Arizona's biggest Lunar New Year fest is back after 3 years: 'We put our hearts into it'

It has been three years since Phoenix’s biggest Lunar New Year celebration has hosted thousands of people enjoying lion dance, martial arts performances and games of mahjong. But the Chinese Culture and Cuisine Festival’s hiatus will end this month when it returns for a two-day festival as the lunar calendar marks a new year on Jan. 22.

The 30-year-old event took two years off due to the pandemic, and organizers spent 2022 preparing for a bigger and better celebration at its new venue, Steele Indian School Park, on Jan. 21-22.

“It is almost like a fresh start for us,” Eva Li, president of Phoenix Chinese Week’s board of officers, told The Arizona Republic.

How to celebrate Lunar New Year in 2023:Live performances, food, educational events in the Valley

Why the Chinese Culture and Cuisine Festival took a 3-year hiatus

When she thinks back on Phoenix Chinese Week’s festival in February 2020, Wong believes it was “probably our worst year.” The spread of COVID-19, even before the World Health Organization declared a pandemic a month later, affected attendance and the number of volunteers willing to help out, she said.

Still, thousands of people attended the three-day event at Hance Park, and the banquet at Great Wall Cuisine celebrating the Year of the Rat was sold out with 300 people gathered for 10 courses of dim sum.

In 2021 and 2022, the board of officers took both the increase of anti-Asian hate crimes and COVID-19 safety into consideration while trying to plan the Culture and Cuisine Festival. During its hiatus, Phoenix Chinese Week revamped its online presence — including adding a virtual festival to the nonprofit’s website in 2021 — and streamlined the festival by creating online applications and volunteer forms. Members also took time to create what Li called “some significant changes” to the annual event for its return in 2023.

“I think the pandemic, in a sense, kind of forced us to look at ourselves and say, 'What can we do to get the crowds back again after kind of being on a hiatus for two years?’” Li said. “I think a lot of these new activities that came out of our committee are going to be real pluses for our festival.”

Though the organization has lost members and volunteers over the past three years due to “ill health or death,” Wong said, they are dedicated to putting on an event that looks “seamless to the public.”

“We're coming back as a re-energized festival (in 2023),” she said.

Exclusive:COVID-19, anti-Asian hate canceled Phoenix's biggest cultural festivals for a second year

How Phoenix's biggest Chinese New Year celebration has grown over 3 decades

The Chinese Culture and Cuisine Festival was born in 1991 with its inaugural event at what was then Patriots Square Park in downtown Phoenix. It has since been redeveloped as CityScape.

According to Phoenix Chinese Week’s website, Clarence Teng, a member of the Phoenix Sister Cities Commission, worked with the Chinese United Association of Greater Phoenix and the Chinese Restaurant Association of Arizona to organize a Chinese New Year celebration with the Sister Cities Commission as a co-sponsor. Four years later, Phoenix Chinese Week was incorporated as a nonprofit organization.

In 1998, the festivities moved to the Chinese Cultural Center before going larger scale at Margaret T. Hance Park in 2014. In 2019, former Phoenix Chinese Week president and current committee advisor Elaine Wong, who has been involved with the festival since 1991, estimated in an interview with The Republic that more than 30,000 people came out to celebrate.

Phoenix Chinese Week's leaders believe theirs is the largest Lunar or Chinese New Year festival in Arizona, because similar celebrations are usually one-day affairs with performances. Comparable events include the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center's Lunar New Year celebration on Jan. 14 and gala on Jan. 21.

“When I think back and reflect back (on) where we started and where we've come to today, it's just absolutely fantastic," Wong said.

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What’s new at the Phoenix Chinese Culture and Cuisine Festival in 2023

With the bigger venue at Steele Indian School Park, organizers have expanded the festival’s live entertainment offerings to add a second stage with more interactive elements alongside the larger main stage, where singers, dancers and martial artists will perform.

Recent and longtime favorites, such as the children’s pavilion, the costume photo booth, the chopstick challenge and the mahjong booth, will return this year. More than 20 food vendors are slated to be at the event. At the children’s pavilion, volunteers will teach people of all ages how to do Chinese calligraphy and write one’s name in Chinese characters. The Children’s Museum of Phoenix will host kid-friendly activities.

The festival will also have tea and beer gardens, merchandise vendors, dragon and lion dances and a koi exhibit.

Li noted that Arizonans have been more interested in Chinese culture and language in recent years, as evidenced by the Chinese language schools, immersion programs and curriculums that can be found across the Valley. Seeing this change over the last 30 years has been “amazing,” she said.

Lunar New Year festival is ‘a way for us to retain our history and culture’

With the proliferation of anime conventions, K-pop events and various fan cultures in metro Phoenix, Wong believes “there is a real interest in anything having to do with the Asian culture, not just Chinese.”

Though there are Asian festivals, night markets and pop-up events across the Valley throughout the year, the Chinese Culture and Cuisine Festival sets itself apart because it focuses on promoting Chinese culture, Li said. Those involved in organizing the festival and Phoenix Chinese Week’s other Lunar New Year events are not only educating the public about Chinese culture but also strengthening their families' connection with their heritage.

“We like to (be) able to appreciate our roots and also let our children or grandchildren to know about it — that they appreciate where their (ancestors) came from,” Li said.

Organizing Chinese New Year festivities is “uniting the community in the true sense because it is a family affair for every one of us,” she added.  

“We all put our hearts into it,” Li said.

With people of Chinese descent living all over the Valley, it can be difficult to build a sense of community compared to cities with centralized Chinatowns such as San Francisco, Chicago or New York, Wong said.

“This is a way for us to retain our history and culture because the Chinese community here in Phoenix, in the metropolitan area and even in the state, we're very spread out,” Wong said. “We have to find ways to have our celebrations within our own families, and Phoenix Chinese Week is a perfect way to do this and involve our entire community.”

Phoenix Chinese Week's Lunar New Year 2023 events

Phoenix Chinese Week has scheduled several competitive events as well as a fan-favorite banquet in addition to the festival. All event details can be found at https://phoenixchineseweek.org.

• The Go Open (the strategy game also known as weiqi) is from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14, at Tempe Public Library's Ironwood Classroom. To register, call or email William Gundberg at bill@azgoclub.org, 480-831-5567, or Vivie Truong at truong@gmail.com, 602-828-2763.
• The Taiji Tournament — also known as tai chi martial arts — is on Jan. 14 at First Chinese Baptist Church's gym, 4910 E. Earll Drive, Phoenix. On-site registration — $10 per person per event — starts at 10 a.m. and competition begins at 11 a.m. Contact Kenny Perez at 623-332-8632, dynamicwushu@cox.net.
• The Table Tennis Tournament is 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 29, at the Phoenix Table Tennis Club's arch gym, 1550 W. Colter St. The deadline to register — $12 per event — is Jan. 25; contact Amoy Yang at amoy_y@yahoo.com or 623-332-5808.
• The Chinese New Year Banquet returns to Great Wall Cuisine, 3446 W. Camelback Road, Phoenix, starting at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28. Reservations are required by Jan. 23; tickets are $72.80 for adults and children and can be purchased at https://phoenixchineseweek.org/products/banquet-dinner.

Phoenix Chinese Week’s Chinese Culture and Cuisine Festival 2023

When: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 22.

Where: Steele Indian School Park, 300 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix.

Admission: Free.

Details:https://phoenixchineseweek.org.

Reach the reporter at kimi.robinson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @kimirobin and Instagram @ReporterKiMi.

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