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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Chinese New Year festival draws big crowd


Mike Ma, 13, Kevin Ma, 15, and David Li, 12, watch as players draw and discard mah-jongg tiles in a game during the Chinese New Year celebration at Spokane Community College on Sunday. 
 (J. Bart Rayniak / The Spokesman-Review)

Dressed in a bright green traditional costume, Jing Li looked across the room full of Chinese New Year festivalgoers and said it’s a rich reward to share her Chinese culture with Spokane.

She had just finished an elaborate dance with five other women as part of the “Year of the Rat” celebration at Spokane Community College that marks the beginning of the zodiac cycle.

“We must do this to give our kids some of our culture,” she said.

Rats are considered charming and ambitious, two traits China undoubtedly hopes to employ this year as it hosts the Summer Olympics. The brown rat is first of 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac.

According to the festival program, people born during this year – the 4,705th Chinese Year – will be optimistic and cheerful with good intuition and imagination. They will not, however, be good at logically drawing their own conclusions.

Jing just smiles at the speculation. She often goes by the name Jane in the United States, and she works as an engineer for General Dynamics. She participates in the festival to share Chinese traditions and ensure that her children, ages 6 and 3, appreciate their heritage.

She is from Beijing and came to the United States to attend college at Washington State University. She decided to stay and is married to Bo Wen, who works as a software engineer for Worldwide Packets.

On Sunday afternoon Bo was the emcee of the show, deftly moving the program along and providing a little humor when he decided to forgo a snippet of traditional Chinese opera for a crowd-pleasing “Chinese rap.”

Spokane’s Chinese community is small – about 1,200 according to U.S. Census numbers – yet close-knit, Jing said. It is eager to share proud traditions with Americans, including many who have adopted children from China.

She laughs about how people first connect.

“Often it’s when you’re at the grocery store, or Costco, and you overhear someone speaking” she said.

The festival is managed by Jane Gong, who works in the multicultural office of Spokane Falls Community College.

She moved to Spokane from Atlanta seven years ago and knew right away that the area’s Chinese community needed a festival.

She quickly set to work and today has a team of 70 volunteers who perform, organize and support an annual event by the SCC Asian & Pacific Club and the Spokane Chinese Association that on Sunday afternoon drew a crowd of more than 250.

She emigrated from the city of Wuhan, a central China metropolis of 9.7 million people along the Yangtze River.

“I am happy to share our culture with everyone,” she said near the end of another successful celebration.

Ever the optimist, she said every year is a good year and this “Year of the Rat” will be no different.

“Of course it will be a good year,” she said, “look at all the smiling faces.”