PLANET CHOCKO – art/music/movies/beyond » Lions, Tigers, & Dragons in Chinatown NYC

Lions, Tigers, & Dragons in Chinatown NYC

February 17th, 2019 by Mr. C

We’ve missed the last couple of years of the Lunar New Year celebrations in NYCs Manhattan Chinatown. But on Saturday, we made a triumphant return to Super Saturday, a day in where Kung Fu schools, youth organizations, benevolent associations, community organizations, & traditional dance troupes in the New York city area all come out to perform traditional Lion Dances in the streets going from storefront to storefront collecting red envelopes and to welcome in the new year with prosperity & health to all the businesses! The term Super Saturday was created by the NYPDs 5th Precinct in Chinatown as they helped the community to organize the lion dancing including street closures and police escorts for each group without causing too much cluster fucks and possible violence breaking out amongst all the rival schools and organizations and in the 1980s, there were plenty of turf wars amongst our own. Thankfully with the gang wars behind us since the Giuliani regime, peace has been the main theme! This year’s participants include some familiar names & suspects: Yip’s Dragon Style Kung Fu, Norman Chin’s Jook Lum Gee Tong Long Pai (Southern Praying Mantis), Luen Hing, Shaolin Kung Fu Institute, Yee’s Hung Ga, United East Athletic Association, Golden Lion club, Staten Island Lions, New York United Lion Dance Troupe, Chinatown Community Young Lions, Chinese Freemason Athletic Club, & Fong’s Hung Ga!