Coronavirus fears leave plans for Winnipeg Lunar New Year celebration uncertain

A local event to celebrate the Lunar New Year next weekend might not happen after the headlining group of Chinese acrobats were barred from leaving the country in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Hebei Acrobatic troupe isbased in the country's Hebei province which is located nearly 1,000 kilometres north of the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus was first identified but have been banned from leaving the country to perform indefinitely, said Rosana Leung Shing, one of the organizers of the Winnipeg event.

Leung Shing is the vice-president of Manitoba Great Wall Performing Arts, the group putting on aLunar New Year event at the Club Regent Event Centre, which is scheduled for Feb. 8 at 7 p.m.

She said the day the group got the news about the travel ban, her phone started blowing up with texts from other organizers on WeChat, a popular social app in China.

"I woke up one morning and there were 80 messages waiting for me, and I'm thinking, 'What is going on?', because I had no idea then. And then I thought, 'OK this is serious now.'"

She said the performing arts group found out about a week ago that Chinese government officials had banned their headliner from travelling outside the country. Now organizers are looking for local acts to fill their spot, or face cancelling the event altogether.

"It is causing a lot of challenges for us," she said.

She said the acrobatic troupe's visas will be valid for three months, which leaves the possibility of a rescheduled event if the travel ban is lifted by May.

In the meantime, organizers are trying to decide whether to cancel the event altogether and refund the tickets already bought, or hold out hope for a last-minute addition to next weekend's show. Leung Shing said about three-quarters of the event's tickets are already sold.

"We're just weighing the pros and cons of both. And of course we want to make sure that it's the best for everyone and if it's not worth doing it, we will delay until next year," she said.

Ripple effect across Chinese communities

Leung Shing said the group has faced obstacles to bringingthe acrobatic troupe in before, but never anything like this.

"The only time that I remember, which is not even close to this one, was when their visas were not granted until like the last three days of the show. That was another hectic time for me," she said. "But this is nowhere near it. This is way beyond what we were expecting."

Leung Shing said organizers of the other Canadian events where the troupe was supposed to perform in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal are either still deciding what to do, or have already postponed their events.

She said the Winnipeg group is still waiting to see how things play out.

"If we're not able to get any of the local performers or if the casino doesn't allow us to use the deposit that we've made to a later time. You know, there's a whole bunch of things that we need to look at," she said.

Leung Shing said if the event is cancelled or postponed, organizers will let people who have already bought their tickets know what their plans are, and allow them the option to get a refund.

She said the outbreak centred in China is having ripple effects in Chinese communities across the world as they try to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

"It is hard. I mean, people are staying away from going to banquets and they're just being so careful," she said.

"It's very sad, the things that [are] going on right over there with the victims and all, but still we feel for them. It's not a good situation. People are very very stressed about it."