Festivities Herald Chinese New Year

This is the year of the serpent--4687 on the Chinese calendar--and legend has it that children born “under the serpent” will be wise, compassionate, talented and versatile.

To celebrate the new year, there will be 10,000 firecrackers to chase away evil spirits, Sze Tse the comical Chinese lion to spread good luck, and majestic papier-mache and fabric dragons will be manned by scores of skillful martial-arts dancers. There also will be graceful Chinese ribbon dancers, marching groups in colorful traditional costumes, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, drill teams, floats and bands, all scheduled for the annual Golden Dragon Parade in Chinatown.

Chinatown Parade

The parade, at 3 p.m. today, is a celebration of the Chinese New Year--Yuan Tan--and is Chinatown’s way of saying gung hay fat choy : best wishes, good luck and a prosperous new year.

Although the actual Chinese New Year began Feb. 6, on the second new moon of winter, the Golden Dragon Parade traditionally marches on a weekend to reduce traffic and parking problems.

The two-hour-plus parade begins at City Hall on Main Street, goes north to Sunset Boulevard, turns left on Sunset to North Broadway, right on North Broadway and moves on through Chinatown.

Bob Gin, who has been involved with the parade for eight years, will be among the instructors and students from the Yau Kung Mon Kung Fu Institute dancing beneath a golden dragon costume. The costume was handcrafted in Hong Kong and consists of a large, bejeweled, papier-mache head and a flowing fabric body. At least 30 people at a time--wearing gold trousers and tennis shoes--are required to manipulate this dragon through its paces in a centuries-old tradition.

Just how long is the institute’s golden dragon?

“I never measured it,” says Richard Wan, Kung Fu master and owner of the institute. Then he laughs and adds, “My wife says it’s about half of a city block.”

Dragon Dancers

Gin explains that the dragon dance is a sort of Chinese “follow the leader.” The person wearing the cumbersome head is the lead dancer, who in turn follows another dancer bearing a stick with a ball, said to represent either the sun, the moon or a pearl.

“Wherever the ball goes, the dragon follows,” says Gin, whose parents came here from China. “If the guy who is controlling the ball bounces it, then the head goes up and everybody behind the head follows.” The result is a sort of ripple motion.

Dancing through the streets in this manner can be exhausting, and the dancers usually work in shifts. By the end of the parade, more than 50 people will have been part of the golden dragon.

Surprisingly, dragon dancing takes Kung Fu students only a few days to learn. But lion dancing can take as much as a year.

The lion dance requires only two people, but the team must execute intricate steps with perfect synchronization.

Wan, who says, “I come from the old school,” learned his dancing in Hong Kong. “It takes two to tango. . . . It takes a lot of coordination and not everybody can do it.”

Lion dancers also must have a foundation in Kung Fu to master the dance and maintain the strength and energies required by the 70-pound costume.

Sign of Good Luck

The purpose of the dance is to bring good luck, and the goal of the dancers is to emulate the movements of a lion with playful cat-like steps and motions. The “head” must learn how to make exaggerated movements, manipulate the lion’s movable eyes, ears and mouth, and the “tail” must follow his lead. A drummer, gong player and cymbalist accompany the lion dancers as they prance through the streets.

More than 10,000 people are expected to turn out for all the colorful Chinese pageantry, and Gin notes that parking in Chinatown is somewhat limited. He advises coming early, finding parking in an outlying area and walking to Chinatown.

Jack Cutter, secretary of the sponsoring Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, says on-street parking will be available along Sunset and Broadway. But he suggests parade-goers “come early and have lunch in a (Chinatown) restaurant and make a day of it.”

Parade information: Chinatown Chamber of Commerce at (213) 617-0396.