Following The Lions Of Chinatown

 

On February 8, 2025, I went to Manhattan’s Chinatown to photograph the Super Saturday festivities for the Year of the Snake. Unique to New York City’s Chinatown, Super Saturday began in the 1960s as a tradition to extend the Lunar New Year celebrations. Since most Chinatown shops close on New Year’s Day, lion dance troupes return to the streets on the first or second Saturday after the holiday, performing for business owners in exchange for red envelopes of cash.

 

Unlike New Year’s Day, which can fall on a weekday, Super Saturday tends to attract more lion and dragon dance troupes from across the city—along with larger crowds and an even thicker layer of confetti coating the streets.

For this series, I chose to convert my color photographs into high-contrast monochrome. Rather than relying on the vivid reds and yellows of the lions, I focused on movement and expression, embracing a photojournalistic black-and-white approach to capture the energy of the performances, and the crush of crowds wanting to share in the excitement.