Thousands attend Vancouver's Lunar New Year parade as debate persists over Chinatown's future

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Sunday’s festivities had been a chance for Chinatown to showcase the perfect of what it has to supply

Printed Feb 11, 2024  •  Final up to date 10 hours in the past  •  3 minute learn

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The sounds of rhythmic drumming, cymbals clanging and the rat-tat-tat of firecrackers reverberated by way of the streets of Vancouver’s Chinatown Sunday throughout the fiftieth anniversary of the Spring Competition Parade.

Regardless of persistent rain showers, throngs of individuals — generally three or 4 rows deep — lined the streets to soak within the sight of luminescent yellow and pink dragons, acrobatic lions, purple lanterns hanging from bushes, and dance troupes twirling rainbow-coloured umbrellas and followers.

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Coco Kao, who lives in Powell River, mentioned the parade, coinciding with the Lunar New Yr, reminded her of her native Taiwan.

“It jogs my memory of my hometown, which is hundreds of miles away,” she mentioned.

“The parade is at all times phenomenal. I really like the power.”

Surrey couple Danielle De Leon and Emil Sarmiento mentioned it was their first time attending the parade.

“It’s good to see how various the tradition is inside the Chinese language neighborhood itself,” De Leon mentioned.

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Lunar New Yr is widely known throughout a number of Asian international locations. Its timing varies as it’s based mostly on cycles of the moon. This 12 months is the Yr of the Dragon.

Beginning on the Millennium Gate and snaking its means down Pender, Gore and Keefer streets, the parade featured a wide range of members together with navy veterans, members of the St. John Ambulance youth cadet program, martial artists, seniors folks dance troupes, conventional Chinese language drugs practitioners, varied Canada-China friendship associations, and quite a few dignitaries handing out fortunate purple envelopes.

Within the lead-up to the parade, organizers got here underneath scrutiny for excluding sure teams from taking part, citing, partly, their “political activism.” However organizers reversed course and allowed two of the teams, Chinatown Collectively and Lunar New Yr For All, to take part.

“We perceive it seemingly took lots of braveness for the organizing committee” to alter their minds, mentioned Melody Ma, a neighborhood activist and vocal critic of gentrification in Chinatown, forward of the parade.

“For that, we need to say thanks to the organizing committee.”

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Whereas the teams are nonetheless searching for an apology and a extra clear eligibility course of for future parades, they determined to place politics apart for the day “for the sake of neighborhood unity,” Ma mentioned.

Whereas Sunday’s festivities had been a chance for Chinatown to showcase the perfect of what it has to supply, the neighbourhood continues to wrestle with many challenges: the way to discover extra culturally acceptable housing for its seniors; the way to deal with the speedy decline of greengrocers and butchers; and the way to revitalize the native financial system whereas additionally preserving its tangible and intangible cultural and heritage belongings.

The problems weren’t removed from the minds of many parade watchers.

“I got here right here as a child and this was the hub to get Chinese language merchandise. Now all the things is out within the suburbs. … So much has modified,” mentioned David, who declined to provide his final title.

David mentioned he had not too long ago travelled to San Francisco and was struck by how that metropolis’s Chinatown was nonetheless “thriving.” He lamented how a few of the social challenges confronting the Downtown Eastside had spilled over into Chinatown.

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Coquitlam couple Eloise Lavatory and Raymond Sheh mentioned they’ve been parade regulars for greater than 50 years.

“We come rain, sleet, snow or hail,” Lavatory mentioned.

Lavatory fondly recalled how her grandfather would convey her to the parade and the way they’d seize steamed buns and egg tarts. Parade members had been lots much less political and company than they’re now, she added.

Whereas she misses seeing a few of the older companies, such because the Chinese language-language printing press on the nook and the Pender Road bakery well-known for its apple tarts, she acknowledged that the neighbourhood can’t stay because it as soon as was.

“Life is altering. … Simply with variety, it’s OK.”

With information from Canadian Press

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