Dancing Dragon
舞祥龍
Power felt
beyond form.
In Chinese culture, the dragon is an ancient auspicious creature associated with clouds, rain, harvest, and the forces of nature. It appears across ritual objects, art, architecture, and festival traditions, while dragon dances turn this imagined creature into something that can move through the streets among people.
Of all twelve zodiac creatures, the Dragon was the one I thought about for the longest. It lived in my mind for nearly five years before it finally became a creature in cloth.
A dragon is difficult to simplify. Its whiskers, horns, teeth, nose, eyes, and pearl all seem to matter. Take away too much, and something essential disappears.
That brought back a childhood memory. One Dragon Year, a friend and I made a dragon-head lantern together and worked on it until two in the morning. Many years later, that memory became the seed of Dancing Dragon (舞祥龍).
When I began redesigning the Dragon, I wanted to move away from the delicate paper-cut language of the earlier version and find something older, rougher, and more elemental.
I began looking at motifs painted on Neolithic Chinese pottery. Those ancient marks carried rhythm, ritual, and belief long before they became “decoration.” I wondered what would happen if that visual language left the surface of clay and returned on the head of a dragon.
So the primitive motifs became part of the dragon’s printed surface. The new form felt less ornamental and more ancient — as if some older memory had risen through the fabric.
The eyes became another part of the ritual. Wooden spheres were drilled, sealed, painted in layers, and finished by hand. Only after the eyes were stitched in place did I add the final tiny golden pupil.
In Chinese there is an old expression, 「畫龍點睛」 — adding the final touch that brings a dragon to life. For this piece, that small golden dot became the true last step: the moment Dancing Dragon (舞祥龍) finally opened its eyes.
Made by Hand
Original patterns are screen-printed onto fabric, then each piece is cut, sewn, filled, and finished by hand. Small variations are part of the process, making every zodiac companion slightly different.
Zodiac Years
People born in the Year of the Dragon include:
1928 · 1940 · 1952 · 1964 · 1976 · 1988 · 2000 · 2012 · 2024
Your zodiac year returns every twelve years.
For those born in the Year of the Dragon, 2036 is one of those special years.
