« An Unlikely Shark Sympathizer Passes Away | Main | African Field Notes: The Impala »

February 13, 2006

Who Let The Dogs Out: San Francisco Celebrates Chinese New Year

The Chinese calendar has been in use for centuries and is much older than our own Gregorian-derived system. According to the Chinese calendar, the year is 4703, with a cycling twelve zodiak animals. This year, the Eleventh in the cycle, is the Year of the Dog (ç‹—), specifically the Fire Dog (element corresponding with the planet Mars).

Where's the cat?

Legend says that the Chinese zodiak was formed when the rat was told to invite the animals to the palace for the emperor to bestow zodiak signs on. The rat invited the ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. The cat was a good friend of the rat, but the rat forgot to invite him. When the cat realized he had been left out, he vowed revenge and has been the rat's natural enemy ever since. Funny enough, there's even a great anime series based on this, called Fruits Basket, which is one of my personal favorites. Kyo rocks!

Who Let The Dogs Out?

So this past weekend was the annual San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade. We'd never been before so we decided to head into the city, have some dim sum in Chinatown, and then hang out for the parade.

I don't like taking pictures of people. It makes me uncomfortable because it so often makes other people uncomfortable. But still, its near impossible not to take pictures of people in Chinatown. One of my favorite pictures from the MSNBC best photos of the year was of a little Chinese baby strapped to his mother's back. I caught sight of a similar shot along crowded Grant Avenue. In front of the elaborately decorated Citibank, a Huqin musician played traditional folk music, his head bowed.

Chinatown is a place of shopping extremes - from the overpriced antiques to the dollar silk slippers to the unregulated traditional Chinese medical ingredients. There's a fantastic wok store with all sorts of great, cheap kitchen gadgets. There are several very old bakeries selling almond cookies and red bean desserts. Dim sum and family-style Chinese restaurants abound.

One of my favorite places to stop is the TenRen tea store, where you can sample their teas and buy in bulk, often for cheaper than many other places - their jasmine oolong is especially good, not to mention their Genmaicha, a sencha green tea blended with roasted brown rice.

Once night falls, the parade begins as it has since 1860's. The weather was very warm and pleasant this year, and so the turnout was immense. Oftentimes we couldn't even see the people marching by, the crowds were so big. For three hours, gigantic asian-themed floats drifted by, coiling dragons roared and chinese fireworks crackled. Marching bands boomed by, stilt-walkers lumbered on and other groups performed dancing and ribbon-waving routines. And don't forget Miss Chinatown USA, she even has her own float (with throne and all). The parade ends with Gum Loong, the sacred Golden Dragon. He symbolizes strength and goodness, ensuring peace, prosperity and good luck for the coming year.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Posted by sorsha at February 13, 2006 7:15 PM