Chinese residing in the Chinatown area in Myanmar's biggest city of Yangon will hold the third traditional lion dance competitions during the forthcoming lunar new year, an event organizer told Xinhua Tuesday, two days ahead of the fall of Chinese Spring Festival.

Arranged to take place on a historically famous street named Sint Oh Dan in the Chinatown, the series of lion dance competitions will be participated by six amateur lion dancing groups of local Myanmar-Chinese and the contests will run for four consecutive nights starting next Monday, the 5th day of the Chinese new calendar year, said Zhou Baofu, who is a Guangdong native.

These groups are Y.S.L, Global Lion, Dragon, Lion Boy, Pearl Black and the Last Don, he said.

Winning dancing groups will repeat their wonderful performances to the satisfaction of the audiences, Zhou said.

The southern-style lion dance competitions will be part of the rare activities of the Myanmar-Chinese in celebration of the traditional Chinese new year or spring festival and joined by dancing groups of younger generations, he said.

The competitions are planned to start only on the 5th day of the new year as the participating groups are busy with their new year house-to-house calls at residences of some dignitaries of theMyanmar-Chinese community and some social associations for seasonal greetings during the first four days of the new year according to the traditional practice of spending the festival in Myanmar, Zhou went on to say.

He anticipated that such lion dance activities could be inherited generation by generation, noting that by sponsoring such activities, it can give rise to outstanding lion dancing teams to take part in international events to win pride for both Myanmar and Myanmar-Chinese.

The four-day competitions include ground dancing and on-table dancing and the event is to a close on next Thursday night with a prize-presentation ceremony to be attached.

During last year's first such competitions, six other lion dancing groups namely "Dragon Tiger", "Blue Blood", "Dragon Head", "Red Lion", "Sky Dragon" and "The Last Don" took part.
 
(Xinhua News Agency February 5, 2008)