Throughout my childhood, I remember celebrating Chinese New Year (CNY) only a couple times at a family friend’s house. (As part of my family’s acculturation, CNY often got overshadowed by the Superbowl.) My family would arrive at the potluck with Chinese dishes and my sisters and I would be excited to play games with our friends. Everyone in the house spoke English and after the party, I would return home full of Chinese food, but not with an understanding of what Chinese New Year meant. Being in Hong Kong for CNY was completely eye-opening and an unforgettable experience.
The International Chinese New Year Night Parade is an annual event hosted by Cathay Pacific. Featuring floats, marching bands, dragons, and dancers, the parade is considered a must-see for those staying in Hong Kong for CNY. After buying snacks to keep us sustained through the parade, my exchange friends and I camped out against one of the railings that fenced off the street for the parade. We got there just before 5pm. Around that time, more people began setting up against the fences and small groups of performers started milling about to keep the crowds entertained. A magician approached me and, in honor of CNY, had me write a wish on one of the blank cards. He then made it reappear several times through clever hand tricks and kept my friends and I occupied as more and more people crowded behind us, pushing us against the fence.
The parade officially started at 8:30, and by that time, my feet were dying. Parade volunteers were handing out red goodie bags intermittently to people in the crowd and every time they approached our area, the people behind us would shove their arms in front of us and yell for a bag. The old women behind me were particularly aggressive and didn’t stop even after collecting more than three bags each. I got a goodie bag. There was a bag of chips and a coupon in it. Cool, but hardly worth all the yelling and pushing.
Being front row at the parade meant my friends and I got to high-five tons of performers. Seeing the Atlanta Falcons Cheerleaders in the parade intensified the weird feeling of blending in as a local. Here I was, a student from the US highfiving cheerleaders from the US while we were all in Hong Kong. Strangely, I felt the strong need to tell them that I’m an American. That feeling resurfaced when American marching bands and dance companies paraded by.
The crowd behind us was so big that several times we had nudged the fence too far forward and the patrolling policeman had to tell us all to step back has he pushed the fence back into place. At one point, a minor fight broke out several rows of people behind my friends and I and someone yelled for the police to come help. They came running over once they spotted the commotion, but the fight had already broken up. Seeing Hong Kong police in action was exciting. If the fight had been any more chaotic, I might’ve ended up trampled in a stampede. By the end of the parade, my feet were screaming from standing in the same spot for about 6 hours but I survived. Happy Chinese New Year, Year of the Pig!
The Hong Kong MTR closes around 1am, which wasn’t a problem for us as we got back to the train station at around 11pm. However, it was still strange to hear announcements at the station about the last trains of the night. My friends and I got back to campus at 11:22pm and just missed the last bus (which left at 11:20pm) that would’ve taken me back to my hostel. So I hiked half an hour, up the mountain, and finally returned home exhausted. But I was glad that I got to experience the CNY parade.
ABC in HK 