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Watch This Year's Lunar New Year Parade Virtually
A screenshot from the 2021 virtual Lunar New Year celebration in L.A. The 122nd annual parade went virtual due to the pandemic. (Screenshot via Facebook Live)
The annual Golden Lunar New Year Parade, traditionally held in downtown Los Angeles, is going virtual this year because of the pandemic.
The Chinese Chamber of Commerce of L.A. hosts the celebration, which they say is the longest-running Lunar New Year parade outside of China. The event started in the late 1800s as a government-sponsored effort to bridge racial divides at a time when Chinese immigrants faced intense discrimination, and even outright exclusion from the country.
Those origins have taken on a new significance as reports of violence against people of Asian descent have increased during the pandemic.
Gloria Chang Yip is the vice president of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of L.A.:
"We're trying to take a page from the history books and replicate what is an event that is supposed to bring all of humanity together and draw some common bonds — we all have families, we all have celebrations and traditions in our culture."
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