. It is thousands of hours - some of it is very dull, but large parts of it are extraordinary. Shots that record amazing moments, but also others that are touching, funny and sometimes very odd. These complicated, fragmentary and emotional images evoke the chaos of real experience. And out of them I have tried to build a different and more emotional way of depicting what really happened in Afghanistan. A counterpoint to the thin, narrow and increasingly destructive stories told by those in power today.

The title is taken from the 1945 meeting of US president Franklin D. Roosevelt and King Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, on a ship on the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal. Curtis portrays the meeting as leading to many of the events to follow. The film was released on 25 January 2015 exclusively on the BBC iPlayer.

Reception
Sam Wollaston, writing in The Guardian, described the film as "distinctive, genuinely different. It's also worrying, beautiful, funny (really), ambitious, serious, gripping and very possibly important." Wollaston commended Curtis for "at least taking a step back, to look at the modern world, then take it on," but admitted that the film was not completely successful in explaining the situation, leaving him with "confusion and uncertainty aplenty." While occasionally "infuriated" by Curtis's style - "all the wobbliness – at times I felt I was actually on a camel. And the sudden zooming in to people's eyes, am I now riding a high-velocity high-explosive US bullet?" - Wollaston concluded that the film was "beautiful" and "television like no one else does".

Emma Graham-Harrison, also writing in The Guardian, noted that Curtis had done "a powerful job of conveying the sheer physical incongruity of Nato's heavy military presence in impoverished Afghanistan", and had captured "the strangeness of these heavily armoured soldiers wandering through superficially tranquil villages and pomegranate orchards, hunting an invisible enemy, and with it a deeper truth about how mismatched the soldiers were to their mission." While critical of some aspects of the film, particularly "of doing what he criticises politicians for: creating oversimplified stories to make sense of a complex world, and losing sight of the truth in the process", she felt that Curtis had managed to convey "the west's terrible arrogance, the casual projection of foreign dreams and ideals on to a distant country and the readiness to walk away when it all starts going wrong".

Jasper Rees, for The Daily Telegraph, called the film "visually astonishing" and "an all-you-can-eat feast of impressionistic subtlety". Beyond the "extraordinary visuals", "the hypnotic jumble of footage", and the "insistent soundtrack pump[ing] out a manipulative pulse of music from East and West, telling you what to feel", Rees was less convinced by the film's narrative, describing it as "like being hectored by a dazzling know-all with x-ray vision who espies connections across the map of history." Rees was critical of the absence of fact-checking, and of the "only significant interview, with a Helmand veteran whose task is simply to repeat everything Curtis has already claimed. Mainly we are just invited to take his word for it". He concluded that "the egotism and grandiloquence are maddeningly at odds with the sustained brilliance of the spectacle", and "In the end, Adam Curtis sounds like just another prophet asking us to have faith in his vision. Which is an irony."

Jon Boone, the Pakistan correspondent for The Guardian, was less impressed by the film in his review for The Spectator, calling it "as simplistic as anything told by 'those in power', [and] made to seem frightfully clever by his acid-trip filmmaking style, perfectly spoofed by Ben Woodham as the 'televisual equivalent of a drunken late night Wikipedia binge with pretension for narrative coherence'". He was critical of the film's omission of Pakistan's role in the conflict - "the TV equivalent of staging Hamlet without the prince" - and Curtis's failure to tackle the real complexity of the situation, writing "it's pretty clear Curtis is as uninterested in such 'complexity' as he is in Afghans, a people he really doesn't seem to like very much. His most insidious story is that they are irredeemable savages who will always reject, steal or subvert the help of the most well-meaning of outsiders."

While also pointing to some of its limitations in his review for the online magazine Spiked, the academic Bill Durodie suggested the abiding image of the film to be "that of an English art teacher enthusiastically extolling the meaning of Marcel Duchamp's conceptual artwork, Fountain, an inverted male urinal, to a group of recently liberated and incredulous Afghan women", before concluding his piece with the phrase "The horror! The horror!" taken from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Overall, his view is that any perceived lack of meaning in Adam Curtis's montage was more than matched by the absence of purpose to the War in Afghanistan.

Music
Music used at any stage or repeatedly, includes:
Burial – "In McDonalds", "Dog Shelter" and "Come Down To Us"
Cliff Martinez – OST for Drive (2011), including tracks "My Name On A Car", "Kick Your Teeth" and "I Drive"
Kanye West – "Runaway"
This Mortal Coil – "The Lacemaker"
Nine Inch Nails – "A Warm Place" and "Every Day Is Exactly the Same"
Ahmad Zahir – "Aye Nam Ghumat Taranae Man"
Charles Ives - "The Unanswered Question"
Messiaen – Turangalîla-Symphonie
Christian Zanési – "Marseille 2"
David Bowie – "The Bewlay Brothers" and "Warszawa"
Pye Corner Audio – "Electronic Rhythm Number 3"
Gavin Miller – "Ichor"
The House In The Woods – "Sunlight On Rusting Hulk"
"Kingdom of Shades" from ballet La Bayadère

External clips
Clips from various films and television programmes are used to illustrate the documentary, especially from Carry On... Up the Khyber (a 1968 British comedy film), and Solaris, a 1972 film by Andrei Tarkovsky.

See also
The Power of Nightmares
The Kajaki Dam, built by American aid in the 1950s.

References

External links

Bitter Lake information on Adam Curtis's BBC blog

2015 documentary films
2015 films
2015 in British television
2015 television films
2015 television specials
2010s British films
2010s English-language films
BBC television documentaries
British documentary television films
Documentary films about Afghanistan
Documentary films about politics
Collage film
Collage television
Films directed by Adam Curtis

Bitter Lake (film)


Christoph Franz von Buseck (28 December 1724 - 28 September 1805) was the Roman Catholic bishop of Bamberg and the last Prince-Bishop of Bamberg.

Early life
Von Buseck was born in Jagstberg to Ernst Johann Philipp Hartmann von Buseck and Mary Ann. Almost nothing is known of his early life.

Tenure as Bishop
On 7 April 1794, von Buseck was elected Prince-Bishop of Bamberg and ordained to the priesthood. His nephew, Georg Karl von Fechenbach, the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, consecrated him as a bishop on 16 August 1795 and he took office. Von Buseck proved to be a very weak ruler. In 1796, when Bamberg was invaded by the French, von Buseck fled to Prague and when the French invaded Prague in 1799, he fled to Saalfeld. He returned to Bamburg in 1800 and appointed his nephew as his coadjutor bishop and successor.

In the course of the German mediatization of 1802–1803, which saw the suppression of all the Holy Roman Empire ecclesiastical principalities, Bavaria occupied the former prince-bishopric on 29 September 1802 and annexed its territories. However, until his death on 28 September 1805, von Buseck remained bishop of Bamberg, but bereft of any temporal power. He was then succeeded by his nephew. After his nephew's death in 1808, the See remained vacant until 1818, by which time Bamberg had been elevated to an archbishopric following the Bavarian Concordat of June 1817.

See also
List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 19th century

References

18th-century German Roman Catholic bishops
1724 births
1805 deaths

Christoph Franz von Buseck


Rokeby, also known as La Bergerie, is a historic estate and federally recognized historic district located at Barrytown in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It includes seven contributing buildings and one contributing structure.

History
The original section of the main house was built 1811–1815. Construction was interrupted by the War of 1812 when John Armstrong Jr. (1758-1843), the owner, served as a Brigadier General, Minister to France, and later as US Secretary of War under James Madison. When the British burned Washington DC in 1814, Armstrong received much of the blame, as he had previously insisted that the British would not attack Washington and failed to properly provide for the defense of the city; he consequently retired to finish building his estate on the Hudson River in 1815. The Armstrongs originally called their home "La Bergerie," French for "the sheepfold," as they were raising a large herd of Merino sheep which had been a gift from Napoleon Bonaparte.

In 1818, Armstrong's daughter, Margaret Rebecca, married William Backhouse Astor, Sr. (1795–1875), son and main heir of John Jacob Astor. In 1836, William Astor purchased the 728-acre estate from his father-in-law for $50,000. The portion of the property containing the Mudder Kill is said to have reminded Margaret Astor of the glen in Sir Walter Scott's epic poem, Rokeby, and she changed the estate's name from "La Bergerie" to "Rokeby."

Description
Evidence suggests that the overall plan was designed by John Armstrong himself. It started as a rectangular, 2-story structure with a hipped roof topped by a square, pyramidal-roofed cupola. The house had a three-bay front facade with five-bay side elevations. There is a central entrance and interior hall which opens into three rooms on each side, and a curved staircase was located at the back of this hall. The staircase returned and entered a rectangular hall with a large skylight (known as a clerestory) on the second floor. The four front bedrooms were accessed from this hall. There was originally a second straight staircase that led from grade to an elaborate door with sidelights on the second floor which was open to the main hall. Due to later alterations, this feature is now completely enclosed. On the other side of the door there is now a small vestibule, an arched passage, and a small flight of stairs descending to the main staircase. It features a Palladian window on the southeast face of the second story. A -story addition constructed of fieldstone was built about 1816.

In the mid-19th century William Backhouse Astor enlarged the house from 20 rooms to 48, in brick with brownstone trim, with a semi-octagonal tower on the west side, a north wing, and a third floor throughout the building. The service wing, tower and mansard roof date to 1857–1858. The spectacular gothic revival library contained within the tower is probably the work of Alexander Jackson Davis. Architect and Chanler family friend Stanford White was hired to enlarge the west drawing room and to install the clerestory in 1895. A sun porch was added in the 1920s.

The landscaping was improved about 1846 by Hans Jacob Ehlers, who removed a nearby hill to permit a view of the Hudson River. In 1911 the Olmsted Brothers enlarged the flower gardens and planted an apple orchard. The property also includes a pair of clapboarded wood-frame barns, additional stables (built about 1850 and destroyed by fire), greenhouse (converted to a garage in 1910, then to a residence in 1965), the square brick gardener's cottage, and a -story gatehouse. Additionally, there is a brick stable designed by McKim, Mead & White, and a private docking facility.

Residents
John Armstrong Jr. lived at Rokeby following his retirement in 1814 until his death at home in 1843, and is buried in the cemetery in Rhinebeck. William and Rebecca Astor's daughter Emily married Samuel Cutler Ward, brother of Julia Ward Howe. Their daughter, Margaret Astor Ward (1838-1875) married John Winthrop Chanler (1826-1877).

The house was later home to the Astor Orphans, the children of John and Margaret, both of whom died of pneumonia. They left instructions that their ten children were to be raised at Rokeby. Most of them grew up to become well known in politics or the arts. John Winthrop Chanler's will provided $20,000 a year for each child for life (equivalent to $470,563 in 2018 dollars), enough to live comfortably by the standards of the time. They included:
John Armstrong "Archie" Chanler (1862-1935), who married and later divorced novelist Amélie Louise Rives
Winthrop Astor Chanler (1863-1926), who served in the Rough Riders in Cuba and was wounded at the Battle of Tayacoba
Emily Astor Chanler (1864-1872), who died of scarlet fever
Elizabeth Astor Winthrop Chanler (1866-1937), who married author John Jay Chapman
William Astor Chanler (1867-1934), soldier, politician and explorer who married actress Minnie Ashley.
Marion Ward Chanler (1868-1883), who died of pneumonia
Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler (1869-1942), politician who married Julia Lynch Olin (1882–1961).
Margaret Livingston Chanler (1870-1963), who served as a nurse with the American Red Cross during the Spanish–American War and who married Richard Aldrich (1863–1937)
Robert Winthrop Chanler (1872-1930), artist who married and later divorced Natalina "Lina" Cavalieri (1874–1944)
Alida Beekman Chanler (1873-1969) who married Christopher Temple Emmet.
 Egerton White Chanler (1874–1882), who died of a brain tumor

As the eldest son, John Armstrong Chanler inherited the property with all its stock, books, pictures, furniture, and personal property, on his twenty-first birthday in 1883, along with $100,000 (equivalent to $2,352,813 in 2018 dollars) for its maintenance, however after his marriage began to disintegrate, he moved to Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. By agreement of the siblings, Margaret Livingston Chanler bought their shares in the estate during the 1890s. Her grandson Richard Aldrich inherited the estate upon her death in 1963. It is currently owned by the Aldrich family.

In 2013, former resident and Astor heiress Alexandra Aldrich (great-granddaughter of Margaret Livingston Chanler) published The Astor Orphan, a memoir set at Rokeby.

The house is currently the home to various artists and writers, including Processional Arts Workshop.  It is also the site of the Shoving Leopard organic farm.

Ragnar Kjartansson's ''The Visitors'' (2012), an approximately hour-long video-performance, was filmed on location at Rokeby. Rokeby was the site of an earlier 2007 piece by Kjartansson, titled The Blossoming Trees Performance, during which he recorded himself as a plein air painter for two days. The estate has also been used by other artists, due to the unique interiors of the main house on the property.

Heritage significance
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

Gallery
Photos of La Bergerie by Mark Zeek, 1979.

See also

Hudson River Historic District
National Register of Historic Places listings in Dutchess County, New York
 Poets' Walk Park

References

External links
 Slideshow showing Rokeby and its residents in 2010.
 Aerial views of Rokeby and the estate grounds
 Interior Pictures: La Bergerie/Rokeby Mansion Barrytown New York
 Life Inside Astor Family's Crumbling Country Manor
 Hudson River Shorts: A brief video tour of Rokeby Farm in Barrytown, NY.

Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
National Register of Historic Places in Dutchess County, New York
Historic districts in Dutchess County, New York
Houses in Red Hook, New York
Astor family residences
Chanler family

Rokeby (Barrytown, New York)


The Seven Martyrs of Tehran were seven prominent Bábis executed at Tehran in 1850.

After the Battle of Fort Tabarsi, mere adherence to the Báb could be sufficient to lead to a death sentence, as most famously in the case of the Seven Martyrs of Tehran, a group of seven prominent Bábis who were executed in public by beheading in February 1850. Comprising three merchants (including a maternal uncle of the Báb), two clerics, a leading dervish and a government official, the seven were all men of high social rank who could easily have saved their lives by seeming to deny their faith, but chose not to do so.

References

History of the Bahá'í Faith
1850 in religion
1850 in Asia
Capital punishment in Iran
Religion in Iran
Bahá'í Faith in Iran
Bahá'í martyrs
1850 deaths

Seven Martyrs of Tehran


Petula Clark CBE (born 15 November 1932) is a British singer, actress, and songwriter. She has had one of the longest careers of any British singer, spanning more than eight decades.

Clark's professional career began during the Second World War as a child entertainer on BBC Radio. In 1954 she charted with "The Little Shoemaker", the first of her big UK hits, and within two years she began recording in French. Her international successes have included "Prends mon coeur", "Sailor" (a UK number one), "Romeo", and "Chariot". Hits in German, Italian and Spanish followed. In late 1964 Clark's success extended to the United States with a four-year run of career-defining, often upbeat singles, many written or co-written by Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent. These songs include her signature song "Downtown", "I Know a Place", "My Love", "A Sign of the Times", "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love", "Who Am I", "Colour My World", "This Is My Song" (by Charles Chaplin), "Don't Sleep in the Subway", "The Other Man's Grass Is Always Greener", and "Kiss Me Goodbye". In the US, Clark was sometimes called "the First Lady of the British Invasion". She had nine Top 20 hits in the U.S. between 1964 and 1968.

Clark has sold more than 68 million records. She has also enjoyed success in the musical film Finian's Rainbow and in the stage musicals The Sound of Music, Blood Brothers, Sunset Boulevard and Mary Poppins.

Life and career
Sally Clark was born on 15 November 1932 in Ewell, Surrey, England to Doris (née Phillips) and Leslie Noah Clark. Both of Clark's parents were nurses at Long Grove Hospital in Epsom. Clark's mother had Welsh ancestry and her father was English. Clark's stage name "Petula" was invented by her father, who joked that it was a combination of the names of his two former girlfriends, Pet and Ulla.

Clark grew up in Abercanaid, near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, in a small stone house with no electricity or running water, and a toilet at the bottom of the garden. Her grandfather was a coal miner. Her first ever live audience was at the Colliers' Arms in Abercanaid. She also recalls living just outside London during the Blitz and watching the dogfights in the air and running to air-raid shelters with her sister. Later, when she was eight, she joined other children to record messages with the BBC to be broadcast to members of their families in the forces. The recording event was in the Criterion Theatre, an underground theatre that was safe. When the air-raid siren went off other children were upset and a call went out for someone to step forward and sing to calm them. Petula volunteered, and they liked her voice so much, in the control room they recorded her. Her song was "Mighty Rose".

As a child, Clark sang in the chapel choir and showed a talent for mimicry, impersonating Vera Lynn, Carmen Miranda and Sophie Tucker for her family and friends. Her father introduced her to theatre in 1944 when he took her to see Flora Robson in a production of Mary Stuart; she later recalled that after the performance, "I made up my mind then and there I was going to be an actress. ... I wanted to be Ingrid Bergman more than anything else in the world." Her first public performances were as a singer, however: in 1945 she performed with an orchestra in the entrance hall of Bentall's Department Store in Kingston upon Thames for a tin of toffee and a gold wristwatch.

Career start

From a chance beginning at the age of seven Clark appeared on radio, in film, in print, on television and on recordings. In October 1942 the nine-year-old Clark made her radio debut while attending a BBC broadcast with her father. She was trying to send a message to an uncle who was stationed overseas, but the broadcast was delayed by an air raid. During the bombing the producer requested that someone perform to settle the jittery theatre audience and she volunteered a rendering of "Mighty Lak' a Rose" to an enthusiastic response. She then repeated her performance for the broadcast audience, launching a series of some 500 appearances in programmes designed to entertain the troops. In addition to radio work, Clark frequently toured the United Kingdom with fellow child performer Julie Andrews. Nicknamed the "Singing Sweetheart", she performed for George VI, Winston Churchill and Bernard Montgomery. She also became known as "Britain's Shirley Temple", and was considered a mascot by the British Army, some of whose troops plastered her photos on their tanks for good luck as they advanced into battle.

While she was performing at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1944 Clark was discovered by the film director Maurice Elvey, who cast her, at the age of 12, as the precocious orphaned waif Irma in his war drama Medal for the General. In quick succession she performed in Strawberry Roan, I Know Where I'm Going!, London Town, Here Come the Huggetts, Vote for Huggett and The Huggetts Abroad, the second, third and fourth of four Huggett Family films. She worked with Anthony Newley in Vice Versa (directed by Peter Ustinov) and Alec Guinness in The Card. She also had a small role in I Know Where I'm Going.

In 1945 Clark was featured in the comic Radio Fun, in which she was billed as "Radio's Merry Mimic". By then Clark felt that she had played child parts for too long.

In 1946 Clark began her television career with an appearance on a BBC variety show, Cabaret Cartoons, which led to her being signed to host her own afternoon series, Petula Clark. Pet's Parlour followed in 1950.

In 1947 Clark met Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson at the Peter Maurice Publishing Company. The two collaborated musically and were linked romantically over the following ten years. In 1949 Henderson introduced Clark to the record producer Alan A. Freeman, who, together with her father Leslie, formed Polygon Records, for which she recorded her earliest hits. Clark had recorded her first release that year, "Put Your Shoes On, Lucy", for EMI, and further recordings with vocalist Benny Lee on Decca. The Polygon label was financed with part of Clark's earnings. She scored a number of major hits in the UK during the 1950s, including "The Little Shoemaker" (1954), "Majorca" (1955), "Suddenly There's a Valley" (1955) and "With All My Heart" (1956). "The Little Shoemaker" was an international hit, reaching number one in Australia, the first of many number-one records in her career.

Near the end of 1955 Polygon Records was sold to Nixa Records, then part of Pye Records, leading to the establishment of Pye Nixa Records (subsequently simply Pye). This effectively signed Clark to the Pye label in the UK, for which she recorded until the early 1970s.

During this period Clark showed a keen interest in encouraging new talent. She suggested that Henderson be allowed to record his own music, and he had five chart hits on Polygon/Pye between 1955 and 1960.

European fame

In 1957 Clark was invited to appear at the Paris Olympia, where, despite her misgivings and a bad cold, she was received with acclaim. The following day she was invited to the office of Vogue Records to discuss a contract. There she met her future longtime publicist, collaborator and husband Claude Wolff. Clark was attracted immediately, and when she was told that she would be working with him if she signed with the Vogue label she agreed.

In 1960 Clark embarked on a concert tour of France and Belgium with Sacha Distel, who remained a close friend until his death in 2004. Gradually she moved further into the continent, recording in German, French, Italian and Spanish.

While Clark focused on her new career in France she continued to achieve hit records in the UK into the early 1960s. Her 1961 recording of "Sailor" became her first number-one hit in the UK, while such follow-up recordings as "Romeo" and "My Friend the Sea" landed her in the British Top-10 later that year. "Romeo" sold more than one million copies around the world and won her her first gold disc, which was awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America. In France "Ya Ya Twist" (a French-language cover of the Lee Dorsey rhythm and blues song "Ya Ya" and the only successful recording of a twist song by a woman) and "Chariot" (the original version of "I Will Follow Him") became smash hits in 1962, while German and Italian versions of her English and French recordings charted, as well. Her recordings of several Serge Gainsbourg songs were also big sellers. In addition, she was given at this time a present of the song "Un Enfant" by Jacques Brel, with whom she toured. Clark is one of only a handful of performers to be given a song by Brel. A live recording of this song charted in Canada.

In 1963 Clark wrote the soundtrack for the French crime film A Couteaux Tirés (Daggers Drawn) - released in 1964 - and made a cameo appearance as herself in the film. Although it was only a mild success, it added a new dimension—that of film composer—to her career. Additional film scores she composed include Entre ciel et mer (1963), Rêves d'enfant (1964), La bande à Bebel (1966), and Pétain (1989). Six themes from the last were released on the CD In Her Own Write in 2007.

Clark was the subject of This Is Your Life in February 1964, April 1975 and March 1996, becoming the only person to receive the television tribute three times.

International fame – the "Downtown" era

By 1964 Clark's British recording career was foundering. Composer/arranger Tony Hatch, who had been assisting her with her work for Vogue Records in France and Pye Records in the UK, flew to her home in Paris with new song material he hoped would interest her, but she found none of it appealing. Desperate, he played for her a few chords of an incomplete song that had been inspired by his recent first trip to New York City. Upon hearing the melody, Clark told him that if he could write lyrics as good as the melody, she wanted to record the tune as her next single—"Downtown". Hatch has subsequently denied originally offering "Downtown" to the Drifters.

Neither Clark, who was performing in Canada when the song first received major air play, nor Hatch realised the impact the song would have on their respective careers. Released in four separate languages in late 1964, "Downtown" was a success in the UK, France (in both the English and the French versions), the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, and Italy, and Rhodesia, Japan, and India, as well. During a visit to London, Warner Bros. executive Joe Smith heard it and acquired the rights for the United States. "Downtown" went to number one on the American charts in January 1965, and 3 million copies were sold in the United States.

"Downtown" was the first of 15 consecutive Top-40 hits Clark achieved in the U.S., including "I Know a Place", "My Love" (her second US number-one hit), "A Sign of the Times", "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love", "This Is My Song" (from the Charles Chaplin film A Countess from Hong Kong), and "Don't Sleep in the Subway". The American recording industry honored her with Grammy Awards for Best Rock & Roll Recording of 1964 for "Downtown" and for Best Contemporary (R&R) Vocal Performance of 1965 – Female for "I Know a Place". In 2004, her recording of "Downtown" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Clark's recording successes led to frequent appearances on American variety programmes hosted by Ed Sullivan and Dean Martin, guest shots on Hullabaloo, Shindig!, The Kraft Music Hall, and The Hollywood Palace, and inclusion in musical specials such as The Best on Record and Rodgers and Hart Today.

In 1968 NBC invited Clark to host her own special in the US, and in doing so, she inadvertently made television history. While singing a duet of "On the Path of Glory", an antiwar song that she had composed, with guest Harry Belafonte, she took hold of his arm, to the dismay of a representative from the Chrysler Corporation (the show's sponsor), who feared that the moment would incur racial backlash from Southern viewers. When he insisted that they substitute a different take, with Clark and Belafonte standing well away from each other, Clark and the executive producer of the show—her husband, Wolff—refused, destroyed all other takes of the song, and delivered the finished programme to NBC with the touch intact. The Chrysler representative was terminated, and the programme aired on 8 April 1968, four days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., with high ratings, critical acclaim, and a Primetime Emmy nomination. It has erroneously been described as the first instance on American television of physical contact between a black man and a white woman, forgetting many previous instances, including Frankie Lymon dancing with a white girl on Alan Freed's live ABC show "The Big Beat" on July 19, 1957, Nancy Sinatra kissing Sammy Davis, Jr., on her 1967 Movin' with Nancy TV special, and Louis Armstrong shaking hands with "What's My Line?" panelists Dorothy Kilgallen and Arlene Francis in 1953. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1968 Belafonte telecast, Clark and Wolff appeared at the Paley Center for Media in Manhattan on 22 September 2008, to discuss the broadcast and its impact, following a showing of the programme.

Clark was later the host of two more specials; The Petula Clark Show shown on both the NBC and CBC networks in early 1970, and one for ABC which served as a pilot for a projected weekly series. She starred in the BBC television series This Is Petula Clark, which aired from mid-1966 to early 1968.

Clark revived her film career in the late 1960s, starring in two big musical films. In Finian's Rainbow (1968), she starred opposite Fred Astaire, and she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance. The following year, she was cast with Peter O'Toole in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), a musical adaptation of the classic James Hilton novella.

Throughout the late 1960s Clark toured in concerts in the U.S., and she often appeared in supper clubs such as the Copacabana in New York City, the Ambassador Hotel's Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, and the Empire Room at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

During this period Clark continued her interest in encouraging new talent. These efforts also supported the launch of Herb Alpert and his A&M record label. In 1968 she brought the French composer/arranger Michel Colombier to the U.S. to work as her musical director, and introduced him to Alpert. Colombier went on to co-write the film score for Purple Rain with Prince, composed the acclaimed pop symphony Wings, and a number of soundtracks for American films. Richard Carpenter credited her with bringing his sister Karen and him to Alpert's attention when they performed at a premiere party for the 1969 Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

Clark has recalled that she and Karen Carpenter went to see Elvis Presley perform in Las Vegas and that afterwards "He was flirting with both of us, (saying) 'Wow, the two biggest girl pop stars in my dressing room. That's pretty good'... He didn't have us, exactly, but he had a darned good try. Not going to talk about that any more."

Clark was one of the backing vocalists on John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band anthem "Give Peace a Chance." Clark was performing in Montreal in June 1969, and was being heckled by the audience due to her bilingual performance. Clark went to see Lennon for advice on dealing with this, as his wife Yoko Ono and he were staying at the city's Queen Elizabeth Hotel during their Bed-ins for Peace protest. Clark subsequently ended up on the recording of Give Peace a Chance. On 15 November 1969, her concert, An Evening with Petula, from the Royal Albert Hall in London, was the first BBC One colour transmission.

1970–2000
During the early 1970s Clark had chart singles on both sides of the Atlantic with "Melody Man" (1970), "The Song of My Life" (1971), "I Don't Know How To Love Him" (1972), "The Wedding Song (There Is Love)" (1972), and "Loving Arms" (1974). In Canada, "Je Voudrais Qu'il Soit Malheureux" was a major hit. Clark continued touring during the 1970s, performing in clubs in the US and Europe. During this period, Clark also appeared in print and radio ads for the Coca-Cola Corporation, television commercials for Plymouth automobiles, print and TV spots for Burlington Industries and Chrysler Sunbeam, as well as print ads for Sanderson wallpaper in the UK.

In the mid-1970s Clark scaled back her career to devote more time to her family. On 31 December 1976, she performed her hit song "Downtown" on BBC1's A Jubilee of Music, celebrating British popular music for Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver Jubilee. She also hosted the television series The Sound of Petula (1972–74), and through the 1970s, made numerous guest appearances on variety, comedy, and game-show television programmes. She appeared as a special guest star in an episode of The Muppet Show in 1977. In 1980 she made her last film appearance, in the British production Never Never Land. Her last television appearance was acting in the 1981 French miniseries Sans Famille (An Orphan's Tale). A 1981 single, "Natural Love", reached number 66 on Billboards Hot 100 chart and number 20 on the US country singles chart in early 1982.

As Clark moved away from film and television, she returned to the stage. In 1954, she had starred in a stage production of The Constant Nymph, but at the urging of her children, did not return to legitimate theatre until 1981, starring as Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music in the West End of London. Opening to positive reviews and what was then the largest advance sale in British theatre history, Clark—proclaimed by Maria Von Trapp herself as "the best Maria ever"—extended her initial six-month run to 13 to accommodate the huge demand for tickets and receiving a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. On 6 February 1983, during a concert at the Albert Hall she gave a heart-rending performance of For All We Know in tribute to her friend Karen Carpenter who had died two days previously. Also in 1983, she took on the title role in George Bernard Shaw's Candida.

Her later stage work includes Someone Like You in 1989 and 1990, for which she composed the score, Blood Brothers, in which she made her Broadway debut in 1993 at the Music Box Theatre, followed by the American tour; and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, appearing in both the West End and American touring productions from 1995 to 2000. In 2004, she repeated her performance of Norma Desmond in a production at the Opera House in Cork, Ireland, which was later broadcast by the BBC. With more than 2,500 performances, she has played the role more often than any other actress.

A new disco remix of "Downtown", called "Downtown '88", was released in 1988, registering Clark's first UK singles chart success since 1972, making the Top 10 in the UK in December 1988. A live vocal performance of this version was performed on the BBC show Top of the Pops. Clark recorded new material regularly throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and in 1992 released "Oxygen", a single produced by Andy Richards and written by Nik Kershaw.

In 1998 Clark was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.
In 2012 Clark was installed as a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France by the French Minister of Culture. (www.petulaclark.net)

2000–present

In both 1998 and 2002 Clark toured extensively throughout the UK. In 2000, she presented a self-written, one-woman show, highlighting her life and career, to large critical and audience acclaim at the St. Denis Theatre in Montreal. A 2003 concert appearance at the Olympia in Paris has been issued in both DVD and compact disc formats. In 2004, she toured Australia and New Zealand, appeared at the Hilton in Atlantic City, New Jersey; the Hummingbird Centre in Toronto; Humphrey's in San Diego; and the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut; and participated in a multiperformer tribute to the late Peggy Lee at the Hollywood Bowl. Following another British concert tour in early spring 2005, after which, in May she contributed to the V45 televised BBC concert in Trafalgar Square at which she sang "A Nightingale sang in Berkeley Square", she appeared with Andy Williams in his Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri, for several months, and she returned for another engagement in autumn of 2006, following scattered concert dates throughout North America.

In November 2006 Clark was the subject of a BBC Four documentary titled Petula Clark: Blue Lady, and appeared with Michael Ball and Tony Hatch in a concert at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane broadcast by BBC Radio the following month. In December that year, she made her first appearance in Iceland. Duets, a compilation including Dusty Springfield, Peggy Lee, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin and the Everly Brothers, among others, was released in February 2007; and Solitude and Sunshine, a studio recording of all new material by composer Rod McKuen, was released in July of that year. She was the host of the March 2007 PBS fundraising special My Music: The British Beat, an overview of the musical British invasion of the United States during the 1960s, followed by a number of concert dates throughout the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. She can be heard on the soundtrack of the 2007 independent film Downtown: A Street Tale. Une Baladine (in English, a wandering minstrel), an authorised pictorial biography by Françoise Piazza, was published in France and Switzerland in October 2007, and the following month Clark promoted it in bookshops and at book fairs.

In 2005 Clark took part in the BBC Wales programme Coming Home, about her Welsh family history.

Clark was presented with the 2007 Film and TV Music Award for Best Use of a Song in a Television Programme for "Downtown" in the ABC series Lost. She completed a concert tour of England and Wales in summer 2008, followed by concerts in Switzerland and the Philippines. Then & Now, a compilation of greatest hits and several new Clark compositions, entered the UK Albums Chart in June 2008 and won Clark her first silver disc for an album. Open Your Heart: A Love Song Collection, a compilation of previously unreleased material and new and remixed recordings, was released in January 2009. Additionally, her 1969 NBC special Portrait of Petula, already released on DVD for Region 2 viewers, is also being produced for Region 1. A collection of holiday songs titled This Is Christmas, which includes some new Clark compositions in addition to previously released material, was released in November 2009.

At the Montreux Jazz Festival on 14 July 2008 Clark joined with Paolo Nutini to perform "Goin' to Chicago Blues" in celebration of Quincy Jones' 75th birthday.

In 2010 Clark became president of the Hastings Musical Festival; she toured Australia, New Zealand and Quebec to sell-out crowds, and appeared on the Vivement Dimanche show on French television, where she promised a return to Paris in the new year. Her triple album Une Baladine included 10 new tracks and one new studio recording: "SOS Mozart", a writing collaboration of Gilbert Bécaud and Pierre Delanoë. Both her album set and the new recording of "SOS Mozart" were produced by David Hadzis at the Arthanor Productions studio in Geneva and appeared on the French charts. She was patron of 2011 Dinard British Film Festival.

Early in 2011 the Lark Street Business Improvement District in a section of the downtown area of Albany, New York, needed a name for its logo/mascot, a graphic image of a blue lark. An internet poll was held, and the winner was Petula Lark, clearly a reference to the singer of the adopted anthem of New York City's urban area, "Downtown". In November 2011, at age 78, Clark performed at the Casino de Paris, a Parisian music hall. Clark entertained for more than 90 minutes and introduced five new songs, one of which she had recently written with friend Charles Aznavour. A French album of all new material was to be released on 7 February 2012 on the Sony label, Clark's first in that language since the late 1970s.

On 11 December 2011 the Saw Doctors released their version of "Downtown", featuring Clark. She appeared in the video for the song, which they recorded in Galway, and she in Paris. On 22 December 2011, the record reached number two on the Irish chart. In February 2012 Clark completed her first New York City show since 1975. Her show featured a parody of "Downtown", an idea that came from her musical director Grant Sturiale. After the end of her season, which was extended due to the demand for tickets, she returned to Paris to promote her new album, before flying to Australia for a tour.

She appeared as a guest on Radio 4's The Reunion in August 2012. In January 2013, she released a new album titled Lost in You. The album contains new music and some covers. She remade her famous "Downtown", and performed a cover of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy". She also performed a new song called "Cut Copy Me", which had a 14-week run in the Belgium chart. The album entered the UK national album chart at number 24 on Sunday, 3 March 2013. Two of the songs, "Crazy" and "Downtown", were performed in Jools Holland's New Year "Hootenanny" on 1 January 2013, along with her 1966 number-six hit, "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love". On 20 June 2015 she appeared with the Midtown Men at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, performing "Downtown". Clark released a new English-language album, From Now On, in October 2016, and completed a tour of the UK to promote it. Clark made a cameo appearance in the 2017 London Heathrow Airport Christmas television commercial, accompanied by her song, "I Couldn't Live without Your Love".

On 10 November 2017 an English-language album was released, Living for Today. Clark embarked on a tour of the United States in November 2017. It was her first US tour in five decades. On 20 April 2018 a French-Canadian album was released, Vu d'ici. In March 2019 she was announced as returning to the West End stage in London for the first time in 20 years, performing in the upcoming revival of Mary Poppins as The Bird Woman. In March 2020 the United Music Foundation released A Valentine's Day at the Royal Albert Hall, a collector's edition including the complete recording of her legendary concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 14 February 1974.

She appeared in Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends concert which aired on the BBC in January 2023. She performed "I'm Still Here" from Follies.

Personal life
In 1955 Clark became linked romantically with Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson. Speculation that the couple planned to marry became rife. However, with the increasing glare of the public spotlight and Clark's growing fame – her career in France was just beginning – Henderson, reportedly not wanting to end up as "Mr. Petula Clark", decided to end the relationship. Their professional relationship continued for a few years, culminating in the BBC Radio series Pet and Mr. Piano, the last time they worked together, although they remained on friendly terms. In 1962, he penned a ballad about their break-up, called "There's Nothing More To Say", for Clark's LP In Other Words. In 1967 in Las Vegas, she was a witness at the wedding of her friend, French singer Charles Aznavour, alongside Sammy Davis, Jr.

In October 1957, Clark was invited to appear at the Paris Olympia for Europe's premier live radio show, Musicorama. The next day, she was invited to the office of Vogue Records' chairman Léon Cabat to discuss recording in French and working in France. There, she met her future husband, publicist Claude Wolff, to whom she was attracted immediately, and when she was told that he would work with her if she recorded in French, she agreed. They have two daughters and a son.

Following the 1979 UK general election, at which Margaret Thatcher had won a majority for the Conservatives, becoming Britain's first female prime minister, Clark sent Thatcher a congratulatory telegram, saying "Felicitations – so happy for you and for Britain." The same year, Clark performed at a Young Conservatives rally. However, in 2002, she attended a fundraiser for Labour prime minister Tony Blair.

Since 2012 Clark has lived for most of the year in Geneva, Switzerland; she also has a holiday chalet in the French Alps, where she likes to ski, and a pied-à-terre in London's Chelsea.

Filmography
Source:

 Medal for the General (1944)
 Strawberry Roan (1945)
 Murder in Reverse? (1945)
 I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
 Trouble at Townsend (1946)
 London Town (1946)
 Vice Versa (1948)
 Easy Money (1948)
 Here Come the Huggetts (1948)
 Vote for Huggett (1949)
 The Huggetts Abroad (1949)
 Don't Ever Leave Me (1949)
 The Romantic Age (1949)
 Dance Hall (1950)
 White Corridors (1951)
 Madame Louise (1951)
 The Card (1952)
 Made in Heaven (1952)
 The Runaway Bus (1954)
 The Gay Dog (1954)
 The Happiness of Three Women (1954)
 Track the Man Down (1955)
 That Woman Opposite (1957)
 6.5 Special (1958) (as herself)
 À Couteaux Tirés (1964) (also composed score) (aka "Daggers Drawn" for the American release)
 Finian's Rainbow (1968)
 Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)
 Drôles de zèbres (1977)
 Never Never Land (1980)
 Sans famille (1981, French mini-series)

Noteworthy recordings

French singles

 "Prends mon cœur" ("A Fool Such as I") (1960, No.9)
 "Garde-moi la dernière danse (Save the Last Dance for Me)" (1961, No.3)
 "Marin (Sailor)" (1961, No.2)
 "Roméo" (1961, No.3)
 "Ya Ya Twist" (1962, with Johnny Hallyday, No.1)
 "Chariot" (later also known as "I Will Follow Him") (1962, No.1)
 "Les Beaux Jours" (original title: "Ramblin' Rose") (1963)
 "Cœur blessé" (original title: "Torture" by John D. Loudermilk; lyric by Jean Kluger, Daniel Vangarde, Claude Carrere, Jean Broussolle) (1963, No.4)
 "Je me sens bien auprès de toi (Dance On)" (1963, No.5)
 "Ceux qui ont un cœur (Anyone Who Had a Heart)" (1964, No.11)
 "Dans le temps (Downtown)" (1965, No.6)
 "Un jeune homme bien (A Well Respected Man)" (1965)
 "C'est ma chanson" ("This is My Song") (1967, No.1)
 "La Dernière Valse (The Last Waltz)" (1967, No.2)
 "Tout le monde veut aller au ciel" (1967)

German singles

 "Monsieur" (by Karl Götz, Kurt Hertha; German language song) (1962, No.1)
 "Casanova Baciami" (song with German lyric) (1963, No.2)
 "Cheerio" (German language version of "Chariot") (1963, No.6)
 "Mille Mille Grazie" (song with mainly German lyric) (1963, No.9)
 "Warum muß man auseinandergeh'n (Mit weißen Perlen)" (1964, No.17)
 "Alles ist nun vorbei (Anyone Who Had a Heart)" (1964, No.37)
 "Downtown" (1965, German version, No.1)
 "Kann ich dir vertrauen" (1966, No.17)
 "Verzeih' die dummen Tränen" (1966, German version of "My Love", No.21)
 "Love – so heißt mein Song" (1967, German version of "This is My Song", No.23)
 "Alle Leute wollen in den Himmel", (1967, German version of "Tout le monde veut aller au ciel", No.28)

Italian singles

 "Monsieur" (the German song with Italian lyrics by Vito Pallavicini) (1962, No.1)
 "Sul mio carro (Chariot)" (1962, No.1)
 "Quelli che hanno un cuore (Anyone who had a heart)" (1964, No.4)
 "Invece no" (Entry at the San Remo Festival 1965, No.5)
 "Ciao, ciao (Downtown)", (1965, No.1)
 "Cara felicità (This is my song)" (1967, No.1)
 "Kiss Me Goodbye (Italian version)" (1968, No.26)

Complete Spanish recordings

 "Qué tal, Dolly? (Hello, Dolly!)"
 "Pequeña Flor (Petite Fleur)"
 "Tú no tienes corazón (Anyone Who Had a Heart)"
 "Cantando al caminar (The Road)"

All four songs were released in 1964 in Spain on Hispavox EP "Petula Clark canta en Español" (Cat.-No. HV 27–126).

Other noteworthy recordings

 "Put Your Shoes on Lucy" (1949)
 "House in the Sky" (1949)
 "I'll Always Love You" (1949)
 "Clancy Lowered the Boom" (1949)
 "You Go to My Head" (1950)
 "Music! Music! Music!" (1950)
 "You Are My True Love" (1950)
 "May Kway (Rose, Rose I Love You)" (1951)
 "Mariandl" (with Jimmy Young) (1951)
 "Where Did My Snowman Go?" (1952)
 "The Card" (1952)
 "Christopher Robin at Buckingham Palace" (1953)
 "Meet Me in Battersea Park" (1954)
 "Suddenly There's a Valley" (1955)
 "Another Door Opens" (1956)
 "With All My Heart" (1957)
 "Fibbin'" (1958)
 "Devotion" (1958)
 "Dear Daddy" (1959)
 "Mama's Talkin' Soft" (1959), a song deleted from Gypsy prior to its Broadway opening
 "Cinderella Jones" (1960)
 "Marin" ("Sailor") (1961)
 "La Nuit N'en Finit Plus" ("Needles And Pins") (1963)
 "Ceux qui ont un cœur" ("Anyone Who Had a Heart") (1964)
 "Petite Fleur"  (1964)
 "Invece no" (1965)
 "Dans le temps" ("Downtown") (1965)
 "Sauve-moi" (1977)
 "C'est si bon" (1978) (with Mireille Mathieu)
 "Fred and Marguerite" (1980) (from Captain Beaky and His Band)
 "The Bumble Bee" (1980) (from Captain Beaky and His Band)
 "Mr. Orwell" (1984)
 Blood Brothers (International Recording) (1995)
 Songs from Sunset Boulevard (1996)
 Here for You (1998)
 The Ultimate Collection (2002)
 Kaleidoscope (2003)
 "Starting All Over Again" (2003)
 Live at the Paris Olympia (2004)
 "Driven by Emotion" (2005)
 "Memphis" (2005)
 "Together" (2006), recorded as a duet with Andy Williams
 "Thank You for Christmas" (2006)
 "Simple Gifts" (2006)
 "It Had to Be You" (2007)
 Duets (2007)
 Solitude and Sunshine (2007)
 In Her Own Write (2007), also featuring a guest recording by Amanda-Jane Manning of My Love Will Never Die
 Then & Now (2008)
 Open Your Heart: A Love Song Collection (2009)
 This is Christmas (2009)

See also

 List of best-selling music artists

References

External links

 Petula Clark at the British Film Institute

 petulaclark.co.uk, her British official website
 Petula Clark LIVE on YouTube --- 20 songs performed live mostly on television.
 Glenn Gould dissects the music and image of Petula Clark in a 1967 CBC broadcast (sound only)
 BBC interview, April 2002
 Union Jack News interview, November 2006
 BBC Radio Wales interview, January 2007
 Las Vegas Sun interview, February 2007

1932 births
Living people
20th-century English actresses
20th-century English singers
20th-century English women singers
21st-century English actresses
21st-century English singers
21st-century English women singers
British Invasion artists
Columbia Records artists
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Decca Records artists
EMI Records artists
English child actresses
English child singers
English expatriates in France
English expatriates in Switzerland
English film actresses
English film score composers
English musical theatre actresses
English musical theatre composers
English people of Welsh descent
English television actresses
English women pop singers
French-language singers
German-language singers
Grammy Award winners
Imperial Records artists
Italian-language singers
MGM Records artists
Musicians from Surrey
People from Epsom
People from Ewell
Pye Records artists
Schlager musicians
Warner Records artists
Women film score composers

Petula Clark


The right to die is the belief that people have the right to end their own lives.  Usually, when people talk about the right to die, they are talking about the right of people with terminal illnesses to end their lives.

The right to die is very controversial.  Most arguments about the right to die focus on these questions:
 Should a person with a terminal illness be allowed to:
 Kill themselves?
 Have somebody else help them kill themselves?
 Have a doctor give them medications that they can take to kill themselves?
 Refuse medical treatment, if doing that would cause them to die?
 Should people who have illnesses which will not kill them, but cause severe pain or suffering, have the right to die?
 Who, if anyone, has the power to make these decisions?

Hinduism accepts the right to die for anyone that has terminal diseases and have no desire to live. Other religions, however, vary in the tolerance of this right, and some call suicide a sin.

Related pages
 Antinatalism
 Terminal illness
 Assisted suicide
 Euthanasia
 Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health (the first "right to die" case in the United States)

References

Euthanasia
Controversies
Rights

Right to die


Lion dance () is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture and other Asian countries in which performers mimic a lion's movements in a lion costume to bring good luck and fortune. The lion dance is usually performed during the Chinese New Year and other  traditional, cultural and religious festivals. It may also be performed at important occasions such as business opening events, special celebrations or wedding ceremonies, or may be used to honour special guests by the Chinese communities.

The Chinese lion dance is normally operated by two dancers, one of whom manipulates the head while the other forms the rear end of the lion. It is distinguishable from the dragon dance which is performed by many people who hold the long sinuous body of the dragon on poles. Chinese lion dance fundamental movements can be found in Chinese martial arts, and it is commonly performed to a vigorous drum beat.

There are two main forms of the Chinese lion dance, the Northern Lion and the Southern Lion. Both forms are commonly found in China and around the world especially in Southeast Asia, the Southern Lion predominates as it was spread by the Chinese diaspora communities who are historically mostly of Southern Chinese origin. Versions of lion dance related to the Chinese lion are also found in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam. Besides the Chinese-based lion dance, other forms of lion dance also exist in India, Indonesia, and East Africa.

History

There has been an old tradition in China of dancers wearing masks to resemble animals or mythical beasts since antiquity, and performances described in ancient texts such as Shujing where wild beasts and phoenix danced may have been masked dances. In Qin dynasty sources, dancers performing exorcism rituals were described as wearing bearskin mask, and it was also mentioned in Han dynasty texts that "mime people" (象人) performed as fish, dragons, and phoenixes. However, lion is not native to China (a species found in Northeast China Panthera youngi had long become extinct), and the Lion Dance therefore has been suggested to have originated outside of China from countries such as India or Persia, and introduced via Central Asia. According to ethnomusicologist Laurence Picken, the Chinese word for lion itself, shi (獅, written as 師 in the early periods), may have been derived from the Persian word šer. The earliest use of the word shizi meaning lion first appeared in Han dynasty texts and had strong association with Central Asia (an even earlier but obsolete term for lion was suanni (狻麑 or ), and lions were presented to the Han court by emissaries from Central Asia and the Parthian Empire. Detailed descriptions of Lion Dance appeared during the Tang dynasty and it was already recognized by writers and poets then as a foreign dance, however, Lion dance may have been recorded in China as early as the third century AD where "lion acts" were referred to by a Three Kingdoms scholar Meng Kang (孟康) in a commentary on Hanshu. In the early periods it had association with Buddhism: it was recorded in a Northern Wei text, Description of Buddhist Temples in Luoyang (洛陽伽藍記), that a parade for a statue of Buddha of a temple was led by a lion to drive away evil spirits. An alternative suggestion is therefore that the dance may have developed from a local Chinese tradition that appropriated the Buddhist symbolism of lion.

There were different versions of the dance in the Tang dynasty. In the Tang court, the lion dance was called the Great Peace Music (太平樂, Taiping yue) or the Lion Dance of the Five Directions (五方師子舞) where five large lions of different colours and expressing different moods were each led and manipulated on rope by two persons, and accompanied by 140 singers. In another account, the 5 lions were described as each over 3 metres tall and each had 12 "lion lads", who may tease the lions with red whisks. Another version of the lion dance was described by the Tang poet Bai Juyi in his poem "Western Liang Arts" (西凉伎), where the dance was performed by two hu (胡, meaning here non-Han people from Central Asia) dancers who wore a lion costume made of a wooden head, a silk tail and furry body, with eyes gilded with gold and teeth plated with silver as well as ears that moved, a form that resembles today's Lion Dance. By the eighth century, this lion dance had reached Japan. During the Song dynasty the lion dance was commonly performed in festivals and it was known as the Northern Lion during the Southern Song.

The Southern Lion is a later development in the south of China originating in the Guangdong province. There are a number of myths associated with the origin of the Southern Lion: one story relates that the dance originated as a celebration in a village where a mythical monster called Nian was successfully driven away; another has it that the Qianlong Emperor dreamt of an auspicious animal while on a tour of Southern China, and ordered that the image of the animal be recreated and used during festivals. However it is likely that the Southern Lion of Guangzhou is an adaptation of the Northern Lion to local myths and characteristics, perhaps during the Ming dynasty.

Regional types
The two main types of lion dance in China are the Northern and Southern Lions. There are however also a number of local forms of lion dance in different regions of China, and some of these lions may have significant differences in appearance, for example the Green or Hokkien Lion (青獅, Qing Shi) and the Taiwanese or Yutien Lion (明獅, Ming Shi),  popular with the Hokkien and  the Taiwanese people. Other ethnic minorities groups in China also have their own lion dances, for example, the lion dance of the Muslim minority in Shenqiu County in Henan called the Wen Lion, the Yongdeng lion dance in Yongdeng County, Lanzhou, Gansu, the lion dance in Yongning County, and Wuzhong, Ningxia,and the Hakka Lion — popular with the Hakka people, which is very similar to both the Hokkien and Taiwanese Lions and even the Wen Lion, but the Hakka lion may or may not have a horn on its head. Chinese lion dances usually involve two dancers but may also be performed by one. The larger lions manipulated by two persons may be referred to as great lions (太獅), and those manipulated by one person little lions (少獅). The performances may also be broadly divided into civil (文獅) and martial (武獅) styles. The civil style emphasizes the character and mimics and behaviour of the lion, while the martial style is focused on acrobatics and energetic movements.

There are related forms of dances with mask figures that represent mythical creatures such as the Qilin and the Pixiu. The Qilin dance and the Pixiu dance are also most commonly performed by the Hakka people who were originally from the Central China, but have largely settled in the south of China and southeast Asia in modern times.

Various forms of lion dance are also found widely in East Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, Vietnam, as well as among the communities in the Himalayan region.

Chinese Northern Lion

The Chinese Northern Lion () Dance is often performed as a pair of male and female lions in the north of China. Northern lions may have a gold-painted wooden head, and shaggy red and yellow hair with a red bow on its head to indicate a male lion, or a green bow (sometimes green hair) to represent a female. There are however regional variations of the lion.

It is said that the northern lion may have originated from Northern Wei, when Hu dancers performed the dance for the emperor, and it was referred to as Northern Lion by the Song dynasty.

Northern lions resemble Pekingese or Foo Dogs/Fu Dogs, and their movements are lifelike during a performance. Acrobatics is very common, with stunts like lifts, or balancing on a tiered platform or on a giant ball. Northern lions sometimes appear as a family, with two large "adult" lions and a pair of small "young" lions. There are usually two performers in one adult lion, and one in the young lion. There may also be a "warrior" character who holds a spherical object and leads the lions.

The dance of the Northern Lion is generally more playful than the Southern Lion. Regions with well-known lion dance troupes include Ninghai in Ningbo, Xushui in Hebei province, Dalian in Liaoning province, and Beijing. There are a number of variations of the lion dance performance, for example the Heavenly Tower Lion Dance () from Xiangfen County in Shanxi is a performance whereby a number of lions climb up a tall tower structure constructed out of wooden stools, and there are also high-wire acts involving lions

Chinese Southern Lion

The Chinese Southern Lion () or Cantonese Lion dance originated from Guangdong. The Southern Lion has a single horn, and is associated with the legend of a mythical monster called Nian. The lion's head is traditionally constructed using papier-mâché over a bamboo frame covered with gauze, then painted and decorated with fur. Its body is made of durable layered cloth also trimmed with fur. Newer lions, however, may be made with modern materials such as aluminium instead of bamboo and are lighter. Newer versions may also apply shinier modern material over the traditional lacquer such as sequin or laser sticker, but they do not last as long as those with lacquer.  Different types of fur may be used in modern lions.

There are two main styles of Southern Lion: the Fut San or Fo Shan (), and the Hok San or He Shan (), both named after their place of origin. Other minor styles include the Fut-Hok (a hybrid of Fut San and Hok San created in Singapore by Kong Chow Wui Koon in the 1960s), and the Jow Ga (performed by practitioners of Jow family style kung fu). The different lion types can be identified from the design of the lion head.

Fo Shan is the style adopted by many kung fu schools. It uses kung fu moves and postures to help with its movements and stances, and only the most advanced students are allowed to perform. Traditionally, the Fo Shan lion has bristles instead of fur, and is heavier than the modern ones now popularly used. All traditional Fo Shan lions have pop-up teeth, tongue, and eyes that swivel left and right. On the back are gold-foiled rims and a gilded collar where the troupe's name may be sewn on.  It has a very long tail with a white underside, and is often attached with bells. The designs of the tail are also more square and contain a diamond pattern going down the back. It has a high forehead, curved lips and a sharp horn on its head. Traditional Fo Shan lions are ornate in appearance, a number of regional styles however have developed around the world. The newer styles of Fo Shan lions replace all the bristles with fur and the tails are shorter. The eyes are fixed in place, and the tongue and teeth do not pop up. The tail is curvier in design, does not have a diamond pattern, and lacks bells.

The He Shan style lion is known for its richness of expression, unique footwork, impressive-looking appearance and vigorous drumming style. The founder of this style is the "Canton Lion King" Feng Gengzhang () in the early 20th century. Feng was born in a village in He Shan county in Guangdong where he was instructed in martial arts and lion dance by his father. Later, he also studied martial arts and lion dance in Foshan before returning to his hometown and setting up his own training hall. He developed his version of lion dance, introducing new techniques by studying and mimicking the movement of cats, such as "catching mouse, playing, catching birds, high escape, lying low and rolling". He and his disciples also made changes to the lion head; its forehead is lower, its horn rounded and it has a duck beak mouth with flat lips, the body also has more eye-catching colours. Together with new dance steps and footwork, a unique rhythm invented by Feng called the "Seven Star Drum", Feng created a new style of lion dancing that is high in entertainment value and visual appeal. In the early 1920s, the He Shan lion dance was performed when Sun Yat-Sen assumed office in Guangzhou, creating a stir. The He Shan lion performers were invited to perform in many places within China and Southeast Asia during celebratory festivals. The style became very popular in Singapore; the He Shan lion acquired the title of "Lion King of Kings", with a "king" character () added on its forehead. The Singapore Hok San Association made further changes by modifying the design of the lion head, shortening its body, and creating a new drumbeat for the dance.

Different colors are used to signify the age and character of the lions. The lion with white fur is considered to be the oldest of the lions, while the lion with golden yellow fur is the middle child. The black lion is considered the youngest lion, and the movement of this lion should be fast like a young child or a headstrong teenager. The colors may also represent the character of the lion: the golden lion represents liveliness, the red lion courage, and the green lion friendship. There are also three lion types that represent three historical characters in the classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms who were blood oath brothers sworn to restore the Han dynasty:

 The Liu Bei (Cantonese: Lau Pei) lion is the eldest of the three brothers and has a yellow (actually imperial yellow as he became the first emperor of the Shu-Han Kingdom) based face with a white beard and fur (to denote his wisdom). It sports a multicolored tail signifying the colors of the five elements. There are three coins on the collar. This lion is used by schools with an established Martial art master (Sifu) or organization and is known as the Rui Shi ().
 The Guan Gong (Cantonese: Kwan Kung) lion has a red based face, black bristles, with a long black beard (as he was also known as the "Duke with the Beautiful Beard"). The tail is red and trimmed with black. He is known as the second brother and sports two coins on the collar. This Lion is known as the Xing Shi ().
 The Zhang Fei (Cantonese: Cheung Fei) lion has a black based face with short black beard, small ears, and black bristles. The tail is black and white. Traditionally this lion also had bells attached to the body. Being the youngest of the three brothers, there is only a single coin on the collar. This Lion is known as the Dou Shi () because Zhang Fei had a quick temper and loved to fight. This lion is used by clubs that were just starting out or by those wishing to make a challenge.

Later three more Lions were added to the group. The green-faced lion represented Zhao Yun or Zhao (Cantonese: Chiu) Zi Long. The green lion has a green tail, black beard and fur, and an iron horn. Often called the fourth brother, this lion is also called the Heroic Lion because Zhao was said to ride through Cao Cao's million man army to rescue Liu Bei's infant and fight his way back out. The yellow lion has yellow/orange face and body with white or silver beard and fur, representing Huang Zhong (Cantonese: Wong Tsung), who was given this color when Liu Bei rose to become Emperor.  This lion is called the Righteous Lion. The white lion is known as Ma Chao (Cantonese: Ma Chiu), he was assigned this color because he always wore a white armband in his battle against the ruler of Wei, Cao Cao, to signify that he was in mourning for his father and brother who had been murdered by Cao Cao.  This lion is therefore also known as the funeral lion, and is never used except for the funeral of a Master or an important head of a group. In such cases the lion is usually burned right after use as it is considered inauspicious to be kept around. This lion is sometimes confused with the silver lion which sometimes has a whitish colouring. These three along with Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were known as the "Five Tiger Generals of Shun," each representing one of the colors of the five elements.

Green Lion

Green Lion (青狮) is the lion dance form associated with the Hokkien-speaking people of Fujian and Taiwan. It is similar to the Chinese southern lion dance, except that the lion is mainly green in color and has a distinct round flat mask. It is believed to have originated in the anti-Manchu movements after the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644. The word "green lion" in the Hokkien language sounds similar to "Qing army" (清师). During training sessions for fighters, the Green lion was fitted with blades symbolizing the Manchurian army and would become a moving target for trainees. It is said that after the fall of Qing dynasty in 1912, martial arts expert Gan De Yuan (干德源) organized a performance in Quanzhou where the Green Lion was dismembered to represent the overthrow of the Qing dynasty. From that point onwards, the Green Lion is used without the blades and performed for cultural and ritual purposes.

Qilin Dance

A related form of dance is the Qilin or Kirin dance, which is traditionally performed by the Hakka people. The Qilin is a mythical creature believed to symbolize good fortune, prosperity, and harmony, and performers wear ornate Qilin costumes with vibrant colors and intricate details to resemble the mythical creature. The Qilin costume features a single horn in the middle, with finned ridges lined with fur. The dance involves graceful and synchronized movements that mimic cats and tigers. The performance routine typically tells of a Qilin exiting its lair, playfully move round, and looking for vegetable to eat. After eating from the vegetable, it spits it out, and it also spits a jade book, before moving around and returning back to its lair. The dance is accompanied by music played on traditional Chinese instruments, including drums, flutes, and cymbals. Today, similar to the Chinese Lion and Dragon dances, the Qilin dance is commonly performed during important Chinese celebrations and festivals, such as Chinese New Year and weddings, it is also performed to preserve cultural traditions and enhance community cohesion.

Vietnamese Lion

The lion dance may be known in Vietnam as the qilin dance (Vietnamese:  or ) based on the mythical creature kỳ lân, which is similar to the Chinese Qilin.
Most lions in Vietnam resemble the Southern Lion, specifically Fut San style – they are part of the Chinese Southern Lion tradition but have acquired local characteristics with differences in appearance. In the past, costumes more similar to the Qilin were used, but today, many troupes buy lion costumes from China, unaware of the subtle differences that set the Lion Dance and Qilin Dance apart. There are nevertheless distinct local forms that differ significantly in appearance and performance, for example the lion dances of the Tày and Nùng minority people. A court version of the dance is performed at the Duyet Thi Duong Theatre within the ground of the royal palace in Huế.

The dance is performed primarily at traditional festivals such as Tết Nguyên Đán and Tết Trung Thu, as well as during other occasions such as the opening of a new business, birthdays, and weddings. The dance is typically accompanied by martial artists and acrobatics. A feature of the Vietnamese unicorn dance is its dance partner Ông Địa or the god of the earth, depicted as a large bellied, broadly grinning man holding a palm-leaf fan similar to the Chinese 'Big Head Buddha' (大头佛). The good-hearted god, according to popular beliefs, has the power to summon the auspicious kỳ lân, and thus during the dance, takes the lead in clearing the path for the kỳ lân.

Japanese Lion

Japan has a long tradition of the lion dance and the dance is known as  () in Japanese. It is thought to have been imported from China during the Tang dynasty, and became associated with the celebration of Buddha's Birthday. The first lion dance recorded in Japan was at the inauguration ceremonies of Tōdai-ji in Nara in 752. The oldest surviving lion mask, made of paulownia wood with an articulated lower jaw, is also preserved in Tōdai-ji. The dance is commonly performed during the New Year to bring good luck and drive away evil spirits, and the lion dancers may be accompanied by flute and drum musicians. It is also performed at other festivals and celebrations. In some of these performances, the lions may bite people on the head to bring good luck.

The lion dance has been completely absorbed into Japanese tradition. There are many different lion dances in Japan and the style of dancing and design of the lion may differ by region – it is believed that as many as 9,000 variations of the dance exist in the country. The lion dance is also used in religious Shinto festivals as part of a performing art form called .  may be found in different forms - for example the  which is mainly acrobatic, the , a type of theatrical performance done by yamabushi ascetics, and also in bangaku and others. Various forms of shishi dances are also found in noh, kabuki (where the lion dances form a group of plays termed shakkyōmono, examples include Renjishi), and bunraku theatres.

The Japanese lion usually consists of a wooden, lacquered head called a  (lit. Lion Head), often with a characteristic body of green dyed cloth with white designs. It can be manipulated by a single person, or by two or more persons, one of whom manipulates the head. The one-man variety is most often seen in eastern Japan. As with Chinese lions, the make of the head and designs on the body will differ from region to region, and even from school to school. The mask however may sometimes have horns appearing to be a deer (), and  written with different Kanji characters can mean beast, deer or wild boar, for example as in  (鹿踊, lit. Deer Dance). Historically the word shishi may refer to any wild four-legged animal, and some of these dances with different beasts may therefore also be referred to as shishi-mai. The dance may also sometimes feature tigers () or qilin ().

In Okinawa, a similar dance exists, though the lion there is considered to be a legendary . The heads, bodies and behavior of the shisa in the dance are quite different from the  on mainland Japan. Instead of dancing to the sounds of flutes and drums, the Okinawan shisa dance is often performed to folk songs played with the .

Korean Lion

Lion dance was recorded in the Korean historical work Samguk Sagi as "" (, the old word for lion), one of the five poems on the dances of the Silla kingdom written by Choe Chiwon. It may have been recorded as early as the King Jinheung's reign in the 6th century during which a tune titled "The Lion's Talent" was composed that could be a reference to a lion dance. Two main traditions of lion dance survive in Korea, the , which is performed as an exorcism drama; and the  which is performed in association with masked dramas. In many of the traditional masked dance dramas, the lion dance appears as one part of a number of acts. Examples of these dramas are Ŭnyul t'alch'um, Pongsan t'alch'um (봉산탈춤), Suyong Yayu (수영야류), and T'ongyong Ogwangdae (통영오광대). There was also once a court version of the lion dance.

Lion dance as an exorcism ritual began to be performed in the New Year in Korea during the Goryeo dynasty. The best known of the Korean saja-noreum lion dances is the Bukcheong sajanoreum or lion mask play from Bukcheong. In this lion dance the lion with a large but comic lion mask and brown costume may be performed together with performers wearing other masks. The dancers may be accompanied by musicians playing a double-headed drum, an hourglass-shaped drum, a large gong, and a six-holed bamboo flute. The dance was originally performed every night of the first fifteen nights of the Lunar New Year, where the dance troupe in lion masks and costumes visited every house in the villages of the Bukcheong region, and the lion dance is meant to expel evil spirits and attract good luck for the coming year. The eyes of the lion mask may be painted gold to expel negative spirits. The lion masks of Pongsan and Gangnyeong may feature rolling eyes and bells meant to frighten demons when they make a sound as the lion moves. It is also believed that children who sat on the back of the lion during such performances would enjoy good health and a long life.

Tibetan Lion

In the Himalayan and Tibetan area, there is also a lion dance called the snow lion dance. This dance may be found in Tibet and also among Tibetan diaspora communities where it is called , Nepal, Bhutan, and parts of Northeastern India – among the Monpa people in Arunachal Pradesh, in Sikkim where it is called Singhi Chham, and in some parts of Uttar Pradesh and Ladakh. The name seng ge and its related forms come from Sanskrit for lion siṅha, and cham is a Buddhist ritual dance. The snow lion has white fur, and in Tibet, it may also have a green mane or green fringes, while in Sikkim, the mane may be blue.

The Snow Lion is regarded as an emblem of Tibet and the Snow Lion Dance is a popular dance in Tibetan communities and it is performed during festivals such as during the ritual dance (cham) festival and the New Year. The snow lion represents the snowy mountain ranges and glaciers of Tibet and is considered highly auspicious, and it may also symbolize a number of characteristics, such as power and strength, and fearlessness and joy. Some local versions of the snow lion dance may also have been influenced by Chinese Lion Dance in the Sino-Tibetan borderland – for example, it was recorded that the local chief in Songpan, Sichuan gave a lion costume to the Jamyang Zhépa II of the Amdo region in the 18th century. The snow lion dance may be performed as a secular dance, or as a ritual dance performed by bon po monks.

India

Excluding the snow lion dances found in the Himalayan regions, lion costumes may be used in various forms of dances in other parts of India. In West Bengal's Purulia district, a version of the Chhau dance is the only one to incorporate lion costumes. In this dance, the lions are associated with the Hindu goddess Durga as her mount. The lion Chhau masks are made of papier-mâché with dried grass as fur.

In Songi Mukhawate or Songi Mukhota dance, a masked folk dance from Maharastra performed during Chaitra Purnima, Navaratri, and other special occasions, the lion costumes may also be use. The lion costumes represent Narasimha.

In Honnavar Taluk in Uttara Kannada, a lion dance called simha nrutya may be performed in Yakshagana plays. The dancers wear a cotton mask that resembles a lion with two silver fangs, and they dance in imitation of the movements and behaviour of lion.

Indonesia

The Chinese lion dance is referred to as barongsai in Indonesia, often performed by Chinese Indonesian during Imlek. Indonesians however, have developed their own style of lion dances. The lion dance (Indonesian: ) in Indonesia has different forms that are distinct to the local cultures in Indonesia, and it is not known if these have any relation to the Chinese lion. The best known lion dances are performed in Bali and Java.

In Hindu Balinese culture, the Barong is the king of good spirits and the enemy of the demon queen Rangda. Like the Chinese lion, it requires more dancers than in the Javanese Reog, typically involving two dancers.

The Reog dance of Ponorogo in Java involves a lion figure known as the . It is held on special occasions such as the Lebaran (Eid al-Fitr), City or Regency anniversary, or Independence day carnival. A single dancer, or , carries the heavy lion mask about 30 – 40 kg weight by his teeth. He is credited with exceptional strength. The  may also carry an adolescent boy or girl on its head. When holding an adolescent boy or girl on his head, the Reog dancer holds the weight up to total 100 kilograms. The great mask that spans over 2.5 meters with genuine tiger or leopard skin and real peacock feathers. It has gained international recognition as the world's largest mask.

Another form of Indonesian lion dance is called Sisingaan from West Java. Sisingaan marked by a form of a lion-shaped effigy palanquin that is carried by a group of dancers who perform various attractions accompanied by traditional music. Thus lion palanquin is being ride by a children, and usually performed to celebrate the circumcision ceremony, where the child is carried on a lion around the kampung (village).

East Africa
Around the world there are lion dances that are local to their area and unrelated to the Chinese dance.  For example, various tribes in East Africa, such as the Maasai and Samburu people of Kenya, used to perform a lion dance to celebrate a successful lion hunt, considered by these tribes to be a prestigious act and a sign of bravery. The dancers may also reenact a lion hunt. Some of them make a headdress out of the mane of the slain lion (or out of other animals) and wear the headdress in the dance. Young men may also wear the lion-mane headdress and dance in a coming-of-age ceremony. However, as lion-hunting has been made illegal, the dance is seldom performed in a real scenario nowadays, but they may continue to perform the dance for tourists.

Music and instruments

The Chinese Lion Dance is performed accompanied by the music of beating of tanggu (drum) (in Singapore, datanggu), cymbals, and gongs. Instruments synchronize to the lion dance movements and actions. Fut San, Hok San, Fut Hok, Chow Gar, etc. all play their beat differently. Each style plays a unique beat.
Developments in electronic devices have allowed music to be played via phone/tablet/computer/mp3 player. This has contributed to the evolution of how people can play lion dance music - which eliminates the need to carry around instruments (which can be quite large).

The most common style is Sar Ping lion dance beats. This has more than 22 different testings that you can use to show the lion's movement, whereas fut san has only around 7.

Costumes
The lion dance costumes used in these performances can only be custom made in specialty craft shops in rural parts of Asia and have to be imported at considerable expense for most foreign countries outside Asia. For groups in Western countries, this is made possible through funds raised through subscriptions and pledges made by members of local cultural and business societies. For countries like Malaysia with a substantial Chinese population, local expertise may be available in making the lion costumes and musical instruments without having to import them from China. Most modern Southern Lion dance costumes come with a set of matching pants, however some practitioners use black kung fu pants to appear more traditional. Modern lion dance costumes are made to be very durable and some are waterproof.

Association with Wushu/Kung Fu
The Chinese lion dance has close relations to kung fu or Wǔshù (武術) and the dancers are usually martial art members of the local kung fu club or school. They practice in their club and some train hard to master the skill as one of the disciplines of the martial art. In general, it is seen that if a school has a capable troupe with many 'lions', it demonstrates the success of the school. It is also generally practised together with Dragon dance in some area.

During Chinese New Years and festivals

During the Chinese New Year, lion dance troupes will visit the houses and shops of the Asian community to perform the traditional custom of "cai qing" (採青), literally meaning "plucking the greens", whereby the lion plucks the auspicious green lettuce either hung on a pole or placed on a table in front of the premises. The "greens" (qing) is tied together with a "red envelope" containing money and may also include auspicious fruit like oranges. In Chinese cǎi (採, pluck) also sounds like cài (菜, meaning vegetable) and cái (财, meaning fortune). The lion will dance and approach the "green" and "red envelope" like a curious cat, to "eat the green" and "spit" it out but keep the "red envelope" which is the reward for the lion troupe. The lion dance is believed to bring good luck and fortune to the business. During the Qing dynasty, there may be additional hidden meanings in the performances, for example the green vegetables (qing) eaten by the lion may represent the Qing Manchus.  The lion dance troupes are sometimes accompanied by various characters such as the Big Head Buddha.

Different types of vegetables, fruits, foods or utensils with auspicious and good symbolic meanings; for instance pineapples, pomelos, bananas, oranges, sugar cane shoots, coconuts, beer, clay pots or even crabs can be used to be the "greens" (青) to be "plucked" to give different difficulty and challenge for the lion dance performers. But the difficulties of the challenge should come with the bigger the rewards of the "red envelope" given.

In the old days, the lettuce was hung  above ground and only a well-trained martial artist could reach the money while dancing with a heavy lion head. These events became a public challenge. A large sum of money was rewarded, and the audience expected a good show. Sometimes, if lions from multiple martial arts schools approached the lettuce at the same time, the lions are supposed to fight to decide a winner. The lions had to fight with stylistic lion moves instead of chaotic street fighting styles. The audience would judge the quality of the martial art schools according to how the lions fought. Since the schools' reputations were at stake, the fights were usually fierce but civilized. The winner lion would then use creative methods and martial art skills to reach the high-hanging reward. Some lions may dance on bamboo stilts and some may step on human pyramids formed by fellow students of the school. The performers and the schools would gain praise and respect on top of the large monetary reward when they did well.

During the 1950s-60s, in some areas with high population of Chinese and Asian communities especially the Chinatown in many foreign countries abroad China in the world, people who joined lion dance troupes were "gangster-like" and there was a lot of fighting between lion dance troupes and kung fu schools. Parents were afraid to let their children join lion dance troupes because of the "gangster" association with the members. During festivals and performances, when lion dance troupes met, there may be fights between groups. Some lifts and acrobatic tricks are designed for the lion to "fight" and knock over other rival lions. Performers even hid daggers in their shoes and clothes, which could be used to injure other lion dancers' legs, or even attached a metal horn on their lion's forehead, which could be used to slash other lion heads. The violence became so extreme that at one point the Hong Kong government banned lion dance completely. Now, as with many other countries, lion dance troupes must attain a permit from the government in order to perform lion dance. Although there is still a certain degree of competitiveness, troupes are a lot less violent and aggressive. Nowadays, whenever teams meet each other, they'll shake hands through the mouth of the lion to show sportsmanship.

In a traditional performance, when the dancing lion enters a village or township, it is supposed to pay its respects first at the local temple(s), then to the ancestors at the ancestral hall, and finally through the streets to bring happiness to all the people.

Evolution and competition

Lion dance has spread across the world due to the worldwide presence of the diaspora Chinese communities and immigrant settlers in many countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Pacific Polynesia, and in particular, in Southeast Asia where there is a large overseas Chinese presence.

The dance has evolved considerably since the early days when it was performed as a skill part of Chinese martial arts, and has grown into a more artistic art and a sport as well that takes into accounts the lion's expression and the natural movements, as well as the development of a more elaborate acrobatic styles and skills during performances. This evolution and development has produced the modern form of lion dances, and competitions are held to find the best lion dance performances.

International lion dance championships are held in many countries, for example in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The competition mostly involves Southern Lion dance teams and may be performed on a series of small circular platforms raised on poles called jongs, and there are a total of 21 or even 22 poles in the traditional set. These poles ranged from  in height, but championship poles can go up to . The poles can be added with props or obstacles as well, such as a small wooden bridge that can be easily broken in half, or a pair of wire lines that can be crossed over. The first jongs built were introduced in 1983 for a competition in Malaysia, made out of wood with a small circular rubber platform on top and an iron fitting on the bottom, with a total of 5 poles in the original set called the "May Hua Poles" Or "Plum Blossom Poles", which were 33 inches in height and 8 inches in width. Later, 16 or even 17 poles were added in the set, but all 21 or even 22 poles were 85.11 inches higher and 6 inches wider, and are made out of iron instead. The competition is judged based on the skill and liveliness of the lion together with the creativity of the stunts and choreographed moves, as well as the difficulty of the acrobatics, and rhythmic and pulsating live instrumental accompaniment that can captivate the spectators and the judges of the competition. The main judging rubric was developed by the International Dragon and Lion Dance Federation, scored out of 10 total points. Their rubric is used in many professional competitions including Genting, Malaysia, which is recently held at Arena of Stars since it was opened in 1998. The Genting World and National Lion Dance Championships are held every two years in Malaysia, starting in the 1980s. The champion as of 2018 is consecutive winner Kun Seng Keng from Muar, Johor, Malaysia, winners of 11 out of the 13 Genting competitions, as well as other competitors from Malaysia such as Gor Chor from Segamat, Johor, Malaysia, Hong Teik from Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia, Khuan Loke from Sungai Way, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia, and Guang Yi Kwong Ngai from Seri Kembangan, Selangor, on the outskirts in the capital Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. By 2001 and 2002, dragon dance teams are also involved in competitions at Genting as well. Another famous competition event held in Malaysia was the Tang Long Imperial World Dragon and Lion Dance Championship at Putra Indoor Stadium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2002. It too also involves both Northern and Southern Lion dance teams, but dragon dance teams as well. Another competition called the Ngee Ann City National Lion Dance Championships are held every year in Ngee Ann City, Orchard Road, Singapore, starting in the 1990s.

In politics
The lion dance is seen as a representative part of Chinese culture in many overseas Chinese communities, and in some Southeast Asian countries, there were attempts to ban or discourage the dance in order to suppress the Chinese cultural identity in those countries. For example, in Malaysia, lion dance was criticized by a Malay politician in the 1970s as not Malaysian in style and suggested that it be changed to a tiger dance, and it was banned except at Chinese New Year until 1990. Lion dance became a matter of political and public debate about the national culture of the country. During the Suharto era in Indonesia, public expression of Chinese culture was also banned and barongsai (lion dance) procession was considered "provocative" and "an affront to Indonesian nationalism". This ban was however overturned after the collapse of the Suharto regime in 1998, nevertheless the occasional local banning of the lion dance still occurred.

In popular culture
In the 1960s and 1970s, during the era when the Hong Kong's Chinese classic and martial arts movies are very popular, kung fu movies including Jet Li's Wong Fei Hung has actually indirectly shows and indicates how lion dance was practiced with the kung fu close co-relation and kung fu during that time, e.g. Dreadnaught and Martial Club. In those days the lion dance was mostly practised and performed as Wushu or kung fu skills, with the challenge for the 'lion' built of chairs and tables stacked up together for the 'lion' to perform its stunts and accomplish its challenge.

In the 1976 musical, Pacific Overtures by Stephen Sondheim, the first act ends with a musical number titled "Lion dance". The Commodore Perry character performed a mixture of a kabuki version of lion dance and a cakewalk wearing an Uncle Sam costume and the long white wig and makeup of a kabuki lion, here used to express his feelings of success at having met with Japanese officials and opened Japan to trade for the first time in 250 years. The kabuki lion dance also appeared in the 1957 film Sayonara with Ricardo Montalbán.

Several 1990s movies, including a remade version of Wong Fei Hung, and the sequels of Once Upon a Time in China, involve plots centered on lion dancing, especially Once Upon a Time in China III and IV. The series' main actor, Jet Li, has performed as a lion dancer in several of his films, including Northern style lion dancing in Shaolin Temple, Shaolin Temple 2: Kids from Shaolin, Shaolin Temple 3: North and South Shaolin and Southern style lion dancing in Once Upon a Time in China III and Once Upon a Time in China and America.

Other films include The Young Master, Lion vs. Lion, Dancing Lion, Dance Dance Dragon, The Great Lion Kun Seng Keng, The Lion Men, The Lion Men: Ultimate Showdown, Lion Dancing and Lion Dancing 2 and I Am What I Am.

Lion dance has also appeared in popular music videos, such as Chinese hip hop group Higher Brothers music video for their single "Open It Up", Adam Lambert's music video "If I Had You", and Zayn Malik featuring Sia's music video "Dusk Till Dawn". The same traditional dance also appeared in a music video "True To Your Heart" by 98 Degrees featuring Stevie Wonder, which was used to advertise the 1998 Disney animated film Mulan.

See also

Chinese New Year
Japanese New Year
Vietnamese New Year (Tết)
Korean New Year
Culture of China
Chinese guardian lions
Dance in China
Pantomime horse
Dragon dance
Tiger dance
Qilin dance
Shisa

Notes

External links

The Genuine History Of Lion Dance
The Beginner's Guide to Chinese Lion Dance
An in-depth article on the Chinese Lion Dance
Information about Green Lions
Additional information about lion dance
The Chinese Lion Dance
About Lion Dance
Malaysia Muar Lion Dance Troupe is World Champion New Straits Times 11 Feb, 1994
Korean Insights - Madangguk: Mask Dance-Drama

Chinese performing arts
Dances of China
Dance in Vietnam
Masked dances
Lions in popular culture
Ritual animal disguise
Lions in religion

Lion dance


The Canton Public Library is a historic Carnegie library building in Canton, Ohio, United States. It was designed by Guy Tilden as the winning entry in a Carnegie library design competition. The library was built in 1903. It was said in 1973 to be "'one of Tilden's designs most admired by present-day architects'" The library moved to another building in 1978, and the original building now houses law offices.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

References

Library buildings completed in 1903
Buildings and structures in Canton, Ohio
Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio
National Register of Historic Places in Stark County, Ohio

Canton Public Library


Carex monostachya is a species of sedge native to the mountains of East Africa.

Distribution and ecology
Carex monostachya lives at altitudes of  above sea level in Afromontane region, including Mount Kenya, the Aberdare Range and Mount Elgon. It grows in the upper bamboo and Hagenia forests, in grassland in the ericaceous belt, and in shallow water near glaciers.

Carex monostachya can be the dominant species in the bogs found on the mountains' higher reaches. Other plants found in the same habitat include the giant senecios of the genus Dendrosenecio, the gentian Swertia crassiuscula, the buttercup Ranunculus oreophytus and the thistle Carduus keniensis.

Taxonomy
Carex monostachya was described by Achille Richard in 1850, in his .

References

monostachya
Afromontane flora
Flora of Ethiopia
Flora of Kenya
Flora of Tanzania
Plants described in 1850
Alpine flora

Carex monostachya