Wednesday 5 September 2007

Mid-Autumn Festival 2007: Leisure Mall (Cheras)

UPDATED 7 Sept 2007:
Coincidently, this was featured in today's The Star. Check out Mall marks arrival of the Mid-Autumn Festival with art fest in Metro (Central) section.

Mid-Autumn Festival will fall on 25 Sept this year and it seems like most if not all super/hyper markets, minimarts and bakeries are in full swing selling mooncakes. It is noted that not many malls emphasised on this Chinese festival other than having a fair selling mooncakes and lanterns. However, there is this mall in Kuala Lumpur that organises lantern making competition every year without fail. So which mall is this??? Haha it's of course Leisure Mall that is located in Taman Segar, Cheras.

We were there on Monday night and the staffs are still in the midst of hauling up the lanterns. I had a glance and it was sad to note that this year's lanterns were not as great as 2 years ago. Some looked like quite haphazardly put up. There is one done by simply plastering up 2 red upturned food cover with beige masking tape!!!

Take a look at part of the lanterns showcased... Quite a number of them were fashioned from recycled materials or your normal everyday items like disposable bamboo chopsticks, batik fabrics, ping pong balls, plastic food cover etc.

Pagoda lantern made from bamboo chopsticks Wau fashioned out of batik and another one pingpong balls fashioned into hibiscus

There is this one made outta folded straws which looked kinda nice on close up as you can see the different patterns and shapes of the folded straws. Some of them are in 3D!

This lantern made out of folded straws Traditional lantern depicting Chang Er and the Rabbit who live on the moon

This little monk is my favourite cos it's one of the more traditional method used to construct it. The structure is fashioned out by twisting wires before sticking on the paper. Another one, a ferris wheel is made out of coloured cellophane papers.

My fave which I think the hardest to construct by weaving the wired structure first before sticking on the paper

Ferris wheel made out of glass paper

The lanterns makers are very creative indeed. This year, there are KLCC and KL Tower lanterns.

KLCC and KL Tower shaped lanterns

The staff were in the midst of hanging the lanterns up.

More lanterns waiting to be hauled up

As we were walking down to Giant, we noticed this Art and History of Lion Dance mini exhibition on the first floor.

Art n History of Lion Dance

On display were a few types of dragons and lions used in the dances. On the bottom left there is this Lion Fish or was it Dragon Fish(??) where the head is of a dragon and the short body is a fish tail. First time I came across such thing! Then there is this Dragon in the centre with it's long "body" wrapping round the head. Ooooo I must dig out my dad's old photo of him and my grandfather in the FooChow Association's Dragon Dance team!!!

Lion Fish Dragon Dance

The Qilin (bottom left) is not as pretty as those I saw on telly showcased by China. There are a pair of Northern Lions as well.

Qilin Northen Lions

Now this Hokkien Lion that is green and flat faced (forgot to take a pic of it's side profile) is my first too! Looked kinda weird compared with the more common Southern Lions.

Hokkien Lion More common Southern Lions

These lion/dragon dances are usually accompanied by 3 musical instruments ie drum, cymbal and a gong (if I can remember clearly haha, getting old liau) plus the Dai Thau Futt (Big Head Buddha) which here was represented by a boy and a girl version. The girl one looked kinda eerie without her eyeballs.

Big Head Buddha Cymbal

Do give Leisure Mall another week or so to complete their Mid-Autumn Festival's decorations before you head there. I wonder I would have anymore posts on Mid-Autumn Festival this year... mooncakes again?? Kinda boring ain't it???

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