Recently updated on October 8th, 2017 at 05:52 pm
Finally, most of the wholesale markets in Guangzhou re-opened after Chinese New Year holiday and everything gradually works as normal. Really great news for those who have been waiting like me, and couldn’t miss the celebration of Guangzhou wholesale markets re-opening: Lion dancing performances.
Lion dance, also known as Xingshi, is a form of local art based on martial skills and imitation of a lion’s body movements, a typical Chinese celebration on joyous holidays or opening ceremonies.
As long as I entered the wholesale market, a strong sense of Chinese New Year celebration was surrounded. First, look at the large orange tree with hongbao hanging on it.
Orange, in Chinese it is pronounced as “nianju”, which has similar pronunciation with “jili”, “jixiang”, auspicious word, and also a symbol for good luck.
Hongbao, also know as “lishi”, red envelope with money inside, is being hung on the orange tree, a symbol for making good fortune in the year.
The boys standing in front of the main gate were now preparing for the lion dance, so I took a stroll around the market before the performance began.
Most of the stores opened, and the funny part about it was there were lettuces hanging on the door of every store. Do you know why?
Lettuce, pronounced as “shengcai” in Chinese, has the same pronunciation with “生财”, which means “make a great fortune, get rich”.
After coming back to the main gate, the lion dance was about to start. Everything was ready. Shengcai, juzi and hongbao were hung on the main door, the boys were beating the drums. The store owners have the hongbaos already.
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