Under a bright, sunny sky, with the smells of classic Asian cuisine perfuming the air of Margaret T. Hance Park, traditional Chinese music played from a stage as four women dressed in traditional clothing demonstrated tai chi in front of an audience of hundreds.
Phoenix Chinese Week celebrated its 25th anniversary this weekend with its annual Chinese New Year Festival, this time to welcome in the Year of the Ram.
The celebration officially began on Monday, when the organization held a reception where Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, city officials, dignitaries and members of Phoenix Chinese Week kicked off Phoenix Chinese Week 2015.
The event hosted activities such as crafts for kids and performances ranging from traditional Chinese dance to martial arts displays. At one end of the park, there was a stage where performances occurred throughout the entire weekend as well as an authentic dragon boat from Taipei on display.
“We just have a lot of different events going on here,” said Lucy Yuen, a volunteer at the festival’s information booth.
Yuen, who volunteered for about 20 years with Phoenix Chinese Week, explained that the event’s main purpose was to teach people more about Chinese culture.
“There are things for the children to do, there are things for the adults to look at and of course to buy,” Yuen said. “People can come here and spend a day, look at things, buy things and buy some food.”
The organization Phoenix Sister Cities fostered the idea of the now-annual celebration. The celebration evolved into its own nonprofit organization, Phoenix Chinese Week, which is run solely by volunteers for each event, said Rick Gerrard, vice president of Phoenix Sister Cities.
“It’s a lot of fun, there’s a lot of music, there’s a lot of dance, there’s great food. It’s a great way to spend the weekend,” Gerrard said.
Because of Phoenix’s two sister cities in China, Chengdu and Taipei, the event was created “to celebrate the contributions of Chinese culture,” Gerrard said.
The celebration was originally held in Patriots Square Park, where CityScape now resides, and has grown larger each year. It was once held at the Chinese Cultural Center on 44th Street, near the Loop 202. Parking became too crowded at the Center, so Phoenix Chinese Week moved to Hance Park, located north of Portland Street.
“It’s a three-day festival. It’s held at a good time of year. Climate’s good, people wanna get out and about, so it’s grown over time to be a very good festival,” Gerrard said.
Pat Gapinski, a first-time visitor to the festival, said she was impressed.
“I thought the turnout was absolutely wonderful,” Gapinski said. “I was surprised to see how many vendors there were, and the entertainment was delightful.”
The festival began at 9 a.m. on Friday and had its official grand opening ceremony at noon. Eva Li, president of Phoenix Chinese Week, said the time is intended to allow schools to attend.
“Usually we have it on Friday because we want the schools to come and have a field day, a field trip,” Li explained.
Li said that the festival had 20 or so schools visit the festival this year. She believed that, with the introduction of Mandarin as a foreign-language class in many school curricula, the festival became more important to students because it taught them more about Chinese culture than sitting inside a classroom does.
“At school they just learn the language, but they come here and learn other things besides the languages,” Li said. “By putting on the festival, we are able to reach more people and showcase our Chinese culture … We have a cultural booth so they can see our 5,000 years of history.”
In addition to the artistic performances, kung fu students and a yo-yo group known as the All Yo-Yo Group demonstrated their skills on stage for visitors to see.
Next year’s festival does not yet have a date, but Li said to check the organization’s website soon when the date is decided. She also encouraged more people to volunteer for the event, regardless of their nationality.
“The reason we have such a successful event is because of all of the volunteers who put in a lot of time and effort to get this event going,” Li said. “If you love the Chinese culture, come and join us. The more people we have, the better we can put on a show, and that means we can recruit more performers and different types of entertainment.”
Contact the reporter at Nikiana.Medansky@asu.edu
