About Penn Lions

Learning, teaching, and performing lion dance in Greater Philadelphia

History

Penn Lions was founded at the University of Pennsylvania in 2007 with the mission to learn, teach, and perform the traditional art of lion dance in and around the Greater Philadelphia area.

Before 2007, there was no lion dance troupe around Penn’s campus. Founding member Henry Chow realized that such an integral part of Asian culture should not be missing from a campus that had such a large Asian population. The idea for a lion dance troupe began during the Chinese Student Association’s Lunar New Year celebration when Henry and some fellow members put together a makeshift lion dance performance. After researching troupes at other schools, he drafted the Penn Lions mission statement: to learn, demonstrate, and teach lion dance.

The following fall, Henry met Winston Ma. With ten years of experience, Winston became Penn Lions’ first artistic director who taught members the fundamentals of lion dance. The first class of Penn Lions had seven members who practiced all over campus. The group made its official debut in February of 2008 at the Lunar New Year Celebration in Harnwell College House’s Rooftop Lounge.

Since then, the troupe has grown to include nearly 30 students with performances year-round all around the Mid-Atlantic region. In addition to regular performances on UPenn's campus, Penn Lions has also performed at Carnegie Hall, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Georgetown University, Parx Casino, and numerous local weddings and celebrations. In 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2023, Penn Lions won the East Coast Intercollegiate Lion Dance Competition, and hosted the event in 2012, 2014, and 2017 with other college teams from the East Coast attending. To date, Penn Lions has given over 300 performances and workshops.

Click here to learn more about lion dance in general.

Style

Our style is the Southern Chinese Hok San style, with our own Penn Lions flair. Under this style, performers aim to make the lion as life-like as possible. It’s also characterized by flashy tricks (which we call stacks), in which the performer in the tail lifts the performer in the head in different ways.