M'sian Couple Creates ‘World’s First’ Recycled Lion Dance Costume

The duo created a lion dance costume made entirely of microplastics. The best part is that it is fully functional and even made its appearance by performing at The Exchange TRX earlier this month.

How it all began

Celine Tan and Oscar Lee, both from Johor, first met while studying architecture at Taylor's University. In 2017, they left their jobs in Kuala Lumpur to return to Muar, where they began creating murals to sustain themselves.

The idea to create a lion dance costume using recycled materials sparked when they collaborated with Joymom's, a local cookie business.

In an interview, Celine said they received a damaged lion head from The Kun Seng Keng Lion and Dragon Dance Association for reconditioning. Initially, they were so confused when Celine revealed her plan.

It took them two months to handcraft the lion costume

The duo enlisted help from Oscar's old primary school to ensure they had enough material to create the costume.

“We asked students to help us collect plastic food packaging from home. It was a double win as it also educated the kids about sustainability.”

Within a week, the students helped them collect seven to eight boxes of packaging.

The duo drew inspiration from batik patterns for the lion dance costume. Using the plastic food packaging collected by the students, they cut out flower motifs in various colours.

Celine said completing the costume took two months, as it involved many painstaking processes, like cutting silver strips from Milo packets for the beard and using coffee packaging for gold accents.

“It was difficult as the lion head was already weighing around under 4kg but after we attached the plastic pieces, it reached 5kg.”

All in all, the costume, which the couple claimed to be the world's first, was made with 273 pieces of discarded plastic food packaging. Interestingly, the lion costume carries a hidden message in its mouth; the Chinese character ‘Fu’ which means ‘blessing.’

The eco-lion made its first appearance on 3rd January at Seputeh, and later it performed spectacularly at The Exchange TRX.