‘Silver Pride’: Singapore Launches Elderly Lion Dance Troupe

This photograph taken on January 20, 2024 shows Silver Pride Lion Dance Troupe elderly lion dancer Tan Sung Ming in a wheelchair performing at the Fei Yue Active Ageing Center in Singapore. (AFP)
This photograph taken on January 20, 2024 shows Silver Pride Lion Dance Troupe elderly lion dancer Tan Sung Ming in a wheelchair performing at the Fei Yue Active Ageing Center in Singapore. (AFP)
TT

‘Silver Pride’: Singapore Launches Elderly Lion Dance Troupe

This photograph taken on January 20, 2024 shows Silver Pride Lion Dance Troupe elderly lion dancer Tan Sung Ming in a wheelchair performing at the Fei Yue Active Ageing Center in Singapore. (AFP)
This photograph taken on January 20, 2024 shows Silver Pride Lion Dance Troupe elderly lion dancer Tan Sung Ming in a wheelchair performing at the Fei Yue Active Ageing Center in Singapore. (AFP)

The colorful lion blinks and bobs up and down to the beat of a drum, appearing like any other traditional Lunar New Year performance with one difference -- it is operated by an 80-year-old man sitting in a wheelchair.

Normally performed by martial artists who train for years, lion dancing requires physical strength and agility to bring the creatures to life.

But a new initiative in Singapore to tackle loneliness among seniors and help them stay active has modified the choreography to allow participants to perform from a wheelchair.

The Silver Pride Lion Troupe -- a partnership between philanthropists, designers and heritage consultants -- has coaxed more than a dozen elderly people out of retirement to perform a revered Lunar New Year tradition.

At a recent celebration, 80-year-old Chia Chiang Teck shook the lion's head from side to side, opening and closing its mouth while a martial arts trainer under a furry sequined cloak acted as the tail and pushed the wheelchair around.

"I haven't done this for almost 34 years so I'm very happy that I can still do it," he said.

Formerly a martial artist able to execute backflips, Chia fondly remembers winning a local competition in the 1970s while performing as the tail of the lion but now has difficulty walking due to an old work injury.

In traditional lion heads, the blinking of the eyes and twitching of the ears are controlled by pulling strings inside.

To make this easier for seniors, a team of industrial designers has devised a 3D-printed lever and pulley system for the eyes and ears, and more supportive grips for the mouth.

"I never thought that... you can lion dance while sitting," Chia told AFP.

Ageing population

Singapore, like many Asian countries, has been grappling with an ageing population.

The health ministry estimates that one in four Singaporeans will be 65 or older by 2030, while an estimated 83,000 seniors will live alone.

A 2021 study led by researchers from the National University of Singapore found that older men living alone were twice as likely to be socially disconnected as older women living alone.

Lynn Wong, a martial artist who redesigned the lion choreography for the seniors, said the program aims to address this problem.

"The hypothesis was that something that has more masculine traits like lion dance, martial arts will garner the interest of the males," said Wong, a heritage consultant who launched the program with a local charity and a design studio.

During the six-week program at the Fei Yue Active Ageing Centre, about 20 seniors participated in strengthening exercises led by Wong and played cymbals to accompany the lion dancers.

The agency said a quarter of the participants were men, almost double the average share in its other programs.

For Chia, the initiative has provided a rare opportunity to relive his youth and remember his troupe mates.

"It made me think of the past, when we were training we were all really close," he said, becoming emotional as he remembered his lion-dancing partner, who has since passed away.

"He was really good at lion dancing."



UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
TT

UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File

The Saint Hilarion complex, one of the oldest monasteries in the Middle East, has been put on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites in danger due to the war in Gaza, the body said Friday.
UNESCO said the site, which dates back to the fourth century, had been put on the endangered list at the demand of Palestinian authorities and cited the "imminent threats" it faced.
"It's the only recourse to protect the site from destruction in the current context," Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, told AFP, referring to the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.
In December, the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict decided to grant "provisional enhanced protection" -- the highest level of immunity established by the 1954 Hague Convention -- to the site.
UNESCO had then said it was "already concerned about the state of conservation of sites, before October 7, due to the lack of adequate policies to protect heritage and culture" in Gaza.
The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 39,175 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.