Born in Peitou in 1915, Hung Lai-wang at age 91 remains spry and energetic, and still practices a mean "three-kick tiger fist." The old master continues to make lion heads today, and has turned out over 1,000 of them over the past eight decades.
The Manka district (now called Wanhua) was once the commercial heart of northern Taiwan. When temples "invited" gods over from China, the statues generally passed through Manka on the way to their destination. Craft specialties and performance troupes naturally grew up to serve the needs of the religious community. One of the most famous artisans was "Water Master," who made lion heads at his home near the foot of Taipei Bridge. In 1924, a lion dance troupe in Peitou hired Water Master to teach his craft up in the northern neck of Taipei. There he passed on the secrets of his success to a "Master Yi Tu."
The nine-year-old Hung Lai-wang loved to hang around Master Yi Tu, doing odd jobs and learning to make lion heads. Despite his family's exhortations to concentrate on his studies, young Hung was much more enamored of the workshop.
On graduating from elementary school, Hung took up an apprenticeship with the family's Japanese tenant, a dental technician. He learned to make dental molds, which eventually became his occupation.
"Transportation was not well developed back then. I had to travel between Peitou and various points along the northern coast--Tanshui, Chinshan, Chiufen, Chinkuashih. I'd stay at each stop for a period of time, pulling teeth, making dental molds, and putting in false teeth, but as soon as I had any free time I'd go take part in local temple fairs, or seek out local martial artists and practice with them."
After finishing a road trip and returning to Peitou, Hung would always rush to find his lion dance buddies. They would work together to find ways to take his newly learned martial arts moves and incorporate them into the lion dance.
Hung stresses: "Most lion dance skills have to do with how you use your hands, move your feet, use your body, your legs, and the like. A lion dancer without a strong grounding in martial arts cannot make a lion come to life. He can't project an imposing air, or show the lion's agility."
Lion dancers in Peitou back then all had martial arts training. Their lion dance skills were formidable, and the troupes were very much in demand for temple fairs around northern Taiwan. There were many lion dance troupes in Peitou, the more famous among them being the Ching Chiang Lion Troupe, the Hsin Wu Lion Troupe, and Hung's own Central Lion Dance Troupe, established in 1955. In their heyday, there were over 20 troupes in Peitou, which came to be known as "the lion's den."