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Firecrackers Return to NYC’s Chinese New Year

By Tomio Geron | Special to AsianWeek

Chinese Americans in New York City celebrated the Lunar New Year with a much bigger bang this year than in recent years. For the first time in seven years, firecrackers were part of the annual celebration in Chinatown on Feb. 1.

The traditional firecrackers brought an added enthusiasm to this year’s celebration. “There are people who believe that culturally, it’s really not New Year’s without it,” said Don Lee, an organizer of this year’s events. “You can sense the excitement.”

Huge lengths of the firecrackers were set up at two locations, one in Chatham Square and one on Mott Street. A large crowd at Chatham Square erupted in cheers when the firecrackers were set off on Saturday. At Mott Street, people started to line up one hour before the fireworks began, packing the narrow street. Personal use of firecrackers is still prohibited.

The return of the firecrackers is the culmination of years of lobbying by Chinatown organizers. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani banned the firecrackers in 1997 for what he termed “safety reasons.” Chinatown officials have asked city officials to lift the ban every year since then, according to Lee.

“We felt that if people can celebrate in Times Square on New Year’s Day with all those fireworks, hey, why couldn’t we use the same similar precautionary measures in Chinatown?” said Lee, a member of Community Board 2. “It was disappointing before, [because] every year we’d go back and we’d get rejected.”

To satisfy city concerns, Lee hired Grucci, the large fireworks company that puts on the annual Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks on the East River. The Chinatown fireworks, which are part of a five-week celebration organized by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and other groups, were set up by Grucci professionals.

“It went extremely well,” Lee said. “The best thing was that even though the forecast was for rain, it didn’t.” Police estimated 200,000 people visited Chinatown during the festivities.

Lee believes the ban had more to do with lack of recognition of the needs of Asian Pacific Americans than with safety concerns. “Technically, the ban had nothing to do with technical problems,” says Lee. “They know it was just an excuse. But we persisted.”

He sees the lifting of the ban as evidence of growing recognition of APA political power. “Partly, it’s that our community is finally getting [some] political respect,” Lee said. “We have elected the first Asian American to the City Council [Flushing Democrat John Liu]. We made a difference in the state senator race last year for Bay Ridge [Brooklyn] with [Republican] Marty Golden. Those things open their eyes.”

This newfound political presence was evident at the Lunar New Year parade on Sunday. Elected officials marched in the parade, including New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, City Council members John Liu, Alan Gerson and Allan Jennings and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney.

While it was not as big of a political contingent as that on, say, the St. Patrick’s Day parade or the Puerto Rican Day parade, the parade may soon be a must for politicians seeking the APA vote. It was also the first time that Silver, one of the top three politicians in New York State, attended the parade.

Liu, in his first act in the City Council, proposed and passed a bill that recognized Lunar New Year.

The happy spirit of the celebration was welcome for Chinatown, which is still recovering from a downturn in Chinatown’s economy since Sept. 11.

Lee hopes that the various Lunar New Year events will help with one sector of the Chinatown economy: tourism. “What we’re doing is trying to have everyone share in the festivities,” Lee said. “And get more people to come down to Chinatown.”