Danny Quon  關立民師父

Dragon & Lion Dance Director,

Chief Dance Instructor

祥龍瑞獅主任 

 

      The Hon Hsing Athletic Club of Vancouver’s Dragon & Lion Dance Director & Chief Dance Instructor is Danny Quon. Inspired by his late father’s philosophy of never forgetting your culture and heritage and to always give back to the community, Danny has dedicated his life to Hon Hsing and to the Chinese community. Danny also serves as the club’s ‘Dai Si-Hing’ (大師兄) or ‘eldest brother’ to Hon Hsing’s current youth group and he began his martial arts training of Choy Lee Fut at the tender age of 7 at the Lee’s Society of Canada.  Then in 1981 at the direction of his father and key directors of the Wongs’ Benevolent Association of Canada, he enrolled into Hon Hsing’s reknown martial arts and lion dance school thus charting a path of community volunteering and involvement for the next three decades. 

     

    From 1981 to 1982, Danny learned the martial art of Wushu from visiting instructors at Hon Hsing until the brief resumption of his Choy Lee Fut training again in late 1982 at the Lee’s Society of Canada then permanently at Hon Hsing in 1985.  In the 1990s through to the new millennium, Danny would dedicate his free time in assisting Hon Hsing and the Wongs’ Benevolent Association of Canada to complete its community commitments and in the club’s involvement with worthy charitable causes both in Canada and in Asia. It was also during this period that Danny completed a Double Honours Degree in Economics & Finance and in Political Science under full scholarship from Simon Fraser University in conjunction with the University of Hong Kong and National Taiwan Normal University.  

     

    From 1993 onwards and with the support of his Sifu, Danny began to seriously train in Chinese lion dance and in Chinese drumming under the tutelage of Grandmaster Wong Ha and from other reputable Choy Lee Fut 'Si-Suks' (師叔, martial art uncles), and from the old masters of Hon Hsing still alive.  In 1997, Grandmaster Wong Ha granted a personal black sash to Danny as a token of his appreciation and friendship which Danny still wears today with great pride. Club history was made in 2006, when Danny was the very first ‘non-Wong’ in Hon Hsing’s history to be voted onto the club’s Board of Directors as its new Director of Lion Dance.  In the following two years, Danny would return intermittently to where it all began for him to the Lee’s Society of Canada and to his family’s own Hoy Ping Benevolent Association of Canada to assist with Lion dance and Chinese drumming instruction, thus making more friends and teaching more youth along the way. 

     

    From 2007 to present day, Danny has been instrumental in reforming the Hon Hsing Athletic Club with the full support of its Board of Directors and the Wongs’ Benevolent Association of Canada. These reforms have resulted in the club greatly expanding its youth membership and these changes have also rekindled interest in traditional Chinese culture among Canadian born Chinese youth again.  Hon Hsing has also expanded its athletic curriculum which now includes 'Chinese Dragon Dance' - thanks to a beautiful 50 foot Golden Dragon generously donated by Hon Hsing’s main patron and Honourary Chairman, Mr Richard Wong, for the club’s milestone 75th Anniversary in 2014.  With the club's new dragon, Danny searched out those remaining local masters who could still teach him traditional Chinese dragon dance and through his own extensive research, taught the club's students modern intricate tournament style dragon dancing skills.  In his professional life, Danny enjoys a successful career in finance as an associate investment advisor with a global investment firm.  In his free time, Danny enjoys spending quality time with his family, hanging out with his friends and students and trying out new restaurants and bars in Yaletown where he lives.

   

    In 2002, the Government of Canada awarded Danny with the distinguished Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and again in 2012 with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for his long and exemplary volunteer service to Vancouver’s Chinese community and to Canada.