When I was younger, Chinese (Lunar) New Year was one of my favourite holidays – though it still is! The music, the food, the people – this is my part of my heritage and identity, even though I was born in Canada.
Every year, I would celebrate Chinese New Year with my family where we would go to different festivals in Toronto, Mississauga, Scarborough, and Markham. We would always see the lion dance and hear the beating drums, gongs and cymbals. The lion dance was often performed by martial arts students and music was provided by the drummers.
This image is part of my conceptual series that I slowly started in 2020. In this instance, Mike Wazowski (MW) encounters a Chinese New Year lion. MW is not sure if the lion is a friend or foe, but he is “shocked” by the lion’s presence for the first time. The lion dances around the subject with different acrobatic moves, while following the beat of the music.
Traditionally, the lion dance brings good luck and fortune by symbolizing joy and happiness. The lion would appear at different businesses, where a head of lettuce is tied with a red envelope or fruit (i.e. oranges/mandarins) for the lion to eat. When the lion consumes the lettuce, good luck and fortune will be bestowed to the business during the year.
There is an interactive component to this image, as it will be linked to my website at https://feimui.myportfolio.com/. There will be instructions to view this image through Spark AR.
As you see encounter this image, I hope it will bring you joy and happiness in the coming year.
Artist Bio
Cindy Lam is a Humber College alumni and current student. Since she graduated from Humber College in 2004, Cindy worked as a tax accountant. Because of personal reasons, she decided to go into the creative field. Because photography was one of her favourite hobbies, she decided to use this medium to showcase her creative talents and pursuits.
Cindy is currently a student in the Photography program at Humber College, in her final semester. Cindy’s artistic style can be described as clean, sharp, colourful, inspirational, and whimsical with a creative flair. She focuses mainly on travel, documentary and macro photography.
However, due to COVID and anti-Asian rhetoric, she had to find other forms of photography to learn and produce (such as studio and photo editing) to progress in her career. She has done portrait, commercial, architecture, photo editing, etc. while being a student at Humber College.
Image Description
Mike Wazowski (from Monsters, Inc.) with a gaping mouth sees a Chinese lion dance for the first time.
