Southern Lions, commonly known as "Cantonese Lions" and sometimes called “Guandong Lions”, have more extravagant color variety and does not resemble a dog.  There are two main divisions within the Southern Lion: The “Hok San Lion” and the “Fut San Lion”, are named after two cities where the paper modeling was developed for these two principle types of “Southern Lions”.  The “Hok San Lion” has a straight mouth, a curved horn, and a very short tail.  The “Fut San Lion” has a curved mouth, a pointed horn, and a much longer tail.  Typically the “Hok San Lion” tends to be the rarer of the two Southern Lions since most Lion Dance teams favor the “Fut San Lions”.  There is also a hybrid Southern Lion known as the Fut-Hok Lion.  It has the short tail of a Hok San Lion but the curved mouth of the Fut San Lion. 

The body of a “Southern Lion” is made from the finest silk, rabbit fur, spangle and bells.  The five different designs found in within the “Southern Lion” (regardless if they are “Hok San” or “Fat San”) are:

1.)        The “Rui Shi” (Auspicious Lion):  This lion has a seven colored face, white beard and brow with body having five colors.  It symbolizes wisdom, intellect and integrity as represented by the historical figure “Liu Bei”.

2.)        The “Xing Shi” (Awakening Lion):  This lion has a red face, black beard and brow, green nose, red and black colored body.  It symbolizes bravery and loyalty and is represented by the god of war, “Guan Yu”.

3.)        The “Dou Shi” (Fighting Lion):  This lion has a black face, short black beard and brow with black and white colored body.  It symbolizes youth, courage and playfulness as is represented by the historical figure “Zhang Fei”.

4.)        The “Lao Shi” (Respected Lion):  This lion has a yellow face with silvery white beard and brow. It symbolizes righteousness as is represented by the historical figure “Huang Zhong”.

5.)        The “Han Shi” (Heroric Lion):  This lion has a green face with an iron-like horn and teeth with white beard and brow.  It symbolizes heroism as represented by the historical figure “Zhao Yun”.

Nowadays, there are new and innovative designs for lions like Gold (High Ranking Immortals), Silver (Lessor Immortals), Blue (Ferocity and Obstinacy) and other colors which do not represent anything but are there for aesthetic reasons.  The “Southern Lion” normally dances in accordance to the beat of the drum, gongs, and cymbals placing emphasis on the waist energy, powerful movements, agility and awareness.  The dancers should always display, through the lion, the general emotions of excitement, anger, sadness, happiness, fear, suspicion, greed and worry.  There are some basic reactions for the lion, like when seeing green or lettuce, it should be happy: upon seeing the color red, it should be surprised; when crossing over a bridge, it should try to see his own reflection in the water; when there is wood, it should bite; when there is a post, it should try to climb it.

Chinese Folklore contains many different stories about the origins of the Southern Lion.  One of our favorites is that during the Qing Dynasty, the emperor went on a trip to southern China.  The emperor had been consistently plagued by nightmares of evil spirits threatening to ravage his kingdom.  None of his counselors had any ideas that could comfort the emperor.  One night it was different, he had a dream of a marvelous beast that scared all of the evil spirits away.  The beast promised to bring prosperity to the land.  When the emperor awoke, he called together his artists and ordered them to construct the auspicious beast based on his dream.  When the creature was finally finished the emperor called it "the lion".  Soon this lion was included in a dance for presentation and became a tradition handed down from one generation to another.  It may be the reason you see lions or “Fu Dogs” guarding the entrances of most homes and places of business.