Vibrant colors, lights, and music encased the streets of Belmont during a Lunar New Year event at City Hall. The event, held to celebrate Chinese New Year, showcased a kung-fu performance and a Chinese lion dance.
Guest speakers included Mayor Julia Mates, Belmont’s first Chinese-American mayor, and Brenda Song of the Stepping Stones Enrichment Academy. Song introduced the history and culture of the Chinese Lunar New Year.
The inspiration behind this event came from the Belmont Public Outreach Committee’s goal to promote diverse cultural traditions. At the event, Leung’s White Crane Dragon & Lion Dance Association performed a lion dance, which is a traditional Chinese celebration designed to promote wealth and fortune.
“It’s a diverse community and a significant Asian population. It’s important for us to acknowledge these different traditions and cultures,” said Brigitte Shearer, the director of Parks and Recreation.
To organize the event, kids from the Stepping Stone Enrichment Academy, an immersive Mandarin school, provided decorations and helped set up. In addition, the Footsteps Interact Club provided activities for the kids, such as traditional Chinese calligraphy.
“We had a lot of help. Stepping Stone Academy kids all volunteered to help out. They donated decorations, and the Footsteps Interact Club provided activities as well as crafts for the kids. So it just all kind of came about almost naturally because everybody was so excited,” said Andrea De Lara, one of the key organizers of the event.
However, this excitement was not affected by COVID-19 concerns as everyone maintained safety precautions.
“We encouraged COVID-19 precautions, such as wearing masks, at least amongst the staff. There were almost no challenges because everybody was all into it,” De Lara said.
The event was overall very successful and even attracted citizens hoping to learn more about the Chinese culture. Arthur Cheung, a Chinese-American attendee, hopes that his children can learn about their culture through experiences like this one.
“My kids are really exposed to Chinese culture through their grandparents. Any real chance for them to better understand their culture is always welcome,” Cheung said.
Others commented on the importance of diversity and being well cultured. To Shearer, understanding Belmont’s diverse culture is essential to the community.
“That’s what makes the fabric of our community so colorful. Broadening our understanding of who is in our community makes us want to work better together,” Shearer said.
According to Cheung, learning about other cultures is essential to understanding the community, particularly in a diverse city such as Belmont.
“In the Bay Area, especially, there’s a lot of people of different cultures. It’s good to be able to have a sense of where they came from and motivations that you can connect with. Otherwise, you’re just seeing people who look like you, and who talk like you, and think like you without being able to enrich your own life with different stories of other people,” Cheung said.
