S'porean dresses as Cai Shen Ye & does 'dragon dance' with friends in Chinatown & Gardens by the Bay

Spreading festive vibes.

Khine Zin Htet | February 16, 2024, 03:39 PM

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You can't miss out on lion dance performances when it comes to Chinese New Year (CNY), with its loud drum beats and equally loudcostumes that promise to bring good luck and fortune.

For this year's CNY, one man in Singapore decided to switch things up by doing a "dragon dance" as it is the Year of the Dragon.

Speaking to Mothership, Michael Collins, 24, shared that he wanted to spread some "festive vibes" for the new year and spent the day with his friends doing so around town.

Chinatown

The content creator, who is currently studying at the National University of Singapore, came together with six of his friends to personally make the costume.

After two weeks, they managed to bring his vision to life.

They then set out on the first day of CNY to their first destination of the day — Chinatown.

Gif via Instagram/bigchunkks

Everyone they met while they were prancing around town "absolutely [loved] their dragon", Collins shared.

They were "either taking pictures of us, coming up to give us high fives or touch the dragon's head or just screaming out Chinese New Year sayings," he said.

He said that many people reacted positively to them, and were "supportive".

Gardens by the Bay

When they moved on to the next location, Gardens by the Bay, they even had help from the MRT station staff who assisted them to get their dragon head over the gantry.

Gif via Instagram/bigchunkks

Collins and his friends were able to run around the gardens and "encircle unsuspecting picnickers" and "swallow up kids" using the huge dragon mouth.

However, after about half an hour or so, four uniformed personnel came up to tell them that they could not "perform" without a permit.

Gif via Instagram/bigchunkks

He then explained that they were not "performing" but "merely going around as a dragon".

"At that point, they decided to search all of our bags for sharp objects for some reason," he added.

When the personnel could not find anything, they eventually called who Collins believed to be River Hongbao's organisers, to inquire about their next steps.

"But I'm guessing they told them that we weren't doing anything wrong as they became much more friendly after the call and let us off, reminding us just not to 'perform'," he said.

Dressed up as Santa Claus for Christmas

This was not the first time that Collins and his friends pulled off such an act.

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A post shared by Tiagong (@tiagong_sg)

During Christmas, he built a Santa sleigh and dressed up as Santa Claus while his friends dressed up as reindeer.

They then went around Orchard in their costumes.

"It was a super fun day out messing around and spreading the festive vibes," he said.

"I came back on that same day and knew I wanted to do something similarly festive for Chinese New Year," he added.

Collins shared that he just wanted to "bring some joy" to others celebrating CNY and was looking forward to "having more similarly fun adventures in the future".

Top photos from Instagram/bigchunkks and Michael Collins