I’m not Chinese, but I love Chinese New Year. There are many fun New Year     1     (celebrate), but nothing quite matches the excitement of the lion dance which can wake up the spirit     2     (complete).

The sound of the drums,       3     you can feel throughout your entire body, is quite inspiring. The two performers are very flexible. But it is actually very difficult as the lion head is very heavy and being the     4     (low)part of the lion is tiring as he has to bend his back and also carry     5     person in front sometimes. The lion head is made with paper over a bamboo frame,       6     (cover)in gauze (纱布), and decorated with beautifully-colored materials.

The lion dance     7     (believe)to have first appeared in the Qianlong Emperor's dream during his Southern tour, and he ordered an animal     8     (make)in the likeness of his description and used in festivals from then on.

I love all about the lion dance. The other day, I saw a film about a left-behind teenager who insisted on pursuing his dreams despite difficulties and     9     (succeed)in lion dance. As Master Xu translates: “Heaven has made us talents; we’re not made     10     vain.”

During festive occasions we often see a “lion”     1    (crazy) shake its head, twist ears and scratch cheeks, accompanied with the sounds of gongs (锣) as well as drum beats. This traditional lion dance,     2     (list) as a national intangible culture heritage in 2016, dates from the Three Kingdoms period (220-280). It’s been one of the     3     (well) known among so many arts.

Breathtaking though, this challenging art can never     4     (perform) easily. Dancing on poles shows far more than just caution and     5     (brave). There’re 21 poles between 1.2 m and 2.5 m high, with up to 1.8 m in between. Any single false step leads to these dancers falling to the ground below.     6    they don’t practise together every move hard enough, they end up sweating all over in vain.

Still, to younger generations, this ancient art seems less appealing than before. Besides funding, coaches are difficult to find, and that is     7    it has become tougher for lion dancers to survive. Yet, nothing can ever keep them     8     going forward. “We’re all struggling     9     (pass) on the heritage,” Deng Minghua, a national inheritor of the cultural heritage,     10     (say) in an interview last week.