Flinging her male teammate into the air, female performer Lin Xinmeng practises China’s world-famous lion dance with a troupe that is shrugging off centuries of patriarchal norms.
Mixing acrobatics, martial arts and theatre, lion dancing is believed to bring prosperity and protection from evil spirits.
Performed across China and around the world at weddings or during business openings, it is also a mainstay of Lunar New Year celebrations, which in 2025 begin on January 29.
“I discovered this dance one day by chance in the street. I found it super graceful,” Lin, 18, says in the courtyard of a temple in the southern Chinese city of Shantou, where her troupe trains.
“The tenacity of the dancers, their ability to perform these movements, impressed me. I wanted to become like them,” she says.
Inside a costume consisting of a large, colourful lion head and a long, silky piece of fabric representing the body, dancers must work in tandem to bring the animal to life.