The lion dance usually finishes with a sequence known as Cai Qing, in which lions compete against one another to secure a ball of lettuce in their mouth. Today, this custom symbolises good luck ...

Wai Tran, 43, is a lion-dance coach and director of Ying Yung Tong. He left Vietnam in the late ’70s, and hails from martial-art royalty; his grandfather was a kung-fu master in China.

"The lion dancing scene here is one of the biggest in the South," said Victor Tran, a 27-year-old team leader, at the Vietnamese Buddhist temple.

Andy Kwok Man-lung, the head coach and team leader of Kwok’s Kung Fu and Dragon Lion Dance Team, said he treated all his students equally, regardless of their sex.