Family of lion dancers ready to roar at Vancouver’s Chinatown Spring Festival
VANCOUVER — After Jun Ing performed as a lion dancer for the first time in Vancouver’s Chinese New Year parade in the 1980s, he remembers wishing it had lasted longer.
Ing was dazzled by the crowds that came out to watch the traditional art form, in which costumed performers mimic the movements of lions, as well as the “lucky money” in red envelopes he collected from merchants.
Now decades later, his 17-year-old son, Angus Ing, gets the same thrill from dancing through the streets of the city’s vibrant Chinatown every year.
“Initially he was kind of reluctant,” said Jun Ing with a chuckle. “But when he saw that a lot of people were interested in lion dancing and the crowds and whatnot, he got inspired by it.”