How three sisters honour mother’s legacy at Vancouver’s Lunar New Year parade

Dancers cover up from the snow while performing during the annual Spring Festival Parade through Chinatown for the Lunar New Year in Vancouver, on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

VANCOUVER — The youngest dancer in this Sunday’s Lunar New Year Parade in Vancouver is just four.

“Hopefully they remember (the routine),” chuckled parade producer Lisa Ho of the tiny dancer and his fellow performers.

She and her sisters, Anabel and Valerie Ho, know what the young dancer is going through.

For decades, their mother Maria Mimie Ho was the driving force behind the parade in Vancouver’s Chinatown, and the sisters have been part of the show since they were babies, raised amid swirling silky sleeves and leaping lion dancers that go into one of Canada’s biggest Chinese community events.

Their Hong Kong immigrant mother was the founder of the Strathcona Chinese Dancer Company in 1973 and for more than 30 years dedicated herself to the parade.

Since her death in 2010, it has fallen on the three sisters to help keep that legacy alive, both in honour of their mother and to keep the traditions of Chinese dance and culture alive.

The sisters all went on to become accomplished dancers.

Eldest sister Anabel Ho is the founder of the Vancouver Academy of Dance. Middle sister Valerie Ho, known as “Ms. Vee”, is the first hip-hop teacher at the dance department of the acclaimed Juilliard School in New York. Lisa Ho is a professional dancer whose Broadway credits include Shrek the Musical, A Chorus Line, and the Tony Awards, and she now teaches at her sister’s academy.

Although there have been highs and lows, Valerie Ho still feels excited for every year’s parade — she said it carries emotional significance.

“It’s part of our heritage, and I am speaking for myself, it is the way I connect with my mom dearly,” she said.

She said her favourite parts of the show each year are the lion dancers, hearing the drums, and smelling firecrackers in the air.

Valerie Ho now lives far from Vancouver, but every time the parade comes around, she “swoops in at the last second” to help out her sisters, managing the sound system, getting costumes and truck rental ready, and checking the all-important weather forecast.

Anabel Ho oversees the training of volunteer dancers, while Lisa Ho carries the responsibility of producing the parade.

Lisa Ho said the prep work sometimes begins in the summer, as they create new animal costumes each year to represent the new zodiac sign — this is the year of the horse — as well as recruit and train hundreds of dancers.

The three sisters’ story has been turned into a documentary, “Spring After Spring,” by Vancouver director Jon Chiang, which follows how they navigated grief over the loss of their mother while following in her footsteps.

Chiang, who grew up in Richmond and Vancouver, said the parade is the “most public expression of Chinese culture.”

The parade lasts about three hours and draws thousands of spectators who cheer on the dancers and marchers, who have included prime ministers, premiers and other politicians handing out red envelopes with chocolates gold coins.

“I feel this is one of the only times of year where people who look like us are out on the street, proud and celebrating,” said Chiang.

Lisa Ho said the first parade without their mother was tough.

“We really missed her at that time,” she said. “For us, Chinese New Year is where we really felt her absence because she was such a big part of the local celebrations, not family celebrations, but her leading these very big spectacles in our city. We were very sad to have to do that without her.”

Valerie Ho recalled how her mother would work non-stop, but also expected a lot out of her girls when it came to dance.

She recalled coming off the dance floor after a contest, feeling accomplished, only for her mother to say, “Oh, but you could have done that better.”

Valerie Ho recalled her surprise when a friend of her mother’s said she was “so proud” of them.

“And I was like, wait, what? She would never say this to us, but she’s basically, to him, bragging about us,” she said, fighting back tears.

Lisa Ho said she “truly believes” her mother never expected the sisters to carry on with organizing the parade.

“We had kind of chosen our own path. So, I do believe that she’s watching over us and very happy and honoured that we get to continue her work in the small ways that we do.”

This year will also be special — Maria Mimie Ho’s zodiac sign was the horse.

Lisa Ho said the parade will be held no matter what the weather, and that “the year of the horse will bring you strength, and you’ll be able to stand in the cold weather to watch the parade.”

“My wish for everyone is to come, and it is the year of the horse — so, we are wishing everyone strength and vitality in my mother’s year.”

This report by Nono Shen, The Canadian Press, was first published Feb. 19, 2026.