Chinese New Year Parade: Oh So So-So

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Filed in City
January 30, 2006

This was my first ever time checking out the Chinese New Year parade, but c'mon man, is that it? Ok, so I got a bunch of dragons, dancers, costumes, clanging drums, and a few firecrackers. That was ok. There was also a much much larger crowd of spectators than I expected, which was great, though it made viewing anything dodgy at best. Big groups of old people or young people trudging along with a banner, made for pretty bland entertainment. Kids in cute costumes is ok, but not all that exciting. Some of the dragons were doing a bit of acrobatic stuff, which was pretty good, and people were all elbowing each other in the head trying to get their digital cameras into position. But most of them dragons were strangely similar in their fashion-sense and personality, running around and blinking their eyes to entertain the masses.

I did like seeing the dragon chasing the head of lettuce on a broom handle, or eating the head of lettuce offerings that people had hung up in their store fronts. Maybe you didn't know that dragons ate lettuce, but this two thousand and six don't you know?

Also, i was surprised to see lots of people who weren't Chinese in the parade. Vancouver is, after all, supposed to be a multicultural city, ain't it? i'm not 100% sure, but i think aboriginal war vets and whitey war vets marched along, as did a bunch of Viva Las Vegas style Brazilian Carnival dancers.

Like other events in this city, this thing is a great community builder. It's cool to see so many people of all cultures coming to check things out, even if the event itself isn't killer. And unfortunately, it ain't. Sorry people, but
Pride is way better.

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I thought the parade was pretty good. yes, there was a lot of similarities in the dragons and etc, but one thing that just galls me about pride that I didn't see here are the reams of tasteless corporate floats, designed purely as an advertising opportunity. I did see Cathay Pacific and a few other corporations present on the weekend, but they had an eye on culture and at least weren't running around throwing samples into the crowd.

Posted by: degan at January 30, 2006 10:44 AM | Quote Comment

We really enjoyed the parade. It was our first time down there too. We had a four-year-old with us though, and I think his excitement was contagious.

The parade really needed better crowd control though. It got out of hand with the folks pushing into the street. With no one to push them back, it just built up and got worse and worse because the people who went out in front blocked the views of the people behind, forcing them to follow.

I was also surprised by how many people showed up, and impressed by the multicultural audience. My favourite surprise was the Indian dancers in the parade. The Nisga'a dancers were also pretty neat.

Posted by: bree at January 31, 2006 12:22 PM | Quote Comment

There was one really nice dancing act with beautiful costume and very elegant (better than fan dancers) that I went back for this year because I had a camera. She wasn't there.
A lot of the the old people with banners represent counties back home so even if a bunch of old unresponsive men were holding a banner, it still made me happy to see them because our ancestors all come from the same area.
The crowd was also nuts this year and I blame it on Chinese people being utterly opportunistic and slightly rude. I mean, people ran up to the opera singers because they wanted pictures with them. I don't know about the rest of the route, but it really narrowed at my point at Keefer with one man starting it all by standing in the middle of the street as a group approached because he wanted a head-on shot - and he wasn't a professional camera man. He did make it into ALL of my pictures. =S

Posted by: wyn at February 1, 2006 10:14 AM | Quote Comment

oh, the photographers this year were driving me crazy! there was one walking backwards with his camera about 2 inches away from the people's faces, and then had the nerve to hand out business cards. GRRR. no respect.

Posted by: degan at February 7, 2006 12:49 PM | Quote Comment