Lion dance (Simplified Chinese: 舞狮; Traditional Chinese: 舞獅; Pinyin: wǔshī) is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture, in which performers mimic a lion's movements in a lion costume .

The lion costume may be operated by a single dancer, or more frequently by a pair of dancers. The single dancer springs about while energetically moving and shaking the head and operating the jaws and eyes. The pair of dancers, forming the back and fore legs of the beast, mimic the motions of a single animal as they move between platforms of varying elevations. The dance is traditionally accompanied by gongs, drums and firecrackers, representing the descent of good luck.

The lion dance originated in China close to a thousand years ago. The lion is traditionally regarded as a guardian creature. It is featured in Buddhist lore, being the mount of Manjusri. There are different variations of the lion dance in other Asian cultures including mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Japan, Okinawa, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore, with each region possessing their own styles.

Probably the most common historical reference to Chinese Lion Dance is the story of Nian (年). According to legend, a monster was terrorizing a small village; eating the livestock, crops and villagers. One day, a Buddhist monk visited the village and witnessed the events that had taken place. To rid the villagers of this menace, the monk instructed the villagers to get their best martial artists and build a 'monster'. In addition to this, the monk instructed the villagers to fill bamboo shoots with gunpowder and to cover the village in red decorations. The following year, when Nian came back (its coming had become an annual occurrence), the village's best martial artists ran out with their 'monster', whilst the rest of the villagers rushed out banging their pots and pans, throwing their homemade firecrackers. Seeing this, Nian fled the village, scared for its life. From this day, the Chinese perform this dance to not only celebrate their besting of Nian, but also to ward off bad-spirits or, if Nian should return, scare it away.

Chinese lion dances can be broadly categorised into two styles, Northern (北狮) and Southern (南狮).

Northern dance was used as entertainment for the imperial court. The northern lion is usually red, orange, and yellow (sometimes with green fur for the female lion), shaggy in appearance, with a golden head. The northern dance is acrobatic and is mainly performed as entertainment.

Southern dance is more symbolic. It is usually performed as a ceremony to exorcise evil spirits and to summon luck and fortune. The southern lion exhibits a wide variety of color and has a distinctive head with large eyes, a mirror on the forehead, and a single horn at center of the head.

The Lion dance is often confused with the Chinese Dragon Dance, which features a team of around ten or more dancers. The Lion Dance usually consists of two people. The animal in the Lion Dance is known as the Qilin (麒麟, somewhat like unicorn) of the mythical beast because there are translation errors between different languages.