Seeing colorful dragons dancing on the street and families cheering loudly in the crowds, Terry Vo said she felt a sense of nostalgia for her childhood celebrations of the Lunar New Year.
On Saturday, the first-year chemical engineering student decided to go to the Chinese New Year Festival with DiverseCity Tours, an Undergraduate Students Association Council Cultural Affairs Commission series that aims to introduce students to different cultures by organizing trips to different areas in Los Angeles. DiverseCity Tours collaborated with and received funding from the Cultural Affairs Commission Worldfest series and the General Representative 3 Breaking the Bubble initiative for the event.
At the festival, students were able to get a taste of traditional Chinese celebrations, including ornately embroidered New Year’s dresses, confetti cannons, firecrackers and lion dances to celebrate the Year of the Goat.
Janna Wang, a second-year world arts and cultures student who volunteered at the event, said many of the celebrations at the festival signify the repelling of Nian, a bad spirit sensitive to the color red and loud noises, to bring luck to the new year.
Vo, who said she is from Little Saigon in Orange County, and her friend Tesia Zhou said they wanted to celebrate their culture away from home while exploring Los Angeles.
Zhou, a first-year undeclared student, said she grew up in a primarily white suburban community in New York where there weren’t many community celebrations, but her family has always celebrated Chinese New Year traditionally.
Decorating her home with red and yellow garlands, exchanging red envelopes of money and spending time with family were important to celebrations of the New Year for Zhou. Being in a culturally diverse area like Los Angeles, Zhou said she was able to celebrate the New Year away from home.
Isabella Buckman, a third-year geography student and co-director of DiverseCity Tours, said the committee tries to include locations that showcase cultural diversity within Los Angeles to encourage students to explore areas outside Westwood.
“A lot of students think Westwood is (all of) Los Angeles, but Los Angeles extends to a lot of different parts and has different pockets of culture,” she said.
Vo said she was surprised to see that students attending the DiverseCity Tours event to celebrate Chinese New Year were from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
“It’s super cool that people want to come out and see our culture,” Vo said. “That’s something about UCLA that constantly surprises me: the diversity, but also the openness to explore other things,” she said.
Some UCLA students also participated in volunteering for the event as a part of Chi Delta Theta, a sorority dedicated to community service.
Wang, cultural chair of Chi Delta Theta, said she wanted to be a part of the festival in part because she thought it would be a way to educate students about the differences between Asian cultures. She said she enjoyed being able to share the experience with her sorority sisters and explain the different traditions of Chinese ethnic minorities.
Members of Chi Delta Theta helped clear the streets and prepare for the festival before it began, and also carried the opening banner in the parade.
“Actually participating in the traditional festivities and seeing how other people celebrate something important to them is an eye-opening experience,” Wang said. “There’s a difference when you participate than when you’re just learning about different cultures through books.”
Though the festival celebrated the Chinese New Year, it incorporated different cultures through Mexican folklorico dances, a Scottish bagpipe performance, Mardis Gras jazz bands and more, representing a variety of cultures.
“Even though it is a Chinese New Year … it’s not just about the Chinese community,” Buckman said. “A lot of other communities contribute and come together to celebrate the Chinese New Year.”