MGM Lion Dance Championship to be held in Beijing for the first time

Bill Scott, Grant Bowie (center) and Lau Kung Shing get together to officiate the “MGM Lion Dance Championship” in Beijing

Beijing will welcome a group of guests from Macau to bear witness to the MGM Lion Dance Championship being held in mainland China for the first time. Ten top lion dance troupes from different countries will compete in the capital city on August 30.
The event is scheduled to take place at Sanlitun (Three Miles Village), an area in the Chaoyang District of Beijing. To celebrate the Championship’s fifth anniversary, MGM Macau will team up with its mainland affiliate, Diaoyutai MGM Hospitality, to host the “MGM Lion Dance Championship – Beijing International Invitational 2015,” with the Chinese Long Shi Sports Association and MGM Grand Sanya (in Hainan province) as event partners. Through the Beijing Invitational, MGM Macau hopes to further raise the Chinese cultural sport’s international profile.
A press conference was held yesterday at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing to announce the event. Mr Grant Bowie, chief executive officer and executive director of MGM China Holdings Limited, said: “We seek to celebrate Chinese culture as expressed by the traditional lion dance. In doing so, we want to take the lion dance to the world and in turn allow the world to share the history, excitement and athleticism of the Chinese lion dance.”
Mr Bill Scott, executive director and general manager of Diaoyutai MGM Hospitality, expressed in the press conference that his company is committed to promoting economic and cultural exchanges among mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and the United States. “We are very excited to support this exciting traditional Chinese sport here, and hope to bring it to our hotels in Sanya, Hangzhou, Shanghai and elsewhere in China,” said Scott.
Mr Lau Kung Shing, vice president of Chinese Long Shi Sports Association, said that the “lion dance is one of China’s cultural ‘pearls’ and reflects the 5000-year history of China in a modern and relevant way. After many years of effort made by MGM Macau, the ‘MGM Lion Dance Championship’ has become a top event of the international sport of lion dance, highly recognized by lion dance lovers.”
The Beijing event will welcome ten top lion dance troupes from different countries, including mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Following the Beijing Invitational, the “MGM Lion Dance Championship – Macau International Invitational 2015” will be held on November 14 and 15, during which time more than 14 international lion dance teams will compete in a two-day event in Macau. Around MOP12 million has been earmarked for the 5th edition of the celebration, according to organizers.
Toby Leung, MGM Macau’s vice president of Marketing and Communications, who is overseeing the event, revealed to the Times that it is highly likely that in 2016 the event will expand to two more mainland cities, namely Shanghai and Chengdu, as those cities have plans for two more hotels to be built under Diaoyutai MGM Hospitality. “We plan to extend the scale of the event year by year, reaching other mainland cities. (…) When we released information regarding the championship, we received many inquiries from mainland teams asking if they could attend. I guess there’s demand for a large-scale and high-end lion dance competition on the mainland. Therefore we have a chance to make one. For this edition, participating troupes are international. In the future, we hope to organize domestic competitions and select great teams to compete in the international one,” said Mr. Leung.
According to Leung, in addition to the “MGM International Lion Dance Championship – Macau Invitational 2015” and the “MGM International Lion Dance Championship – Beijing Invitational 2015”, MGM Macau is also partnering with the Hong Wai Sports and Recreations Association of Macau to kick-off the hotel’s first-ever “Junior Lion Dance Training Program,” running from July 6 to August 31. This program is a promotional activity to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the “MGM International Lion Dance Championship.” Its aim is to promote the essence of Chinese culture and to spike interest in this traditional sport among local youths. Participants will learn about the history of lion dance, and the importance of practicing and acquiring basic skills in this traditional sport.
The MGM lion dance contest was established by MGM Macau in 2010, and participating troupes from around the world have been competing for the championship in Macau ever since.