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The Honan Shaolin (Cultural & Historical) Association and the Honan Shaolin Golden Dragon Team® is connected by lineage to the Honan Shaolin Hui – 河南少林會, which was founded in Shanghai during the early 1900s by Jian Jin Shan (蕑金山師傅). Shifu Jian was a master of a Honan Shaolin wushu lineage propagated by lay and monk masters for centuries in the Loyang region. The most senior teacher at the Shanghai Shaolin Association was an aging lay Buddhist sister 優婆夷 who, because she had taken the Bodhisattva Vows, was addressed as 'Tei Pu Yi" 鐵菩夷.
 

In 1970, shortly after moving to New York, Shifu Xia Fang Xiu – 夏芳秀師傅  an instructor at the Shanghai association, requested that Shifu Woo Chai Meng 胡介民師傅 , also an instructor at the original Shanghai association, continue the Shaolin lineage and pass on the Shaolin martial arts tradition on her behalf to the next generation–as such she is considered the founder of the New York Association. Shifu Woo began teaching Shaolin Dragon dance, Shaolin wushu, and its related traditions in New York in 1971. In 1974, the year it was founded, Shifu Woo became a member of the Chief Eastern U.S. Chinese Wu-Shu Federation. In 1976 he incorporated his association as a not-for-profit association under the name Honan Shaolin Association, Golden Dragon Team, Inc.™ 河南少林金龍會. On the Long Tai Tou 龍抬頭 Festival, March 20th of that year, Shifu Woo and the 63rd generation members did their first public Shaolin wushu demonstration and Dragon Dance in New York's Chinatown. Since then, the team has continued to perform this ceremony yearly in New York's Chinatown streets.
 

In the fall of 1984, when Shifu Woo brought the Golden Dragon to Calgary, a dragon he had made himself, he introduced himself to the Calgary Chinese community. He put Rik Zak, one of his senior disciples, in charge of the Calgary, Alberta, Canada Branch Association. This first branch team was incorporated as a not-for-profit society under the name Honan Shaolin Cultural and Historical Association. Since 1984 this dragon has performed publicly in Calgary's Chinatown as part of important festivals and essential public ceremonies. Ken Leong is the current Canadian President.

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The logo used by the Canadian branch association is similar to the one used by the New York Association and was copyrighted with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.