Vibrant dancing dragons, a Chinese violinist, and Chinese folk dancers descended on Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco Saturday afternoon to celebrate the Lunar Chinese New Year. The festivities were co-hosted by the Asian Student Union (ASU) from SF State.
“It is a community event. An event for our shoppers,” said Keith Racadio, Assistant Marketing Manager of Stonestown Galleria.
The annual celebration opened at noon, with the performance of two dancing dragons that danced along with the traditional Chinese music around in the center court of the galleria.
“It is good to see these cultural events here,” said spectator Carlos Amador of Daly City. “I like the way the dragon danced around us.”
According to William Kwok, member of the ASU and student of SF State, this was an event with the purpose of sharing with the community a little of the Chinese culture.
“We are not making profit out of it,” said Kwok. “It is why our resources are limited, but our intention is to share with community our culture.”
The lucky color, “red” was also part of the celebration, where all the ASU members wore red color T-shirts and their game and activities tables were also covered with red tablecloths.
The activities were offered free to the public, and were mostly entertaining for the little audience. Kids enjoyed designing their own red color envelope with stamps of the twelve animals representing each Chinese year.
The arts and crafts table was the most visited by kids who made and designed their own colorful-paper basket.
The six-hour long event also delighted people who listened to Benjamin Sun’s Modern Erhu performance.
Applause and nice comments from the audience encouraged the Chinese violinist, elegantly dressed in white, after each piece he played.
Audience members said that these cultural events are good and important for the community.
“It would be great to have this for all races,” said Pricilla Lau, a spectator.
“This is important to understand different cultures and to pass it down to the children and to future generations,” said Joshua Hu, 12, who participated in the dancing dragon performance.
