Roar of the lion

To make the Lunar New Year celebration complete, you must have a lion dance. It is common to see it being performed in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and on the mainland.Yet is the traditional and culturally important event seen among people celebrating the Lunar New Year in other parts of the world? This eye report takes you away from China and gives you a glimpse of how the lion dance is performed in countries with a different culture.

1 Already standing on pedestals, a dancer, who takes the role of the back legs of a lion, lifts a young dancer high into the air during a performance in Bangkok, Thailand.

2 A little boy in Malaysia reaches out to touch a fluffy lion head at a temple in Kuala Lumpur.

3 Two divers bring the lion dance culture into a tank at Manila Ocean Park, in the Philippines.

4 Lion dancers swallow a ball of lettuce, known as 'plucking the greens' to symbolise good fortune and prosperity, on a street in Chinatown, New York.

5 Lion dancers create a standing lion pose on a pedestal during a competition in Yangon, Myanmar.

6 A lion dancer goes through his routine amid the smoke from firecrackers on a street in Calcutta, a city in eastern India.

7 Two performers entertain crowds amid the smoke in a Calcutta market.

8 In a shower of confetti, a Filipino lion dance group performs at the Philippine Stock Exchange Centre in Pasig City, Manila.