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From One Firecracker to Millions

A history of Chinese New Year in America

By Neela Banerjee | AsianWeek

In 21st century America, Chinese New Year is celebrated in some way or another in every U.S. state. Celebrations in metropolitans areas like San Francisco are seen by nearly one million people and broadcast on national television, while most Chinese American families go through the traditions in their own homes, bringing Lunar New Year to the smallest of towns.

Today “Gung Hay Fat Choy” is pretty much part of the American vernacular, but it wasn’t always so. The history of Chinese immigration to America goes back to the late 1700s, and the story is a tough one.

Actually, the earliest written record of Chinese in America documents three Asian seamen who landed in Baltimore in August 1785. These three came to America on a ship named Pallas and waited around in Philadelphia for a ship bound for Asia. There are just a few other early records of Chinese on the East Coast: scholars say there were probably more but no significant immigration with enough of an effect to be recorded in history books.

According to APA scholar Peter Kwong, on the West Coast, John Meares — a former lieutenant in the Royal Navy — left military service to engage in commerce between Canton and the North American Pacific coast. In 1788, he sailed from Canton with some 50 Chinese on board, and landed at Nootka Sound, about 200 miles northwest of Vancouver, to establish a fur-trading base.

So, when was the first Chinese New Year celebration? Documentation is sparse, especially since there were no early newspapers and few chroniclers of events on the West Coast aside from ships’ captains.

“I think it’s safe to say that the first Chinese New Year celebrations came when the first immigrants came to this country,” said Bill Ong Hing, UC Davis professor of law and Asian American studies. “But where you would find records of those, I’m not sure.”

Inquiries to the Museum of Chinese in America in New York City, the Chinese Historical Society of America in San Francisco and a few hours of library and Internet research turned up with no definitive answers as to the very first celebrations.

But during the second half of the 19th century, the Chinese population in San Francisco grew exponentially, as immigrants arrived in droves to work in the gold mines and on the railroad. In 1850, there were only 4,025 Chinese in the city. Just 10 years later in 1860, there were some 35,000.

By 1880, Chinese residents in San Francisco — who were forced by anti-Chinese violence into small, concentrated neighborhoods that gave birth to the modern day Chinatown — were eager to share their culture with those who were unfamiliar with it. They chose to showcase their culture by using a favorite American tradition — the parade.

Nothing like it had ever been done in their native China. They invited a variety of other groups from the city to participate, and they marched down what today are Grant Avenue and Kearny Street carrying colorful flags, banners and lanterns, banging drums and lighting firecrackers to drive away evil spirits.

Chinese populations grew in the Pacific Northwest, also due to the Gold Rush. By the mid-1870s, Chinese were the largest ethnic group in Portland and had their own celebrations. As word of the benefits of Chinese labor spread with the building of the continental railroad, plantation owners in the South looked to recruit them and factory owners in the North wanted to bring in Chinese as strike-breakers — spreading the traditions of Chinese New Year across the country.

Anti-Chinese sentiment, in response to the idea that Chinese labor was stealing work and undercutting white laborers, rose to a fury around this time and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred the entry of Chinese laborers. The Chinese already in the country were not allowed to naturalize, bring their wives over, re-enter the country if they left and or marry — policies pretty much designed to ensure Chinese biological extinction in America.

Even though Chinese Americans were some of the earliest immigrant groups in America, they weren’t able to come to this country as whole families until immigration laws changed in 1965. Today, Chinese Americans are the biggest Asian Pacific American ethnic group, with a population of nearly three million people.

Chinese New Year celebrations continued through the years in New York and San Francisco, with the West Coast celebration being one of the biggest in the world.

This year, organized Chinese New Year festivals and events can be found across the nation — often as organized civic activities. Take for example the parade in Butte, Mont., which was led by a dragon donated to Montana’s Chinese community in 1998 by the Republic of China’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission. Or the three-day Chinese New Year celebration at the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, Miss. Newspapers, from the New York Times to the Louisville, Ky. Courier Journal, carry Chinese recipes and publicize events on “Demysifying Asian Markets.”

While events like that often make it seem like Chinese Americans will retain the stigma of being “perpetual foreigners,” Chinese New Year has evolved into a national event celebrating Chinese culture as part of this country’s heritage.