Since ancient times, Chinese performers have been mimicking a lion’s movements in a lion costume to bring good luck and fortune, which is called the Lion Dance. It is part of Chinese traditional culture. During the Chinese New Year or other Chinese traditional, cultural and religious festivals as well as important occasions, the Lion Dance has always been present to honor and cheer the Chinese communities. This unique human activity is also included in the national intangible cultural heritage list. This project is located in Beijing Road Pedestrian Street, which is a historical place in Guangzhou and full of Cantonese cultural ambience. Therefore, the designers got inspired from the Dancing Lion and based on the design theme of ‘Gift’ to create this experience shop.

A dancing lion is normally operated by two dancers in costume, the most eye-catching of which is the lifelike lion’s head with Chinese opera faces for identification. The designers hand-drew and designed many styles of lion heads on this basis, and presented them in various spots throughout the two-floor shop space.

The most outstanding part should be the ceiling of the first floor – the distinctive lion heads are made up of metal strips of equal thickness and different colors. The mosaic style pattern is showing the lion dancing to the beat, sometimes winking and sometimes flapping its ears in a dynamic state, thus adding a living atmosphere to the space. The ceiling shape of the atrium and second floor in inspired by one of the lion dance techniques, ‘Mei Hua Zhuang’, which is also a Kung Fu training tool. High and low piles extend from the ceiling down into the space, some of which have Chinese characters in Cantonese slang on their surfaces. Moreover, the floor depicts sketched lion heads in different shades of terrazzo, echoing the ceiling. The designers injected lion dance elements into different areas of the store to make the space visually appealing.

The gift box is a classic image in the ‘Gift’ theme series. In this shop, the gift boxes are neatly arranged to form the wall; while the stacked ones form the jewelry display cabinets and checkout counter.

The costume of dancing lion has rich colors and fabrics, so the designers tried to present these unique elements in the space as much as possible. The wall with logo is made of different lengths of leather through weaving and leather art expressions, to depict the pattern of dancing lion. The intricate artistic compositions add visual richness to the space. Long fur was also used for guest seating fabrics and display gift box surface decoration.

The color of overall space is orange-red and blue-green. The first floor is dominated by orange-red, complemented by blue-green, while the color of the second floor is in contrast to the first floor. The orange-red color and the dancing lion are symbols of good luck and uplifting spirit, and the integration of blue-green color gives the space a sense of expansiveness and atmosphere.