MOOSE JAW — The return of the Lion Dance performance was exciting for people who attended this year’s Chinese New Year banquet, including for the two brothers who brought the animal to life.
Siyuan Zhang, 13, and his brother Sijia, 9, had roughly three weeks to learn the traditional Chinese dance, which is usually performed on big occasions to bring prosperity and good luck for the upcoming year. Moreover, the lion symbolizes power, wisdom, and superiority.
This was Siyuan’s first time wearing the costume — he wore the head and his brother acted as the hindquarters — so he watched several videos to understand how the traditional dance should go.
“I am so enjoying playing with the lion head and I thought, ‘Wow, it’s so amazing,’” the teenager said. “Also, with the instructions, I would like to play with it more. That’s how I feel.”
Learning the simple movements of the dance was OK, but it took more co-ordination and practice to perform other actions like jumping, Siyuan added. Even with those challenges, he would wear the costume again and perform at future banquets.
Besides the Lion Dance, a three-man band comprised of Jeff Wickenhauser, his son Dylan, and Terry Tian performed several songs, including “Blue Lotus” and “Chengdu.”
Although not Chinese, the Moose Jaw-born Wickenhauser sang the songs in Mandarin, a language he picked up — more conversationally than fluently — after teaching in China for 10 years. He moved back to The Friendly City in 2015 with a Chinese wife and young son in tow.
It took the guitarist about an hour to learn the lyrics to the three songs, although he was familiar with the songs for several years, he said. Meanwhile, he began playing at the Grant Hall Hotel last year after Tian asked him to perform at the Lantern Festival.
“I don’t really perform for people; I only play it as a hobby,” said Wickenhauser. “But (Tian) kind of twisted my arm and I said, ‘OK, I’ll do it.’ … I roped him into playing lead guitar, and then I had my son play drums.
“It was a good sound. And everybody enjoyed it, so we thought, ‘Let’s just keep this going,’” he continued, noting that they practise regularly and add songs when they become more comfortable. “It’s just a hobby; I just like it.”
Wickenhauser is friends with Kelvin Hu, the president of the Moose Jaw Chinese Community Network (MJCCN), which hosted the New Year’s banquet at Jade Garden on Jan. 27 and welcomed in the Year of the Snake. The latter asked the former to perform at the banquet, with the guitarist agreeing since Grant Hall wasn’t hosting the annual Lantern Festival — where they met in 2024 — this year.
The guitarist thought it was interesting that the “favour for a friend” performance last year had turned into a three-member band receiving more calls to perform elsewhere.
The owner of Casino Regina attended the Lantern Festival in 2024 and, after hearing the group play, asked Wickenhauser if they wanted to perform in Regina for a spring festival. However, they could not.
With a chuckle, Wickenhauser added that he wants to perform at Regina’s casino this year but must convince Tian not to visit China during the spring — as he did last year.
Hu, the MJCCN president, said he was thrilled with how the banquet turned out and thought the addition of the Lion Dance and band made the night a success; he joked that he enticed Wickenhauser to attend with the promise of free food.
“The Lion Dance has (also) been sorely missed by a lot of people in the community … ,” Hu added. “It’s just a good tradition.”
