Chinatown young lions celebrate Lunar New Year
The Chinatown Community Young Lions (CCYL) are seen every Lunar New Year performing lion dances door to door in New York City's Chinatown.
CCYL, founded as a grassroots effort in 1972 by the Tom, Lew and Lee families, served as a safe haven for the community's youth during the height of the Chinatown gang wars in New York of the late 1970s to mid-1990s. It also offered American-born children of Chinese heritage the chance to engage with their culture at a time when they weren't welcome in many of the neighborhood's martial arts and family organizations.
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New York-based photographer Katja Heinemann has photographed the CCYL the past several years as part of a long-term project on New York City's Chinatown.
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Photo: CCYL members cross the Bowery, the eastern perimeter of Manhattan's historic Chinatown, in New York City, Feb. 10, 2013.
Chinatown Young Lions
Brian Tom, the original Chinatown Community Young Lion, 52, holds a lion head in New York City, Feb. 10, 2013.
Tom persuaded his mother to allow him to form his own lion dance club at age seven, when as an American-born child from a family that had been in New York for four generations, he wasn't allowed to join established martial arts schools or family organizations. The club has always been open to young people from the neighborhood, regardless of their cultural background or heritage.
The group now spans three generations, offering camaraderie, mentorship and networking opportunities.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
Lion dance club members parade along East Broadway, a part of Chinatown also nicknamed Little Fuzhou after the provincial capital in Fujian Province, in New York City, Feb. 10, 2013.
Migration to the U.S. from East Asian countries increased after the 1965 immigration reforms. An exodus from Southern Chinese provinces in the 1980s and 1990s grew Manhattan's Chinese enclave well beyond its historic Mott Street area into the Lower East Side and Little Italy.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
Kaitlyn (15) plays the drums in New York City, Feb. 8th, 2014.
Kaitlyn is the niece of CCLY's founder, Brian Tom, and one of CCYL's younger members.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
People watch a CCYL lion dance during Year of the Snake celebrations in New York City, Feb. 10, 2013.
The Lunar New Year and Spring Festival season is a time to celebrate with one's family. On New Year's Day and Super Saturday lion dance groups roam Chinatown in a more open and free-for-all fashion compared with the official Lunar New Year parade with its floats and dragons.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
The Monk figure, also sometimes known as the Laughing Buddha, teases and guides the lions as they roam the neighborhood on Market Street at the start of Year of the Snake in New York City, Feb. 10, 2013.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
A CCYL member dressed as a lion exits a grocery store on East Broadway in Chinatown's newer Little Fuzhou area in New York City, Jan. 31st, 2014.
Manhattan's Chinese-American enclave is made up of two distinct neighborhoods that are linguistically and culturally apart, but come together once a year during the Spring Festival celebrations.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
The lion drops by an 8th Ave. restaurant in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood, where a group of men are drinking in celebration of the New Year in New York City, Feb. 8th, 2014.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
Lip Fei (under the green and black lion head) marches up historic Doyers Street in Manhattan's Chinatown, Feb. 10, 2013.
Each lion dance group has a number of different lion heads and will parade them in pairs of two or groups of three, avoiding the unlucky number four.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
CCYL rings in the Year of the Ram/Goat/Sheep during a visit to the Huang Da Xian Taoist Temple on the corner of the Bowery and Pell Street in Manhattan, Feb. 19, 2015.
There's no clear translation from Chinese to English distinguishing between sheep, goat or ram which creates confusion over which animal this Lunar New Year represents.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
The CCYL black lion head stops by the Whiskey Tavern on Baxter Street where it encounters members of the Golden Lion Club who have also sought a brief reprieve from freezing temperatures in Manhattan, Feb. 19, 2015.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
CCYL members Brian and William walk along Pell Street after the celebratory post-parade dinner in Manhattan, Feb. 8th, 2014.
CCYL members become part of the club for a number of reasons – they are brought along by high school friends, recruited on the neighborhood basketball court, join because that's where the girls are, or they might be second and third generation lion dancers.
Some youths may have always wanted to participate in the traditional folk art, while others never gave a second thought to lion dancing before. All stay for the spirit of camaraderie and tight bonds they experience as part of being a Young Lion.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
The traditional offering of a head of lettuce hangs outside of a family business at 46 Mott Street, showing the historic balcony and lettering of the Lin Sing Organization across the street in New York City, Feb. 10, 2013.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
Marching up Doyers Street past the Nom Wah Tea Parlor in New York City, Jan. 31st, 2014.
The tea parlor, one of historic Chinatown's oldest established businesses, is now run by a younger generation and popular with locals and tourists alike.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
Patrick, 23, and Angela, 19, watch the lions perform their grand finale ringing in the Year of the Ram/Goat/Sheep outside the club's headquarters on Mott Street in Manhattan, Feb. 19, 2015.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
Brian (L) and Roberto Labrador (R) guide the CCYL lions during an encounter with a different lion dance club at the corner of Columbus Park on Mulberry and Bayard Streets in Manhattan, Feb. 19, 2015.
Heads are bowed low in respect and a brief meeting is arranged.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
Children present an offering of money in the traditional red envelope as the day's festivities wind down in Manhattan, Jan. 31st, 2014.
The club finances itself largely through the offerings presented during Lunar New Year, in addition to performing at private functions throughout the year. This allows them to keep membership free.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
June, the 84-year-old Lee family matriarch and a pillar of the Chinatown community, presides over a dotting ceremony during which the group's new lion heads are animated before being taken out for the first time in Manhattan, Feb. 10, 2013.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
The Chinatown Community Young Lions ring in the Year of the Snake by going door to door, past funeral parlors, on Mulberry Street bringing good fortune for the Lunar New Year to local merchants and stores, Feb. 10, 2013.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
Shoppers go about their business at the New York Supermarket on East Broadway, under the arch of the Manhattan Bridge, while a lion rings in the Year of the Horse in New York City's Chinatown, Jan. 31st, 2014.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
Wilson mans the the main drum as the group makes its way down Pell Street in lower Manhattan's Chinatown, Jan. 31st, 2014.
Drummers and lion dancers take frequent turns during roughly six hours roaming the neighborhood. A lion's movements are traditional and passed down through generations, while the group's drum beat has been sped up in comparison to the traditional rhythm.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
Melted snow on Mott Street reflects the lion dancers and emptied confetti cannons in New York City, Jan. 31st, 2014.
Fireworks, an integral part of Chinese New Year, have been banned by the city since the mid-1990s. According to the older lion dancers, the holiday just hasn't been the same since. Confetti cannons are considered a weak substitute for the smoke and noise of real fireworks.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
Mott Street is covered in confetti towards the end of the day while Allen tries to make a quick phone call over the din of the drums in Manhattan, Jan. 31st, 2014.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
The Year of the Horse's final ceremony outside of the club house on Mott Street in New York City, Jan. 31, 2014.
Photo by Katja Heinemann
Chinatown Young Lions
Waiters at a Mott Street restaurant are sneaking a peek at the lions performing the New Year's Day's grand finale in New York City, Jan. 31, 2014.
Photos by Katja Heinemann