Lion dance competitions offer RM43,500 in cash prizes to winners

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Chin (seated third left) together with Forca Bintulu president Hii Toh Him (fourth left) and organising committee members at the press conference.

BINTULU: The Borneo Traditional Lion Dance 2018 and Naim Malaysia & Borneo Highpole Lion Dance Championship organised as part of the Bintulu Tanglung Carnival 2018 from Sept 13-17 are offering a total of RM43,500 in cash prizes to winners.

The two competitions to be held at the Naim Paragon street mall here will see 21 teams with 10 performers in each team competing in both events, said organising chairman Chin Che Fui yesterday.

“The Borneo Traditional Lion Dance 2018 will take place on Sept 14, where the contestants will vie for the Tan Sri Yee Ming Seng Challenge Trophy.

“The Naim Malaysia & Borneo Highpole Lion Dance Championship will kick off on Sept 16 after the official opening ceremony by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg on Sept 15.

“The competitions will start from 6pm onwards at the street mall. This year, we have participants from Indonesia, Sabah, Melaka Pahang, Selangor, Johor and Sarawak,” he disclosed to The Borneo Post.

Chin added the main objective of the two events was to promote the lion dance cultural performance to the public.

He said from this competitions, they hoped to attract youths to take part in the lion dance performance.

“We have not seen much of this traditional lion dance competition being actively held in Sarawak these days.

“We actually has many skillful and talented lion dance performers  but due to some factors, we lack the exposure,” he said.

He also said they hoped to revive the performance to a level it supposed to be at and be part of the unique cultural performance of the Tiong Hua community.

Chin thus urged the public to bring their families together to the five-day carnival which runs from 6pm-10.30pm as there are many other interesting activities lined up.

“Thus far our final preparation has been going smoothly and as planned and we hope this year’s event will be a success. We are expecting over 5,000 visitors nightly at the carnival,” he said.

Chin pointed out that there will be 30 food stalls set up at the carnival site selling various types of traditional cuisines.

The carnival is organised by Federation of Registered Chinese Association (Forca) Bintulu Division in collaboration with Bintulu Development Authority and Bintulu Resident Office.