The 24th annual Phoenix Chinese Week’s Culture and Cuisine Festival was held at Margaret T. Hance Park from Friday, Feb. 7 to Sunday, Feb. 9 in celebration of Chinese New Year. The Year of the Horse began on Jan. 31. Helena Hao of the Confucius Institute at Arizona State University demonstrates how to create an origami horse.
Attendees had the opportunity to watch various martial arts and dance demonstrations. The White Crane Tai Chi Club was the last group to perform on Saturday afternoon.
Food vendors offered samplings of authentic Chinese food while store vendors sold traditional collectibles and trinkets from repurposed banana boxes.
This was the first year that the Culture and Cuisine Festival was hosted at Hance Park. Julius Szakolczai, the founder of allyoyo.com, performs a yo-yo trick near the perimeter of the festival.
A large koi exhibit featured hundreds of fish inside large blue tubs. The fish in the tanks, as well as the white coolers, were for sale.
The festival offered a blend of Chinese culture with a southwestern flair. The children’s pavilion offered a ferris wheel, rock climbing wall and toy train ride.
Phoenix Chinese Week is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that hosts a variety of events and activities around the Phoenix area to promote cultural diversity and teach Chinese culture. Demonstrations like the resonance bowl date back to the Han Dynasty, where the bowl vibrations were used to stimulate the mind.
Contact the reporter at Carolyn.Corcoran@asu.edu
