The Science Behind the Lion Dance Pricing

What is Lion Dance?(It’s not just 2 man hiding in a puppet.)

In Singapore, lion dance has long been synonym with Chinese New Year with the deafening drums and clashing of cymbals to celebrate the coming of Spring. It all began with a myth that a monster named “Nian”(part monster, part ugly) began terrorizing villagers in ancient China and the villagers responded with hitting drums and cymbals and dancing with a puppet that resembles a lion. To amplify the element of scariness, they decided to apply make-up on the lion puppet. With that performance, “Nian” ran for it’s life and never came back. The villagers commemorated the joyous occasion of bullying “Nian” yearly with lion dance when Spring approaches. True story.

The Cost of Running a Lion Dance Troupe in Singapore

Lion dance troupes in Singapore is struggling to stay afloat amid stiff competition due to the huge number of lion dance troupes in Singapore coupled with the declining supply of Millennials who are willing to take up lion dance as an activity, lion dance troupe faces shortage of manpower for service delivery hence unable to cater to the huge demand for Chinese New Year. With many lion dance troupes having similar service offerings with little differentiation, lion dance troupes resort to price differentiation – bringing more harm to the industry than good. As with all festivities, lion dance plummets in demand outside of Chinese New Year hence most lion dance troupe is dependent on Chinese New Year to make ends meet. Let’s talk about the cost break down of running a lion dance troupe in Singapore.

Fixed Costs

Monthly rental of a decent size storage unit $2,000, $2,140 after GST. Sums up to $25,680 for a 12 months period.

Daily Costs for CNY

$800 for salary each day of Chinese New Year, assuming 8 pax @$100/each for 2 lions amounting to $12,000 in salary for 8 pax

$1,500 for the rental of lorry for Chinese New Year

$1,440 for food and drinks($3 chicken rice, $1 mineral water for 8 pax every meal)

$800 for diesel

$1,000 set aside for misc.(ie. washing clothes, additional requests, cash card, etc)

A staggering $16,740 for just running a lorry based on 8 personnel across 15 days. The cost doubles if you’re running 2 lorries and in real-life, you will need 2 lorries to meet demands such as performing Dragon Dance(7 pax performing dragon, 1 pax holding the dragon’s “pearl/ball”, 3 pax for the orchestra) and splitting up to meet the huge demand of CNY. For lion dance troupes who cater 1 lorry of performers, they would require $42,420(or $2,828 each day) to break even for Lunar New Year. For the lion dance troupes with more members and are able to cater 2 lorries, $59,160(or $3,944 each day) is required to break even.

Other Costs for Luxuries such as Reunion Dinners, Appreciation Dinner, Local/Overseas Competition

Appreciation dinner – budgeting $50-60 per pax

Reunion dinners – budgeting $30-40 per pax

Local Competition – $2,000-$3,000 including props, trainings,

Overseas Competition – upwards of $5,000 including props, air fare, lodging, transport, etc

Purchase of New Equipments – Price Varies

Optional Costs for Pre-CNY

New God of Fortune Mascot – $350 each

New “Animal of the Year” Mascot – $350-400 each

New cymbals – $60 each

New Drums – $250-350 each

New LED Lions – Price Varies

New LED Dragons – Price Varies

Development of Marketing Materials – Price Varies

Confettis – $1-2/pc, MOQ in the hundreds

Scrolls for Presentation to Client – $7/pc, MOQ in the hundreds

Ideal Price Points for Lion Dance Troupes to Stay Cashflow Positive

Ideally, based on $2,828 each day for a lion dance troupe running a single lorry is hugely dependent on the price point to break even. At $800 per performance, the lion dance troupe will require 4 performance to break even per day with slight profits. If the lion dance troupe is quoting all customers $188 for all performance, they will require 16 performance to break even with slight profits. From experience, that cannot be achieved unless all 16 performances are within a stone’s throw of each other.

“Your calculations does not account for the table blessings and the individual red packet individual staff places on their table!”

You are right. This is our second biggest source of income for us to pay for new equipment and overseas competition and what-nots. However, most lion dance troupes will not depend on this for the yearly rental or costs as the variation is huge.

“But-but-but last year my friend’s lion dance troupe come my house for $188 leh!”

There is a stark difference in quotation for residences and commercial clients. Some lion dance troupes offer 2 lions at $188 for friends and families as the first and second day of Lunar New Year they have dedicated it for fun and house visits since only a few businesses are open and not many businesses are getting a lion dance performance on the first 2 days. It doesn’t mean your friend’s lion dance troupe is cheap, it means your friend values the friendship you both share and wishes to bring joy to you and your family through lion dance. Please don’t ask him for the same rate for your company’s celebration. Be a friend and support him in return. He could be home spending the festive season with his family playing card games and drinking beer instead of perspiring in the lion or drenched in the rain should weather turn unfavorable.

“Siao Liao, 7th day of CNY I engaged a Lion Dance troupe at $188 for my Office. What should I expect?”

I am not in the position to guarantee a lion dance troupe will be late or early, but based on the above sums, the lion dance troupe might have more eggs on hand than they can handle. Or maybe they are running more lorries so they are able to lower the price since the costs is shared across all vehicles. It depends on the lion dance troupe’s management. As with every year, 7th day of CNY is the most popular date and if you engaged a lion dance troupe that chews more than they can eat, you’re screwed. Worst still, if your boss obsesses over Feng-Shui, your prospect in the company is gone.