Mini Lionhead Workshop in Ho Chi Minh City

Lion dancing is tantamount to celebration in Vietnam and many other countries in Asia. And what do lion dancers carry, but a lion head! When I saw a workshop to make a mini lionhead I signed up immediately. What better opportunity to take home a unique souvenir that has such rich history and symbolism.

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Workshop Location

The Mini Lionhead Workshop took place at Huê Sắc – The Huế Café in Ho Chi Minh City. The café is designed with Huê City in mind and reminded me a lot of my time there. Since I was a little too early I had a sesame based iced drink and waited for the other participants to show up.

Mini Lionhead Workshop

We started the workshop with an introduction to lion dancing: What it is, since when does it exist, how is it different across Asian countries and what is the symbolism behind it. Then we were introduced to the artisan who teaches the crafting portion of the workshop. Vuong Giai Huan, inspired by his fathers lion dance troupe, began making mini lionhead during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Introductions out of the way it was time for the crafting. Each one of us got a mini lionhead in white, which we could then paint. If you knew what design you wanted you were free to paint it, if not they had a sheet with traditional symbols and colours, as well as their meanings available:

• Lotus Flowers / Plants = Growth
• Fire = Strength
• Waves / Water = Flexibility
• Clouds = Success

There were also several finished mini lionheads to look at for inspiration.

After the painting was done and drying it was time for the pipe cleaners (that is what we call them in German anyway). These wires, covered with colourful fluffy hairs can be bent into many shapes and easily stick to the cardboard lionhead with the help of a hot glue gun (and I only burned myself once!). I gave my lionhead yellow eyebrows and bushy ears, an orange brim and green horns. When I got stuck giving him orange whiskers Vuong stepped in and helped me shape and affix them to my lionhead; you can see it in the main post picture.

After everything had dried they wrapped the lionhead for me in a bubble-wrap so I could take it home safely. Vuong had also prepared tiny traditionally painted lionheads for everyone in the workshop to take home as a present as well.

You can book it online here on GetYourGuide* or klook*.