Chinese New Year Parade roars through
Chinese New Year Parade participants carry a giant dragon Saturday as thousands gather in San Francisco to celebrate the Year of the Dog. The colorful, noisy parade wound from Market Street to Columbus Avenue with floats, bands, firecrackers and costumed marchers. The Chinese Community Street Fair preceded the parade.
A barrage of firecrackers spitting red and purple confetti signaled the start of San Francisco’s Chinese New Year Parade on Saturday evening, welcoming in the Year of the Dog.
Thousands lined downtown streets, bristling with excitement and jockeying for the best views of the glittering floats, bands and costumed marchers that winded their way from Market Street to Columbus Avenue.
Among the biggest crowd-pleasers: a gigantic, selfpropelled red shopping cart, sponsored by Lucky Supermarkets, with an exposed engine that rumbled like a hot rod.
Known as one of the largest celebrations of Asian culture outside of Asia itself, the Chinese New Year Parade has taken place in San Francisco since the 1860s and remains an important cultural gathering for the city.
“We begin the new year with a fresh start, and that’s what we’re celebrating,” said Grace Yuen, vice president of the San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce, which has organized the parade and its accompanying events since 1958. The event, she said, represents a time for families to come together to welcome a bountiful new year.
“It’s a family gathering, but the whole world can come here to San Francisco. We draw everybody in here,” Yuen said.
Cassandra Taylor of Fremont said she’s lived in the Bay Area for 13 years but had yet to attend San Francisco’s storied parade. Equipped with a lawn chair, she arrived more than two hours early to find a prime viewing spot.
“I’m so excited,” Taylor said. “This has been on my bucket list. I’m loving it.”
Just before the parade began, Norman Smith, holding the head of his dog costume in the crook of his arm, said he’s been marching in the parade for the past three years alongside his daughter, who attends Jose Ortega Elementary School in San Francisco.
“It’s great. I get to wear a mask and prance around like a dog or a pig or a rooster,” Smith said, referring to whatever one of the 12 animals the Chinese zodiac may call for in a given year. Smith’s woolly dog getup helped keep him warm against the sharp February breeze that brought out plenty of warm coats. Many in attendance huddled in blankets or clutched warm drinks. “I’m going to lose five pounds in here,” Smith said. Perhaps the most anticipated part of the parade was the event’s traditional final act — a snaking, 288-footlong dragon, animated with the help of 48 volunteers. The horned, bright-orange-and-yellow beast was purchased new this year for the parade by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.
Kyle Campbell, who was preparing to take his spot around the dragon’s midsection, was celebrating his fourth year as part of the dragon. “It’s a lot of fun,” he said, on top of the fact that the dragon volunteers get a new sweatshirt each year that they get to keep, inscribed with the year’s zodiac sign. “I might go for all 12,” Campbell joked.
Earlier in the day, thousands flocked to Chinatown to take in the sights, sounds and smells of the 29th annual Chinese Community Street Fair.
As the scent of roasting chestnuts wafted through the air, throngs of people ambled past an estimated 120 booths offering anything from canned abalone to samples of spicy chicken soup to handmade jewelry to free spinal exams.
Raucous lion dances, accompanied by pounding drums, crashing cymbals and firecrackers, popped up all over the neighborhood, drawing huge crowds of onlookers, some of whom had to clutch their ears as the sound rattled off the narrow streets.
Ryan Woo of San Francisco — proudly serving as the tail in one of the trio of lion costumes — said the celebratory dance harkens back to an ancient story of a Chinese village besieged by evil demons. To fight back, Woo said, “the villagers came up with these lion costumes” to scare the demons off. “The loud music and the firecrackers will ward off all the evil that came during the previous year.”
Woo has practiced martial arts and lion dancing at the Yau Kung Moon kung fu studio for 17 years. Performing the lion dance well in the two-person costume requires concentration, he said, and a good rapport with one’s partner. “You have to know your partner so you can become one lion,” he said.
“It’s just fun to celebrate our culture and have fun together.”
“We begin the new year with a fresh start, and that’s what we’re celebrating.”
Grace Yuen, vice president of the San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce