MGM Lion Dance Festival 2026: Nine lion heads on show in Macao

Nine lion heads are on show at Navy Yard No. 1 in Barra until 18 October, the centrepiece of MGM’s Lion Dance Festival 2026. Four were made by heritage inheritors in the traditional way and five by contemporary artists, and the exhibition sets them side by side to show how far a form that reached China as Silk Road tribute has travelled since.

The traditional heads come from Hui Ka Hung of Hong Kong, Zhao Weibin of Guangzhou, Li Wanzhen of Foshan and Siow Ho Phiew of Malaysia, all working in bamboo, rice paper and paste. Hui’s Guan Gong lion is red for loyalty, with a thick black beard. Zhao’s carries five bats for five blessings and a spiral pagoda above each brow. Li Wanzhen has given her Foshan lion eagle horns in place of the usual bamboo-shoot shape, and Siow Ho Phiew’s motifs draw on Malay–Chinese fusion.

Among the contemporary pieces, Jive Lau of Kowloneon has drawn a lion in neon tubing. The street-art duo AAFK built theirs on a bamboo frame with real spray cans and cement cracks, as if it were breaking out of a back-alley wall. Gao Yishan’s is sculpted in wool felt, with lotus petals, Macao’s city flower, in the mane.

Nicole Ng and Manwai Ng are two of the four Macao artists in the show. Nicole Ng’s lion is patchwork, covered in buttons, with the Ruins of St Paul’s worked into its crown. “It took more than fifty pieces of clothing, shirts, trousers, and from each one I cut out only the part I wanted,” she says. Manwai Ng’s “Sequence of Crimson & Emerald” opens the head up to expose the structure inside, its surface electroplated red and green and finished with her signature apple. “I wanted to expose the lion’s skeleton,” she says. “That is how I show my respect for the culture.”

A separate section walks through the four stages of traditional lion head making: binding, mounting, painting and decorating.

Around the exhibition, MGM is running a podcast series with the contemporary artists, “The Living Artifact: New Era”, mini lion head and drum-making workshops, and talks with the four inheritors ahead of the 13th International Lion Dance Championship – MGM Cup at Barra Square on 10 and 11 October.

The exhibition runs until 18 October at Navy Yard No. 1, Barra; the full programme is at mgm.mo.