San Francisco Chinatown is the largest Chinatown outside of Asia as well as the oldest Chinatown in North America. Celebration in honor of the Lunar New Year has been going on for over a week. As the San Franciscans go about their business, there are intermittent firecracker pops in the air. We are surprised by a dragon dancing on a corner somewhere in the city. After the Climate Change Rally last Sunday my friend and I walked home winding our way through Chinatown. Hearing music we ducked into an alley. A group had gathered around two small dragons. There were two dancers in each costume. We watched as the leader knocked on each door. The occupant would open the door and give the leader a small red envelope which contained crisp new dollar bills. The lions danced, the cymbals clanged. It’s loud. It’s chaotic. It’s scary. It’s fun. Firecrackers are thrown. One hit my leg as the dancing dragons moved on to the next neighboring door.
The first photograph in the above series was taken through a storefront window where the main dragon is on display until Saturday, the day of the Chinese New Year Parade. The Golden Dragon is over 201 feet long and is always featured at the end of the parade as the grand finale and will be accompanied by over 600,000 firecrackers! The Golden Dragon was made in Foshan, a small town in China. The Foshan dragonmasters formerly made all the costumes for the Cantonese opera, and the Golden Dragon bears many operatic touches, such as the rainbow colored pompoms on its 6 foot-long head. It is festooned from nose to tail with colored lights, decorated with silver rivets on both scaly sides and trimmed in white rabbit fur. The dragon, made on a skeleton of bamboo and rattan, is in 29 segments. It takes a team of 100 men and women to carry the Golden Dragon. This is also considered an honor to be chosen for the grand finale.
Click on images to see detail. See the red wax in the guy’s ear? The guy has drums and cymbals on a cart with wheels.
Tags: Asia, Chinatown, Chinese New Year, Climate Change Rally San Francisco, hipstamatic, Lunar New Year, photography, san francisco, San Francisco Chinatown, Travel, Visual Arts
February 22, 2013 at 5:40 am |
once we were amused by a movie with Barbra Streisand, a Volkswagen and a Chinese dragon on the streets of China Town …
February 22, 2013 at 8:03 am |
We had no Volkswagen. We were just walking home. Adventures always happen on the way home around here.
February 22, 2013 at 5:41 am |
Thanks for sharing this interesting experience. Rlte
February 22, 2013 at 7:46 am |
Yes it was fun. I see you are busy painting!
February 22, 2013 at 7:55 am |
First riveted by the photos ACTION RED and GREEN! Then we read the terrific write up at breakfast before I forwarded it on to others. Now we’re talking about going to the parade.
February 22, 2013 at 8:02 am |
LOL Glad it came across like that. It’s interesting to me to hear how readers interpret my posts. Yes and this was a tiny it seemed very private parade just with a little neighborhood in Chinatown. The big one is tomorrow night.
February 22, 2013 at 11:26 am |
I miss going to Chinese New Year…we used to go all the time in Hawaii when I was little and a few times in Los Angeles, when our family moved to CA. It’s been a long time…I liked the smell of the firecrackers and the excitement of it all, especially the dragon dance!! Thanks for sharing your beautiful pics!!
February 23, 2013 at 6:51 am |
Yes, it is a fun ten days around here. Today I think is the flower fair in Chinatown so I’ll probably walk down to get right in the middle of things. I miss the smell of plumaria and pikaki leis
February 22, 2013 at 1:57 pm |
Great, atmospheric shots, Carla! Thanks for sharing them.
February 23, 2013 at 6:47 am |
This was not tourist San Francisco. This was a little alley, traditional San Francisco.It was one of those wonderful surprises you encounter on the street as you know so well.Thanks for commenting Richard. Carla
February 22, 2013 at 9:21 pm |
What a wonderful spectacle. Your images express the movement and celebration beautifully, Carla!
February 23, 2013 at 6:44 am |
I think it is interesting that you and I chose another way to portray an image through movement on the same day – you with snow in Canada and me with dragons in California. The title Animate bar(k)odes: the data of the landscape.is quite clever. Carla
February 23, 2013 at 6:08 pm |
I love the energy in this series, Carla. The movement, colour and noise is palpable.
February 24, 2013 at 5:18 am |
Hi Distan
Thank you. I like that you said I got noise! These photos were taken with my iphone, hipstamatic, not with my Canon DSL or my Cyber-shot Sony 100. A new approach to photography. It’s fun.