November Program – Culture of the Lion Dance in America

Our speaker, David Lei, co-founded the Chung Ngai Dance Troupe in 1966 and started lion dancing in 1969. After retiring from active lion dancing in 1976, he started to do research on Chinese lion dance resulting in co-publishing the 400 page “Chinese Lion Dance Explained” with Dr. William Hu in 1995.

In 1965, David participated in his first Chinese New Year parade by organizing his friends to perform the dragon -by 1977, David became the San Francisco Chinese New Year parade and Festival director. He is still active as the parade’s cultural advisor. Currently, David is the chair of the Chinese Performing Arts Foundation and a board member of the USA Dragon and Lion Dance Sports Association.

In recent years, David has given talks on Chinese American history and culture at The Commonwealth Club, California Historical Society, Asian Art Museum, Chinese Culture Center and was a commencement speaker to UC Berkeley’s class of 2019 at Memorial Stadium. David feels it is imperative to Interpret Chinese American history and Chinese art/culture/rituals in the American context for future generations.