Chinese New Year has rolled around again and we made our obligatory visit to Chinese Week at the Chinese Cultural Center.
Irene has been sick, but was feeling better today, so we decided to see if there was anything new. There wasn’t.
Chinese New Year is an interesting holiday, in a Chinese country, apart from the sound of firecrackers, the day itself is practically dead. Everyone spends the day with family.
That doesn’t make such great cultural festival, so they turn it into a dog and pony show. Here in Phoenix, which has no real Chinese community to speak of, it’s mostly an excuse to wander around booths for health insurance, acupuncture, a few “oriental” items for sale (many Japanese) and 5 or 6 Chinese (and one Japanese) restaurants.
Despite being nothing new, Michelle had fun riding the train. I’m not sure if the train is just there for fun or is meant to remind us all of the important contribution the Chinese made building the rail network in the 19th century. I don’t think the Chinese had anything to do with the moon-walk, rock-scaling walls or the ferris wheel, though.
Anyway, many of the local Chinese show up for lack of anything else to do. Many Taiwanese show up, too, although there’s the really stubborn contingent who refuse to show up or participate because, “Taiwan is not part of China”.
Darn, with that phrase I just got my blog banned by Google China.
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