White Copper Awakening Lion Auspicious Cloud Pendant

The awakening lion is the southern lion, popular around Guangdong, and it entered the first national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2006. The dance is built around cai qing, plucking the greens: the shop hangs lettuce and a red packet over the doorway, the lion must leap and take them in its mouth, and only then is the blessing counted. Lion-head construction is a craft of its own, bamboo splints for the frame, paper laid over, colour applied. A single head takes dozens of steps, and the maker has to understand the lion’s temper. The colours follow fixed face patterns: the Liu Bei face, the Guan Gong face, the Zhang Fei face.

A single horn sits on the forehead, the eyes bulge and take up nearly half the face, the mouth is open showing two rows of teeth. The mane rolls in clumps and fans out to both sides, and the brows are one heavy line pressed low. The face is not savage. It is the fierce of a festival, the look of something that comes alive the moment the drums and gongs start. The nose is round, with a curl on each nostril, so that from the front it seems to be breathing.

A lion head in copper is not the same as one in paper. Paper can be light and floating; copper needs thickness to stand, so the curls of the mane are flattened into tiered low relief, a mass at a distance and individual curls only close up. Auspicious clouds are laid under the head, the cloud heads round and the tails drawn long, filling the base of the plaque so that the face is not left empty. The mane is built in three tiers, thinner toward the bottom, the layers made by differences in thickness.

The two versions differ in fittings. The guochao awakening lion pendant is the pendant alone, the hole behind the head, so the face looks forward once strung. The version with a Chopin chain uses a flat, tight chain that hangs in a straight line and does not tangle. The chain falls near the collarbone and the head sits square at the centre; it shows best on black or dark grey, and against pale clothing the copper carries less weight. The clasp is a lobster claw, firmer than a spring ring, and a tug will not open it.

Dust collecting in hollows is the common trouble with relief work. Brush with a toothbrush dipped in water, following the direction of the curls rather than dragging across them. Dry it thoroughly afterwards; water left in the crevices brings green spots within days. Green spots on white copper are nothing unusual. Wipe them off, and the patch will be brighter than its surroundings for a while before it evens out after a few days of wear. Never soak it in silver dip: the dark areas of the lion head will all come up bright and the face falls apart.