CALIFORNIA: SAN FRANCISCO'S 

CHINESE HERITAGE

by Lee Foster

A visitor who happens to be in San Francisco for the February/March day of the Chinese New Year will witness an urban cacophony of unparalleled dimension.

The Chinese, who are said to have invented fireworks, know how to raise the decibel level in the urban canyons as the traditional Chinese Dragon snakes its way along the parade route to begin a new lunar calendar year.

This largest Chinese enclave outside of Asia presents a spectrum of activities over a week of celebration, but the night of the big parade offers the best public access to the phenomenon.

I remember vividly my impressions of the parade from past years. As dusk sets, downtown San Francisco erupts with fireworks. Thousands of people line the parade route, which starts at Market and Second streets. The pageant includes floats, towering Oriental deities, Miss Chinatown USA and her court, figures from Chinese legend, hundreds of costumed marchers and musicians, prides of lion dancers, and every city leader and Chinese community guru who wants to be re-elected. The finale, awaited with much expectation, is the 160-foot "Gum Lung" or Golden Dragon Itself, which churns through the street with a chaotic power that seems repressed for the rest of the year. This dragon has the head of a camel, horns of a deer, eyes of a rabbit, ears of a cow, neck of a serpent, belly of a frog, scales of a carp, and talons of a hawk.

Though the cycle of events begins with the New Year, the first week is primarily focused on the family. The second week is filled with public events.

Outdoor festivities feature lion dancers, the Miss Chinatown USA contestants, and musical entertainment.

A daily outdoor carnival also takes place in the heart of Chinatown, at Portsmouth Square, where Kearny and Washington streets meet.

The newly selected Miss Chinatown receives her crown at the Coronation Ball, an event open to the public.

Part of the fascination of occidentals with this Chinese ritual is the calendar. For the Chinese, the occidental Anno Domini is a lunar year of more than twice the numbers. The Chinese rotate the years between 12 different creatures, sequentially. This year's animal will be replaced in future annual changings of the animal guard by the ram, monkey, rooster, dog, boar, rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, and horse. The personality characteristics of the ruling animal deity are said to govern the year in this Chinese zodiac.

Humorists have fun with each animal. For example, during the Year of the Ram, the punsters are reading the tea leaves to determine the ramifications of the animal on global as well as personal and family events. Predictions for Yeung Nien (Year of the Ram) are generally warm and fuzzy, since the Chinese ideogram for ram is the same for goat, lamb, and sheep. Serenity, harmony, and tranquillity are said to be probable experiences in the Year of the Ram, and who would argue with that wishful prognostication? There are skeptics who argued that such thoughts merely pulled the wool over the observer's eyes.

The sensibility of the animal of the year may not be a major factor in the thinking of most Americans, but in San Francisco, where 27 percent of the populace is of Asian descent, the traditions of an alternative calendar are of some modest consequence.

A visitor during the Chinese New Year period is likely to be greeted with the phrase "gung hay fat choy" or "may you prosper."

If you could get behind the scenes of Chinese life in San Francisco, certain partly superstitious and partly comic traditions would be observed.

True believers among the Chinese hold that what you eat during the New Year period will determine your fortune for the coming year. To ensure a good year, you eat foods that sound auspicious in Cantonese.

To avoid fatal mistakes, you avoid foods that sound like "qua", or squash, which sounds like "death" is Cantonese.

You start the new year by placing a sweet candy at bedside, believing that the first food passing your lips in the New Year must be something sweet. Avoid bitter melon.

You do not wash or cut your hair, or sweep the house on New Year's Day, lest you lose or sweep away treasure.

You do not wear black or other dark, mourning clothes. You wear bright red, the color of happiness.

When visiting friends and family, you bring some "gup"--oranges or tangerines--to wish good luck and a bright life. Tangerines with a stem and green leaf attached are even better. The branching leaf symbolizes the wish for a fruitful family.

When visiting friends, you bring red envelopes, or "li see," with "lucky money" inside, for the unmarried children of the family.

In preparing food for the festive time, you serve fish and poultry whole, from head to tail, to assure unity and togetherness.

The Chinese New Year is a good time to walk Chinatown, which is focused roughly in a 16-block area bounded by Stockton, Broadway, Kearny, and Bush. The main street is Grant between Bush and Broadway, plus side streets, especially Stockton. A city within a city, Chinatown is a fascinating place. Shops sell jade, ivory, porcelain, and silk. The area is best experienced on foot, enabling you to browse through shops and explore side streets.

Grant Avenue is the main street for a general overview, starting at Bush. Stockton between Washington and Broadway is where you'll find the largest concentration of markets, exhibiting an amazing array of vegetables and meats. The food markets stock vegetables such as Chinese bok choy, and live meat, including pigeons. Numerous fat ducks hanging raw or cooked and paper-thin dried fish are two unusual sights for the occidental observer. On Stockton you may even see a butcher carve up a turtle.

Jade and ivory carving can be seen at many shops, such as Peking Bazaar (832 Grant Street).

For a spicy Chinese meal, try Henry's Hunan Restaurant (110 Natoma Street, 415/546-4999). The Empress of China (838 Grant Avenue, 415/434-1345) is another prominent restaurant.

In the 1860s and 1870s thousands of Chinese workers came to construct the Central Pacific Railroad. In the past decades Chinatown has been rejuvenated by 40,000 immigrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan, filling a gap when Chinese moved out of the enclave to other areas of the community, such as the prosperous Richmond, now a Chinese stronghold. The opening of trade with mainland China in the 1970s gave Chinatown another renewal. The New China Book Store (642 Pacific) carries extensive literature about China.

Portsmouth Square is the focus for visitors and for Chinese living in the immediate area. In the early morning tai chi chuan practitioners do exercises here. Later in the day, children and older adults enjoy the sun of the park, the pigeons, and Chinese chess.

In the 1880s Scots writer Robert Louis Stevenson mused away his time here, just as hundreds of San Franciscans do every day. A stone bridge links Portsmouth Square with the Chinese Cultural Foundation (750 Kearney Street, 415/986-1822), third floor of the Holiday Inn hotel building. The Center sponsors interpretive exhibits about Chinese life in America and organizes guided walks through the area. Other historical displays can be seen at the Chinese Historical Museum, 17 Jack Kerouac Street, off 1140 Grant. The Museum reminds a traveler that 80 percent of the Chinese in the U.S. trace their roots to a small region in Guangdong Province about the size of the San Francisco Bay Area. In the 19th century, overpopulation, floods, and drought caused many farm families to urge their sons to migrate to the U.S.

The importance of Chinatown in San Francisco (or Asiatown in Oakland), as symbols of the growing contribution of Asians to Northern California life, can't be overemphasized. Fully 1.5 million of the 5.5 million people in the Bay Area are either direct immigrants from the Orient or are descendants of earlier immigrants. The U.S. trading partners in the South China Sea--Hong Kong, Singapore, The Philippines, Indonesia--each have strong contingents of residents who are only an "air taxi ride" from their historic roots. San Francisco of today is a glimpse at the Pacific Rim, polyglot, conglomerate of people who will dominate the world of tomorrow.

About a third of the freshman class of the state's most prestigious public university, the University of California Berkeley, is of Asian origin. The Asian acceptance is based totally on merit, though the Asian population of California is considerably smaller than that percentage. When the opportunities of Asian-origin citizens are allowed to flourish in California, as they are in the 21th century, as opposed to the 19th century, the cultural and economic life of California is immeasurably richer.

In San Francisco, travelers can join with the Chinese who, for 140 years, have celebrated a special New Year festival in their San Francisco, which they called "Gum San Dai Fow" (Great City of the Golden Hill).

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SAN FRANCISCO'S CHINESE NEW YEAR: IF YOU GO

The information source for travelers coming to the parade is the Chinese New Year Festival Committee, 415/982-3000, www.chineseparade.com.

The overall San Francisco information source for travelers is the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, 201 Third St., Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, 415/974-6900, www.onlyinsanfrancisco.com.

A good Chinese restaurant:

Henry's Hunan Restaurant (110 Natoma Street, 415/546-4999). Critically-acclaimed Chinese restaurant with two locations. Innovative preparation breathes vitality into familiar-sounding dishes. Try the Henry's Special (chicken, shrimp, and scallops), named for chef-founder Henry Chung.

Good lodging choices, in keeping with our theme, are:

Mandarin Oriental (222 Sansome Street, San Francisco, CA 94104, 415/276-9888 or 800/622-0404). Elegant Financial District location with view restaurant on top. Known for its impeccable service.

The Pan-Pacific Hotel (500 Post Street, San Francisco, CA 94102, 415/771-8600 or 800/327-8585). This airy edifice, built around a massive atrium, remains architecturally distinctive. The spacious rooms are known for their marbled amenities.

What to wear: San Francisco can be chilly and windy, so bring warm and layered clothing.

The Airport: The San Francisco Airport is south from the City on the Peninsula. The Airporter bus can take you inexpensively into the downtown area. Shuttle services can take you directly to your hotel.

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This article was written by Lee Foster of Foster Travel Publishing. Contact him at his website www.fostertravel.com or via email at lee@fostertravel.com. Copyright Lee Foster.

Lee Foster's most recent travel guidebooks are Northern California History Weekends (Globe Pequot), which won a Lowell Thomas Award, and Adventure Guide to Northern California (Hunter Publishing).

Lee Foster's new literary book is Travels in an American Imagination: The Spiritual Geography of Our Time.

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