WACO, Texas (KXXV) — Baylor's lion dance team performed at the Year of the Snake, Lunar New Year market hosted by the Asian Leader's Network (ALN) on Saturday. The lion dance is a tradition during the Chinese New Year to bring good luck and prosperity.
- Three Baylor students started the dance team last year and they perform throughout the year.
- Waco's Asian population is only two percent, prompting efforts to showcase traditions and culture during New Year celebrations.
- The founders of the team believe there's a lack of representation of Asian culture in our community and they want to help change that.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The crash of cymbals and beat of the drum...
"It's supposed to tell a story," Ethan Le-Nguyen said. "So depending on how the beats of the drums go."
It's all part of the traditional lion dance as part of the Chinese New Year.
"And then, depending on how the facial expressions of the lion are, it's supposed to tell, you know, a story about warding off the bad luck, the bad energy," Le-Nguyen said.
Under the elaborate costumes - Baylor students.
In fact, three students, Ethan Le-Nguyen, Alex Vu and Christopher Pham, brought this tradition to our community by starting Baylor's lion dance team.
"We spent the whole summer planning out logistics and thinking about funding, where we're going to get our instruments, our lions and everything," Vu said. "We just came together. We were just like, we wanted to do it."
They tell 25 News they grew up watching lion dances but had never done it themselves until last year.
"It means a lot because my mom, she has a little fruit stand in Chinatown, back where I'm from," Pham said. "Growing up, I would always help her out there and while out there, especially during this lunar new year time, there would be a whole bunch of lion dance teams coming out into the streets."
The founders of the team believe there's a lack of representation of Asian culture in our community and they want to help change that.
The Asian Leaders Network reports less than two percent of the population in Waco is Asian.
"We're from different metroplexes around the country, and so we have that in our area, but we don't ever see this here," Le-Nguyen said. "Since it's lunar New Year's last year and everything, we decided, hey, why not just bring something that we love here to the Waco community."
