The Year of the Snake is upon us. Per the Chinese calendar, Jan. 29 marked the Chinese New Year. San Francisco’s celebrations are already in full swing, with the main event set for Saturday, Feb. 15 – the Chinese New Year Parade.
Every year, San Francisco’s Chinatown lights up the night with a spectacle of a parade to celebrate the holiday. The parade is hosted by the San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce and is always a bustling and electric event. Eclectic floats are adorned with decorations and flanked by performers from all walks of life as they make their way from Market Street to Kearny Street.
San Francisco State University’s student population is excited to celebrate the holiday. Vi Lee, a second-year year student and member of SFSU’s Asian Student Union, enjoyed seeing San Francisco’s unique and varied ways of commemorating the holiday.
“I was able to go to the Lunar New Year celebration this year at Alemany Farm, which was really cool because there were people fighting for Land Back and coming together,” said Lee. “That was really cool because a lot of Asian American spaces aren’t really like that, so getting to celebrate Lunar New Year and do that was really fun.”
This year, San Franciscans and tourists alike can expect quite a show. To usher in the Year of the Snake, the chamber has spent months working to build a spectacle that will dazzle and delight those in attendance. Tony Lau, the Chinese New Year Parade director, has been intricately prepping the event.
“We have a total of 21 floats, we have fireworks, and we have our 289-foot dragon,” said Lau. “It’s going to be a long parade for sure and it’s going to be exciting. We’re going to have 500 drones flying at Pier 32 to create a couple images that represent the Year of the Snake, our community and how we work together.”
The drone show will be a first for the parade. The effort is a result of over three months of collaboration with vendors to ensure that the Year of the Snake will be rung in with pomp and circumstance.
Donald Luu, the president of the chamber, expressed pride in the work done to prepare for this year’s main event, including getting the iconic Bay Area-based actress Joan Chen as the parade’s grand marshal.
“At first, the drones will show a dragon, then slowly transition into a snake which is very interesting because a snake, in Chinese, is also called the little dragon, so they’re related,” said Luu. “And we’re very excited to have Joan Chen as our grand marshal this year. She’s local, involved with the community and with her history of being a Chinese American in San Francisco, it is such an honor for us to have her as our grand marshal.”
The parade historically draws big crowds comprised of both locals and out-of-towners. Its large-scale razzle-dazzle attracts thousands of people to Chinatown, where they can celebrate and get swept up in the awe of it all.
Beyond the celebrations, some locals hope that people take the opportunity to get familiar with the neighborhood. Janice Pettey, the interim executive director at the Chinese Historical Society of America, shares that hope.
“People come from all over, and it’s important to remember that Chinatown is still a community, it’s still home to a lot of people as well as being a place where people come to visit,” said Pettey. “It’s a great opportunity to, say, go up to Stockton Street and get off of Grant Avenue. Walk one block up to all those stores and shops where you can see the fresh produce and food that is feeding Chinese families. That’s a different look at Chinatown than what you see on Grant Ave.”
Soon, Chinatown will be aglow in the moonlight of the Year of the Snake, rung in with dances, firecrackers, floats, drones and many more surprises. The parade will take place on Feb. 15 from 5:15-8 p.m.
