PHNOM PENH: Cambodian dragon and lion dancer Gnuon Virak huddles his troupe together in a circle, before they let out a team cheer and get to work rehearsing for their a Lunar New Year performance - their only one of the pandemic-stricken year.
The 28-year old Gnuon Virak has loved dancing since he was a child, and grew up near a Chinese-style temple in Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. Seven years ago, he asked a master to teach him to dance and joined a troupe, known as the Bodhi Tree Troupe. Eventually he became a team leader.
"We must practice dancing every day," he said during a rehearsal. "This requires complete focus and motivation."
The transportation company employee has used to supplement his regular income of about $300 a month with lion and dragon dances, earning about $20 to perform at local events. That has all but dried up during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number of performances bottoming out to about one a month instead of five.
The Cambodian Chinese Association estimates there are about eight troupes in Phnom Penh, but Gnuon worries that number may shrink.
"I want the younger generation to hold on to this tradition and make it even more well known in the future," he said.
Gnuon has said he hopes to introduce some new styles to bring attention to lion and dragon dancing, such as increasing the number of dancers on elevated poles, or using larger poles.
"We'll keep all our current techniques and also create some new styles in order to make the dancing more well known, or to be able to compete with other troupes."
The work appears to pay off when the group staged its performance at a shopping mall on Sunday, January 30.
"It is so nice to watch this performance because of the loud sound. Also, they have different colours between each lion and the dragon too so it looks wonderful," said Chay Udomvotey, 31, who stopped to to watch the troupe perform.
Sino-Khmers have long been an integral part of Cambodian society. Historical records estimate the first Chinese came to the area in the 13th century. Over generations many have assimilated into mainstream Cambodian society, engaging in trade and retaining cultural elements such as lion and dragon dancing.
During the Khmer Rouge era in the 1970s, the community was dealt a hard blow as the regime disliked them because most were well-educated, urban merchants and went against their ideals of a peasant utopia. But in recent years especially, the ancestral ties to China have brought prosperity to the Sino-Khmers as China aggressively ramps up investment in the country's economy.
