A video of a Malay girl performing a lion dance routine while wearing the hijab recently went viral on TikTok
In the video posted by user @ahpeng2830, two dancers can be seen performing a lion dance routine for a competition.
Throughout their energetic and joyful performance, the audience applauds the duo and appears to be impressed by their chemistry and polished routine.
Once their routine reaches the end, the dancers take off their costumes and receive another round of applause from the audience.
The camera then zooms in on the dancer who performed at the front of the lion dance routine, who happens to be a Malay girl dressed in black and wearing a hijab.
"This is 1Malaysia," wrote the TikTok user in the video's caption.
Malaysians were blown away by the girls' performance of the traditional Chinese dance and left supportive comments
One user commented that they were moved when they saw a hijabi performing the lion dance.
Meanwhile, another user commented that they were surprised by the performance and congratulated the girls for performing their routine flawlessly.
"Whatever it is, that lion is so cute," they added.:
INDULGING in lion dance performance is a strenuous activity definitely not for the faint-hearted – what more for hijab-clad Siti Aishah Mohd Farulnizam who courageously lugged the lion head to deliver a jaw-dropping lion dance performance on high stilts.
The 16-year-old pupil of Sekolah Menengah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SMJKC) Sacred Heart in Balik Pulau raised eyebrows to a roaring applause by audience alongside her ‘sisterly’ Loh Foong Kee who is twice her age at 27 handling the lion’s tail.
For the record, Foong Kee is the daughter of Siti Aishah’s coach Loh Woon Sim. Performance by the duo which was uploaded on TikTok by user Ah Peng has at time of writing generated over 2.2 million views, over 112,900 likes and 5,498 comments.
Siti Aishah who joined a lion dance troupe when she was five started by playing the drum and cymbals before moving on to the lion head when she was nine, according to a report published by Star Metro in Feb 22, 2018.
She is not the only one among her six siblings who’s in the lion dance troupe. Her other four siblings including the youngest, who is eight years old, are also performers in the troupe.