Yes,'sing' 'singa' 'singh' 'shi' means lion in guite a lot of languages in the far east.

So you have 'Singapore' (lion-city) and every Sikh in India have 'Singh' as their last name and 'shi' means lion in mandarin chinese.

The tiger, though a symbol of strength and courage in many eastern cultures, it is always associated with warlike qualities and so does not have the extra quality of wisdom/benevalence of the dragon. Which is why you have lion / dragon dance and not tiger dance in the chinese culture. Many years ago it was suggested that the lion dance be changed to a tiger dance to make it less chinese and more south-east-asian. The chinese communities rejected the idea saying the tiger has an 'evil' side and so not suitable.

That's right. Same thing was suggested by the third generation "Thai-Chinese" to make it more "Thai" but the elder Chinese rejected the idea due to the fact that Lion/Dragon dance is, well, their heritage of the Chinese culture. No matter how much they try to change, they still are Chinese and shouldn't forget that.

-Taison out

Didn't Singapore mean something like "New Land" or something? In Chinese it's called "Xin Jia Pua"[sp?], which meaning I am clueless. But I like Singapore better though, it suggest power and authority more than, uh, "New Land".