Ringing in the Year of the Dragon with Boston's lion dancers

Chinatown's streets will come to life on Sunday with thunderous drums and the clang of cymbals as nine lion dance troupes celebrate the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese New Year Parade.

Two troupe members, hidden beneath the papier-mâché heads of lions and draped in red or gold costumes, will animate each lion in perfect unison. As they twist and leap, Chinese tradition says they will spread luck and prosperity.

It's the first year that the city of Boston is recognizing the Lunar New Year as an official public holiday. But the Boston Chinatown Lion Dance Parade has been a tradition in Boston for more than 70 years, according to Felix Lui, the chairman of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New England.

Each year, lion dance troupes visit restaurants and stores in Chinatown, performing a ritual called Choy Cheng in Cantonese. During the performance, lions search for and eventually eat green lettuce and oranges that symbolize wealth and luck, then toss them out to the audience, spreading the blessings to all of them.

Lucas Wang, a member of the Boston Wong Family Benevolent Association, said he started to learn and practice the tradition of lion dance in 2011. Wang grew up seeing lion dance performances in China. In learning and performing the dances himself, he hopes to preserve the traditions that he grew up with.

As an immigrant, Wang views the lion dance as a way to foster a sense of community, enjoying a space for socializing and exercising with others.

“I was brought in by my friends and then my friends brought in other immigrant kids together," Wang said. "That's how we recruit. That's why it becomes like a gathering place for all the immigrant kids.”

The first lion dance troupe in Boston started in 1984. A group of eight Chinese teenagers sought an alternative to the Chinatown YMCA and founded the Gung Ho Club, now called the Boston Chinese Freemasons Athletic Club.

It was not until 1998 that Boston had its first female-only lion dance troupe, called Gund Kwok.

Connie Wong, the musician of the Nüwa Athletic Club, said lion dance has traditionally only been done by men and boys because people believed that women didn’t have the physical strength to perform these rigorous dances. The Nüwa Athletic Club was formed in 2017 to create spaces for Asian-American girls and women to strengthen their emotional and physical development through lion dance.

“We can certainly build our own strength and stamina to do a lot of the same moves. It'll just take longer, and we might have to have different choreography. But, it can be done," Wong said. "I think the chance to preserve this, to bond with like-minded Asian American women, that's what attracts me to it.”