Lion dance is a traditional dance form in Chinese culture.
Which is why it might be rather eye-opening to see a predominantly Malay lion dance troupe.
Malay lion dance troupe
37-year-old Jamsairi Kamarudin is the founder of Kuo Chuan Arts Cultural, a lion dance and dragon dance troupe.
According to him, they are the biggest all-Malay lion dance troupe in Singapore.
Photo from Kuo Chuan Arts Cultural
Interested since 8 years old
In an interview with TehTarik.sg, he shared that he gained an interest in the art of lion dance since he was 8 years old.
Since then, he joined several lion dance troupes, including the now-defunct Kuo Chuan Police Boys' Club troupe.
He opened his own troupe with the same namesake after he was more established and had more money.
For the youths
He said that the door to his lion dance troupe is open for anyone, young and old, as long as they are willing to learn the dance.
The troupe has a significant number of youths and Jamsairi, who is considered the "father figure" of the group, is glad to keep them occupied in the troupe rather than getting involved with "bad things".
Criticised by others
They have received criticism for their performances but Jamsairi takes it in his stride.
"We have to accept it... We have to show them that we're taking this seriously, we're not playing around."
Photo from Kuo Chuan Arts Cultural
He has also received criticism from the Malay-Muslim community.
He recounted one of those instances to TehTarik.sg.
Once, while queuing for food after a performance, he was approached by an elderly Malay man who told him off for doing something he considered "haram".
To this, he replied:
"I'm not a murderer or a thief, I'm just trying to earn an honest living."
For the record, the Kuo Chuan Arts Cultural lion dance troupe do perform at temples.
However, Jamsairi stressed that a Chinese member would be the one partaking in the Chinese rites, not him.
Big dreams
Like other lion dance troupes in Singapore, Jamsairi's troupe are usually busy during the Chinese New Year.
He envisions to start another team in Batam and hopefully when that happens, he will look to starting new branches in Malaysia and Thailand as well.
Here is the full interview with TehTarik.sg
Top image from Kuo Chuan Arts Cultural