Today was the Chinese New Year parade in Washington DC. Other than a few restaurants, it’s pretty much the only time the area downtown feels like a Chinatown. Nearly all area Chinese have long moved to the suburbs and the few who remained were displaced by the old convention center and the Verizon Center, which was built right in the middle of the neighborhood. In the past three years the 7th Street NW corridor has had an influx of chain stores and restaurants, and they’re all required to have their signs translated into Chinese to preserve the character of a neighborhood that no longer exists. Apparently, the translation of “Hooters” into Chinese is a play on the character for owl. Hoo knew?!
You can join the Navy and see the world but we’re finding that there’s a lot that looks the same at first glance. When we lived in Seattle we visited Fado, an Irish pub, near Pike Place Market. I thought it was unique but there is one in Chinatown and 13 locations throughout the country. Beyond the obvious — Cheesecake Factories, Starbucks, and Anthropologies – New Luxury Condos under construction in Southeast Washington DC are painted the same earth tones as those built in Seattle’s Belltown. Every city also seems to have had a variation on the same art project: Ponies On Parade (Seattle), Mermaids on Parade (Virginia Beach), Lizards (Orlando), Pigs (Peoria) and Cow Parade (5+ cities worldwide).
When Washington DC had Party Animals in 2002 with elephants and donkeys throughout the city, things got a little interesting. PETA paid $5,000 to paint a shackled baby elephant with tears trickling down her face but was prevented from displaying it, even when they graciously ”removed the tacks and blood from the design and added some decorative aspects, while still remaining true to the underlying theme that elephants in circuses suffer miserably.” The Green Party also sued the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities for being excluded, but was not permitted to put their sunflower mascot everywhere on the public’s dime.
Today’s party animal was a long golden Dragon, accompanied by lion dancers from the Wong Chinese Boxing Association (”The Wong People will drive away your evil spirits and make good luck possible,” “Study Kung Fu with the Wong People” etc.). We had dinner afterwards at Tony Cheng’s and gave Citrus red envelopes for good luck. Who says money can’t buy you happiness?
2 Responses to “Gung Hei Fat Choi”
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
I like reading your “voice.” This is going to be a good blog.
“Lucky money” is the best kind of money… And I agree that this is going to be a good blog.