Cultural Pride on Parade

In San Gabriel, Eric Chang, 16, stood curbside Saturday morning for this town’s 13th annual Lunar New Year Parade, waving to his buddies marching in the Arroyo High School band, chuckling at a belly dancing troupe wiggling down Valley Boulevard and listening to the beat of a rap singer on a flatbed truck.

“This parade is school bands, seeing your friends, having fun,” said Chang of El Monte. “It’s, like, American.”

A few hours later in Chinatown, Daisy Ma boarded a colorful float in the 105th Los Angeles Golden Dragon Parade, proudly explaining that she and others are members of one of the oldest Chinese organizations in the nation. As she talked, a street full of dragon dancers, kung fu experts and Chinese acrobats warmed up to the beat of large floor drums.

“This is a parade about our culture, our history, especially in Los Angeles,” said Ma. “Here is the original place where Chinese immigrants settled.”

Two big parades celebrating the same Lunar New Year holiday -- among the most important cultural and religious events of the year for Chinese and Vietnamese -- unfolded in Southern California’s newest Chinatown in the San Gabriel Valley and the historic Chinatown in downtown Los Angeles. The events, which ushered in the year of the monkey, offered a dual glimpse of the old-style traditions and the new-generation ways of the region’s burgeoning Asian population.

In San Gabriel, the streets resonated with the sounds of horns usually blown at sporting events and the deep pounding of traditional floor drums. Popcorn and cotton candy sold from carts seemed to be the favorite parade snack food, although many sipped on boba tea drinks.

In Chinatown, random bursts of firecrackers made paradegoers jump, while vendors sold beaded slippers or herbs and the smell of incense and fried noodles wafted through the air.

Both parades, said Assemblywoman Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), who waved from convertibles at each event, are “a real strong statement about the growth of the Asian population.”

In San Gabriel, Asians now make up 60% of the population, part of a cluster of San Gabriel Valley cities that have experienced double-digit growth during the 1990s. Countywide, the Asian population is 1.1 million, according to 2000 census data.

Chi Mui, the first Chinese American councilman to be elected in San Gabriel, also rode in both events to take part in a celebration that he said he believes is becoming as much a part of mainstream Los Angeles as parades honoring Cinco de Mayo and the Fourth of July.

“Today is a symbol of growth and prosperity of our original home in Chinatown and our new home in the San Gabriel Valley,” Mui said.

The cool temperatures and threat of showers didn’t seem to diminish the crowds, estimated by parade organizers at 25,000 to 30,000 in Alhambra and San Gabriel and about 50,000 in Chinatown.

On Valley Boulevard, the new hub of Asian commerce and dining in the San Gabriel Valley, the parade took on more of an air of Americana, albeit against a backdrop of dozens of noodle houses, dim-sum restaurants and teahouses packed into two- and three-story commercial centers.

The paradegoers on Valley Boulevard were predominantly Asian. The viewers saw six floats, most sponsored by local banks, as well as the Alhambra High School marching band, the San Gabriel Twirlers, members of the Ling Luen Drama Club and a handful of dragon dancers.

“Any community parade that brings us all out is good for our city,” said Stanley Lim, 37, who walked to the route from his San Gabriel home.

At the end of the route, 200 local vendors combined for a block-long street festival, peddling everything from insurance to Volvos to water delivery. Micky Kwan of Alhambra showed off his bag of freebies, which included a blanket from Alhambra United Bank and a colorful wall calendar from Garfield Medical Center.

In Chinatown, the 105-year-old Golden Dragon Parade was more of a serious show of traditions, with well-choreographed dancing, the descendants of Chinese settlers riding on floats and lots of firecrackers.

Participants included the Chinese Historical Society of California, the Chinese Benevolent Assn., lion dancers, dragon dancers and martial arts experts, as well as floats and marching bands. The crowd was a more diverse reflection of the region, with Spanish and Cantonese languages heard on the sidewalk. Tourists came from as far away as San Diego.

“Here is a more traditional Chinese New Year parade,” said Jeffrey Young, who lives in Temple City. “The dragon dancers have battles with each other, which is fun for my daughter to watch.”

In a deafening burst of flash-bangs and smoke, 300,000 firecrackers erupted for more than two minutes in the grand finale of the Chinatown parade.

“Definitely worth hanging around for,” said Howard Tenn of Simi Valley.

A few veteran viewers and participants of both parades didn’t see much difference between the two except in size: Chinatown’s was bigger, with a parade route twice as long.

Along with politicians, including Mui and Chu, a float also did double duty. Sponsored by Cathay Bank, it featured recycled props from the China Airlines Rose Parade float. What were white-rice-covered palm trees for the Gregorian calendar New Year became spray-painted white-and-silver-glittered palms for the Chinese New Year.

In years past, organizers of both parades have avoided scheduling their events for the same day. The 15-day Chinese New Year celebration typically falls in late January or early February.

When Carol Kwan, Chinatown parade chairwoman, consulted her lunar calendar, she noticed that Jan. 24 was marked as a lucky day for outdoor activities. That sealed the date for her. But Pinki Chen, who organizes the San Gabriel-Alhambra parade, had already booked the same parade date. Neither could change weekends.

The parades brought a surge of demand for Chinese lion dancing troupes, prompting the organizer of a Chinese New Year celebration inside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to recruit amateur lion dancers for his show.

Even so, more than 3,000 people gathered in the cathedral for a Mass conducted in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. The service opened with a festive lion dance and dragon dance before a shrine was placed near the altar in remembrance of the congregations’ ancestors.

Overlooking the overwhelmingly Chinese crowd, many of whom were wearing silk costumes, organizer Michael Lau said, “I’m proud and happy. For whatever reason, Chinese don’t like to wear their traditional attire. We’re very Westernized. So we told people to come dressed like this. We wanted to show solidarity.”

Tai Thang, 30, of Rosemead had a hard time deciding which parade to take his family to. He opted for the one closest to home. “The traditions at both parades make me feel happy,” Thang said. “We’re lucky to have so many parades to go to.”

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Times staff writer David Pierson contributed to this report.