by Julia Pierrepont III, Gao Shan
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- As Chinese New Year leaps into 2022, the Year of the Tiger, residents of all races are embracing it with joy, despite COVID-19, at a host of large and small celebrations across Southern California.
Many communities and businesses in the Southland are getting into the Chinese New Year spirit by hosting celebrations to share New Year joys with their families and neighbors. The cities of Alhambra and Riverside are splashing out on their lunar new year celebrations. Both cities have long been havens for Chinese immigrants and culture. Riverside boasts a Chinatown that is over 150 years old and a Chinese pavilion in honor of their sister city in China.
"This event is incredibly important to the City of Riverside," Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson told Xinhua. "We are welcoming and appreciative of our Chinese community and our entire Asian-American community."
"This is the Year of the Tiger, which we are going to meet with courage, strength, determination," she promised.
Riverside kicked things off by launching their Lunar New Year celebration early on Saturday, with masses of food, shopping, and cultural performances, while Alhambra is ringing in the Lunar New Year later this month, with a large street festival and celebrations, kung fu demonstrations, lion dances, and other Asian cultural performances.
The historic Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, home of the magnificent 14-acre Chinese Gardens, is also rolling out the red carpet and inviting their members and the general public to come enjoy a host of fun family activities on their sweeping green lawns and in their stately columned buildings.
The famous collections-based research and educational institution, located in San Marino, will hold its Chinese New Year Festival this weekend. The treats will include a mask-changing artist who deftly changes his face masks faster than the human eye can see, prancing lion dancers robed in giant lion heads and costumes who cavort and play together accompanied by Chinese traditional music. There will also be athletic martial arts demonstrations of highly trained martial artists, plus musical performances, tables of arts and crafts activities and much more.
Not to be outdone, Disney's California Adventure Park in Anaheim is embracing the Year of the Tiger with exciting exhibits, craft activities and special foods designed to honor Chinese and other Asian traditions and to celebrate Lunar New Year from Jan. 21-Feb. 13. Kids can run squealing through the park as they enjoy crafts and rides that the whole family can do together.
The "happiest place on earth" is inviting the public to visit and rejoin family and friends at their multicultural celebration filled with happy wishes for luck, health, and prosperity in the Year of the Tiger.
Upscale shopping outlets and high-end malls are also getting into the Chinese New Year fever, with lantern ceremonies, lion dances, red envelopes, and special deals for discerning shoppers.
South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, the largest shopping mall on the West Coast of the United States, has created a stunning display in its central Jewel Court featuring with a giant Bengal tiger majestically leaping over a digital waterfall and interactive koi pond. The waterfall and koi pond are meant to represent the water element that aligns with the tiger this year in Chinese mythology and, by tradition, is said to create flow and good fortune.
They also have two photo exhibits on display, assembled by the Consulate General of China in Los Angeles, called "Celebrating Chinese New Year with Kids around the World" and "Happy Spring Festival with Dragon Dance Performances." Both exhibits feature gorgeous photos of joyful families and communities celebrating the Lunar New Year together around the world.
For those seeking more good fortune, South Coast Plaza central display also features a life-sized, arched red bridge that gives visitors the perfect vantage to throw their lucky coins into the pond for an interactive experience as they make their New Year's wishes.
Other upscale malls and outlets, like the Beverly Center, Citadel Outlets, The Grove, and Santa Monica Place, are also all decked out with Chinese symbols, red and gold lanterns, even a pagoda or two, while red envelopes are being given out to to lure in holiday shoppers looking for gifts for family and friends - since wearing new clothes is part of the custom of celebrating the Lunar New Year. ■