Times Square at the Crossroads of the World

HOME

Holidays

Chinese New Year

A TWI-NY Tour of Chinese New Year In Chinatown

THE YEAR OF THE PIG: 4705

Multiple locations
Admission: free
212-754-6500
www.explorechinatown.com/Gui
www.chinatownnyc.com

The streets of Chinatown come alive during the Lunar New Year celebration

Chinatown bathes itself in red for good luck in the coming year

According to chinese.astrology.com , the pig, or boar, “may be the most generous and honorable sign of the Zodiac.” Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon used to regularly debate on the"Tonight Show" whether the pig or the horse was the smarter animal. According to NPR, the pig is currently causing controversy in China because the government does not want to upset the millions of Muslims who live in the country, leading to a ban on using pigs in advertisements during Lunar New Year. But here in Chinatown, expect only colorful displays, lots of entertainment, and great food–pork included. The Year of the Pig should bring good luck to those born in the years 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995 and 2007. Gong xi fa cai!

Friday, February 16
Fourth annual Lunar New Year Flower Market at Columbus Park
Columbus Park (Mulberry St. between Worth & Bayard Sts.), noon-10 p.m.

Saturday, February 17
Fourth annual Lunar New Year Flower Market at Columbus Park
Columbus Park (Mulberry St. between Worth & Bayard Sts.), 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Sunday, February 18
New Year’s Day Firecracker Ceremony & Cultural Festival, featuring live entertainment and Lion, Dragon, and Unicorn Dances marching through local stores to bring good luck in the new year.
Chatham Square (intersection of Bowery, Mott, and East Broadway), 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Sunday, February 18
Illuminations: Lunar New Year Fireworks Spectacular at Columbus Park (Mulberry St. between Worth & Bayard Sts.), 7 p.m.

Sunday, February 25
Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade, through Mott, Canal, Bowery, East Broadway, Forsyth, Eldridge, Grand, and Chrystie, 1-5 p.m.

--

WHERE IS HOME? CHINESE IN THE AMERICAS

Museum of Chinese in the Americas
70 Mulberry St. at Bayard St., second floor
Tuesday through Saturday, noon-5 pm
Permanent exhibition
Suggested donation: $3
212-619-4785
www.moca-nyc.org

MoCA’s permanent exhibition looks at the culture of Chinese immigrants

The Chinese who immigrated to America congregated in areas on New York City’s Lower East Side and in San Francisco. This exhibit takes a close look at those early days up through today’s thriving Chinatown. In a small room designed by Billie Tsien that is shaped like a Chinese lantern and includes information printed on reinforced rice-paper walls, the story of the Chinese Diaspora is told in words and images. The overall theme—“Our task is to ask, to listen, to remember and to retell”—is broken down into such installations as “Women’s Voices,” “A Continuum of Facts and Customs,” “Migration: Abandonments & Declamations,” the interactive “Mapping Our Heritage Project,” and the work in progress “Many True Stories: Life in Chinatown on and After September 11th.” Among the dozens of items on display are musical instruments (including a chun kahm and a naahm wu), an abacus, artifacts from the celebration of Chinese New Year (including colorful dragon masks) and the role of Chinese men and women in the U.S. military (including uniforms and old newspaper articles), embroidered silk slippers for bound feet, laundry signs, Chinese movable type, an ornate Chinese opera costume, and a book in which visitors are asked to write where home is to them.

MOCA EVENTS
Museum of Chinese in the Americas
www.moca-nyc.org

Saturday, February 17
Lunar New Year Walking Tour, $15, 212-619-4785, 1 p.m.

Saturday, February 17
Author’s Talk: Kylie Kwong, SIMPLE CHINESE COOKING, followed by a Q&A and book signing, $5, RSVP required, 2 p.m.

Wednesday, February 21
Peking Duck Dinner, Peking Duck House, 28 Mott St., $80, prepayment required, 7 p.m.

Saturday, February 24
Living Arts–Preparing for the New Year: Calligraphy, free with museum admission of $3, 2:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m.

--

ZHE “ZACK” ZENG WAY

Bayard St. between Mulberry & Baxter Sts.
www.aaari.org/zeng_funeral.htm
www.brightonambulance.org/zhezackzeng.htm

The corner right across from the Museum of Chinese in the Americas and facing Columbus Park features an additional street sign for Zhe “Zack” Zeng Way, a passage renamed in honor of the 28-year-old EMT, member of Rochester’s Brighton Volunteer Ambulance, and 9/11 fallen hero. On September 11, 2001, Zeng’s office building (he worked for the Bank of New York) was being evacuated after the South Tower fell; instead of heading home, Zack rushed off to the World Trade Center to help the injured. Then the North Tower collapsed, and Zeng did not make it out. A booklet distributed at his funeral service, held in Chinatown on September 9, 2002, stated, “Zack became the paragon of Chinese immigration history. His name will remain in everyone’s heart forever.” Pointing out Zack’s heroism, it continues, “To pursue meaning and value in life is the highest virtue of humanity. We should strive to improve ourselves every day. Only then is life precious and meaningful. An enlightened and content man feels no regrets when he reaches the end of his life.”

--

TASTY DUMPLING

54 Mulberry St. between Bayard & Mosco Sts.
212-349-0070

After coming out of the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, you’re bound to be a little hungry. Just down the street is this little dumpling haven, a small joint that serves seven different types of Beijing-style dumplings and a dozen kinds of soup just right for a cold day. For some reason, the dumplings are numbered on the menu 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, and 12. Anyway, between five and ten tasty dumplings come per order, and each order costs only one or two dollars, so it’s literally just pennies for potstickers. Feel free to grab the seats looking out onto Columbus Park and try several unique versions, including fried cabbage and pork; boiled mushroom and chicken; boiled shrimp, chives, and egg; and boiled vegetable. We also liked the golden pancake, an egg-yolk-laden triangle of fried dough. This place is so wonderfully low rent that they fill empty bottles of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce with soy sauce, and boxes of utensils are strewn everywhere, though it is clean.

--

LUNAR NEW YEAR FOLK ARTS FESTIVAL

Asian American Arts Centre
26 Bowery south of Canal St., third floor
Admission: $12 adults, $6 children three to twelve
Reservations strongly recommended: 212-233-2154, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
www.artspiral.org/new.html

Sunday, February 18 Family-friendly interactive festival featuring Chinese, Indian, and Tibetan folk artists, music, and food, 3-5:30 p.m.

--

BING LEE: EMPRESS VOYAGE 2.22.1784

Canal St. N/R J/M/Z 6 Station
Admission: $2
www.mta.nyc.ny.us/mta/aft/pa/tour/canalstn.htm
www.mta.info/mta/aft/pa/tour/canalstn.htm
www.pictodiary.com

Bing Lee’s Pictodiary puzzles people at Canal St.

Mimicking cave paintings and hieroglyphics, Bing Lee’s “Empress Voyage” mosaic frieze and ceramic tile mural in the Canal St. subway station consists of 200 blue-and-white tiles that emanate from the Canton-born Lee’s ever-evolving Pictodiary; he creates a new figure on rice paper every night. As the New York-based artist has stated, “These pictographic symbols, icons, and images relay a map of the cross-cultural East and West and reveal the notation of personal myth and reflection upon social concern.”

Stop by for a while and see what you can make of these fun, playful, mysterious images. The work takes its name from the Empress of China, a large ship that voyaged from New York harbor on February 22, 1784, on its way to the Cape Verde Islands and the Chinese port of Whampoa, where it arrived on August 28. Another of Lee’s symbolic tile murals can be found in Townsend Harris High School in Queens.

--

DIM SUM

Various locations throughout Chinatown

Old-fashioned Nam Wah Tea Parlor has been doing things its own way since 1920

During Chinese New Year (and the rest of the year as well), forget about getting brunch at your local bistro and instead head down to Chinatown, where weekend dim sum is a must, as much for the food as for the exciting, unusual experience. Depending on how many are in your party, you’ll either get your own table or share it with other couples and families. You’ll be given a card that will be stamped by one of the servers each time you choose a dish, but don’t fret that you have no idea what each stamp means or how much each dish costs. We advise you to be as adventurous as possible, avoiding the obvious and instead going for dumplings and shumai of all shapes and sizes, odd vegetable combinations, and, if they have it, salted fried octopus.

Among our favorite spots, which are ornately decorated with dragon sculptures, cheesy chandeliers, and lots of red for the New Year, are Golden Unicorn (18 East Broadway), Triple 8 Palace (88 East Broadway), Sweet-n-Tart (20 Mott St.), and Jing Fong (20 Elizabeth St.). Go with a lot of people and order like mad, tasting anything and everything; no matter how hard you try, it’s almost impossible to end up paying more than 10 or 12 bucks a head. And for a more old-fashioned experience, check out the place that time forgot, Nam Wah Tea Parlor (11 Doyers St.), for excellent, very cheap dumplings, old guys playing mah jong in the back, a musty smell that you’ll get over quickly, and a lot of peace and quiet.

--

CONFUCIUS STATUE

Confucius Plaza
Bowery at Division St.
Admission: free

Confucius oversees the swirling masses in Chinatown

Liu Shih’s 15-foot-tall statue of the Chinese philosopher, teacher, government official, ethicist, and leader known as Confucius (551-479 BC) was presented to New York by the Consolidated Benevolent Association in 1976 in honor of America’s bicentennial. Standing atop a large marble base, Confucius looks out on one of the city’s crazier intersections, his hands gently clasped in front of him, his long robe flowing over his arms. The front of the base includes a lengthy quote from “The Chapter of Great Harmony” (“Ta Tung”), in which Confucius writes, “When the Great Principle prevails the world is a commonwealth in which rulers are selected according to their wisdom and ability.” Go around behind the statue to see the scroll Confucius is holding and the declaration, “The world is a commonwealth.” We’re not sure whether that means the Great Principle has prevailed, especially considering the state of today’s world rulers.

--

KIMLAU SQUARE

Chatham Square
Intersection of Mott St. Park Row, East Broadway, Oliver St., & Bowery
www.nychinatown.org/chatham.html

Lin Ze Xu readies himself for the Lunar New Year firecrackers

This small plaza was named after Second Lieutenant Benjamin Ralph Kimlau, a World War II hero bomber who flew with the Flying Circus and later died during an attack outside New Guinea. The statue facing north is of Lin Ze Xu (Lin Tse-Hsu), standing proudly with his arms folded behind his back, his beard and mustache impeccable. As the Chinese commissioner in Canton in the late 1830s, he led the war against drugs, battling the East India Company to end the importation of opium, leading to the Opium Wars. In a letter to Queen Victoria, he wrote, “All those people in China who sell opium or smoke opium should receive the death penalty. We trace the crime of those barbarians who through the years have been selling opium, then the deep harm they have wrought and the great profit they have usurped should fundamentally justify their execution according to law.” (He ultimately was defeated and exiled.) To Lin Ze Xu’s left is Poy G. Lee’s memorial arch, on which it is stated: “In memory of the Americans of Chinese ancestry who lost their lives in defense of freedom and democracy.” On the opposite side is a bronze-colored rectangular plaque that contains the names of Chinese Americans who gave their life for America. Kimlau Square is the site of the official kickoff of the New Year festivities.

--

MANHATTAN BRIDGE ARCH & COLONNADE

Bowery & Canal St.
Admission: free
www.nyc.gov

Manhattan Bridge connects Brooklyn to Chinatown for free

The Manhattan Bridge approach on the Manhattan side is simply spectacular. Designed in the early 20th century by Carrère & Hastings—who were trained as draftsmen at McKim, Mead & White and also designed the New York Public Library—the massive Beaux-Arts structure, which was based on the Porte St. Denis arch in Paris, towers over Chinatown, impressive in its detail. Looking out from the top is a row of six lion heads. Beneath that, a frieze features four Native Americans tracking down buffalo; on either side of the frieze are pyramids of coats of arms spreading out into two magnificent sculptures. On the south side, Winged Mercury, standing atop a globe, holds a caduceus, a topless Native American woman to his right, a pilgrim with a bundle on his left. On the north side Winged Victory lifts out her arm, also flanked by a man and a woman. At the peak of the rounded arch itself, a buffalo head looks down Canal St. The colonnade contains seven columns on each side, with more coats of arms and images with various fish. The other side of the arch, facing Brooklyn, is much simpler, though it is guarded on each side by a lion with its paw placed firmly on a globe.

--

MAHAYANA BUDDHIST TEMPLE

133 Canal St. by the Manhattan Bridge entrance
212-925-8787
www.asiainnyc.org/2_5_feature.html

Buddhist Temple offers respite from hectic Chinatown area

Adjacent to the arch and colonnade of the Manhattan Bridge, you will find this splendid Buddhist temple just off to the left, guarded by two lions. The vestibule features a large pot with burning incense; drop a dollar in the slot and reach down deep for your fortune. In front of you is a shrine to the Goddess of Mercy, Kwan-Yin; be sure to look up at the dragon-dominated ceiling. Then walk through the hallway until you come upon shrines on either side; to the right is a shrine to the dead, while on the left is a more joyous shrine that includes bamboo in gorgeous vases and native instruments that are played on Sundays. Go down the ramp and marvel at the magnificent gong to your right—but don’t touch it. To your left is a ceremonial drum. Then turn around and look up at the dragon tapestry above. The walls leading to the altar are lined with 32 drawings detailing the story of Buddha as Boddhisatva and Prince Siddartha, in English and Chinese, with red paper lanterns above and jade pieces below. The altar itself sparkles: A large Buddha sits at the center, surrounded by flowers, vases, small statues, good-luck shrines, and a marvelous tower made up of tiny shining Buddhas.

--

KAM CHUEH

40 Bowery between Bayard & Canal Sts.
212-791-6868

Kam Chueh is renowned for its fresh seafood, creative vegetable dishes, and great steak

After you’re done watching the parade and taking a long walk through this magical neighborhood, you’re sure to be hungry. Forget what restaurants everyone else has told you about in Chinatown and go to Kam Chueh, preferably with a group of people to take advantage of the many terrific main courses—and New Year specials—and to split the bill more ways. Oliver, the friendly manager, will lead you to a table in the back, where you will be surrounded by large Asian families sitting around big tables spinning their lazy susans to get a little bit of everything. Don’t pass by the snails in black bean sauce for an appetizer, nor the biggest, most beautiful egg roll you’ve ever had. Even the tender steamed dumplings are special. But be sure to save room for the excellent house steak, wonderful flowering chives with clams or buttery baby bok choi with garlic, and marvelous lobster, dungeoness crab, razor clams, Australian green mussels, and whole fish with ginger and scallions (which is more expensive, sold by weight), since Kam Chueh is highly regarded for its terrifically fresh seafood, some of which you can watch swimming around by the entrance. And for those of you with a more adventurous taste, you can also get goose intestines with soy sauce, spicy duck feet, and sauteed frog with bitter melon.

--

CHURCH OF THE TRANSFIGURATION OF NEW YORK CITY

29 Mott St. at Mosco St.
212-962-5157
http://transfigurationnyc.org

Historic church on Mott St. welcomes all comers

Also known as the Church of Immigrants, the Church of the Transfiguration has been in operation for 200 years, and today it is the largest Chinese-American Catholic congregation in the country. Originally known as the English Lutheran Church Zion and later the Zion Protestant Episcopal Church, it was built in 1801. In 1827, Cuban patriot Father Felix Varela made it a Roman Catholic church and renamed it the Transfiguration of the Lord, primarily serving Irish and then Italian immigrants before the Chinese started moving in to the area. Today services are held in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese. Currently there is a pipe organ restoration campaign to restore the 1935 organ built by John Peragallo Sr. The front of the church features one plaque dedicated to Father Felix Varela and another, featuring planes, a cannon, a ship, a tank, and an anchor, in honor of the men, mostly Italian, of the parish who lost their lives in WWI. The Gothic structure includes the same stone rubble that was used to construct St. Paul’s in Lower Manhattan. The facade boasts lovely end gables, rice-patterned entablature, pitched windows, splendid quoins, and fine stained-glass windows.

--

DRAGON LAND BAKERY

Customers line up at display case to choose their pastries

124 Walker St. at Baxter St.
212-219-2012

We can’t go to Chinatown without picking up some great pastries at Dragon Land, one of the city’s best. Because most of the individual items, made fresh daily, cost less than a dollar, feel free to experiment. We love the pineapple and coconut buns, moon cakes filled with red bean paste, shredded pork buns, and the bubble tea, loaded with tapioca pearls at the bottom that you suck up through a wider-than-usual straw.

--

SWEET-N-TART CAFE

136-11 38th Ave., Flushing
718-661-3380
www.sweetntart.com

Sweet-n-Tart lovers have to go to Flushing to quench their jones

One of our favorite smaller eating spots in Chinatown, the Sweet-n-Tart Café at 76 Mott St., which we used to frequent whenever we were on jury duty, has recently been turned into an egg custard emporium, so we have to venture to Flushing to get our fix of fresh mango juice with tapioca pearls, BBQ eel with Peking sauce, smoky oyster spring rolls, watercress dumplings, congee with lean pork and preserved duck’s egg, salt-baked cuttlefish and scallops, and Yunnan pot double-boiled rice with taro and quail. We’ve yet to try pork belly and liver congee, special homemade duck tongue, broiled pork intestine, duck’s blood with ginger and scallion, blanched chicken feet with ginger sauce, and deep-fried pork’s intestine, but there’s always next time. There are also lots of dumpling noodle soups, a myriad of cool hot and cold drinks, and tons of interesting desserts. By the way, the larger Sweet-n-Tart at 20 Mott St., famous for its awesome dim sum, is still open, but the Flushing café is more of a unique experience.

--

LUNAR NEW YEAR CELEBRATION

Flushing Town Hall
137-35 Northern Blvd.
Admission: free
718-463-7700
Sunday, February 18
www.flushingtownhall.org/exhibits.html

Celebrating the Year of the Pig with traditional dance, colorful costumes, and arts & crafts activities, 2 p.m.

--

GODS OF CHINATOWN

Lower East Side Tenement Museum
Digital Artist-in-Residence Program
gods.tenement.org

Taipei-born Web artist and foxfatale.com cofounder Isabel Chang currently lives on the Lower East Side. As a participant in the Lower East Side Tenement Museum’s Digital Artist in Residence Program, Chang and her dog, Chewie, set off for many of the temples in Chinatown, looking to the gods for answers about her future. She headed across the Bowery and down Eldridge, Broome, and Canal Sts., visiting such places of worship as the Fulai Temple, the Temple of the Great Yellow Immortal, and the White Door Temple, detailing her adventures in this fun, sometimes confusing interactive weblog. Chang provides a little history about each site while also relating what she sees to her personal life in both goofy and informative ways.

--

CHINATOWN BEAT by Henry Chang

(SoHo Crime, November 2006, $22)
www.sohopress.com/books/chinatown_beat.html

Born and raised in Chinatown, security director Henry Chang sets his debut novel on the streets of Lower Manhattan, where Detective Jack Yu is on the case. Dealing with the recent death of his father, which causes him to look back at his own lonely life, Yu is trying to track down a serial rapist as well as the murderer of a prominent Chinatown crime lord. Yu knows every nook and cranny of the area, willing to go places and talk to people his fellow Caucasian officers won’t; they prefer to let Chinatown take care of itself. As the circle of clues envelops the Hip Ching, the Red Circle Triad, the Fuk Chou, the Ghost Legion, the Black Dragons, a lovestruck limo driver, and a mysterious nightclub floozy, Yu finds himself in ever-more-dangerous territory. CHINATOWN BEAT is told in short chapters seen from different characters’ points of view, resulting in some confusion, and the writing is relatively standard. But Chang’s knowledge of the way things work in Chinatown, as well as his inclusion of many interesting Chinese terms and phrases, lifts this tale a notch above your basic potboiler.

Tag it:

[ Back ]

CONTACT | CONTRIBUTORS | PRIVACY POLICY

(C) 1995 - 2008 TimesSquare.com A Dataware Corporation Company www.dataware.ca