By Alexander Dworkowitz
A fire-breathing martial artist, Asian dragons and teenagers with foot-high Afros were among the thousands who marched in Flushing’s 7th Lunar New Year Parade Saturday in what has become one of the largest annual gatherings in Queens.
The event celebrated the year 4700 of the Chinese calendar and 4335 on the Korean calendar, which began as The Year of the Horse three days later.
The Chinese and Korean calendars are based on the movements of both the sun and the moon. The new year, the first day of the first full moon, is a time to celebrate good fortune, happiness and family.
The parade was solely a Chinese event when it began in Flushing in 1996 and grew to include Koreans in 1999. This year it has become a hodgepodge of Asian traditions, wild spectacles and modern American culture.
“Every year it’s getting better and better,” said Mei Hua Ru, 34, as she stood on Main Street. One of her daughters, Gaby, 6, climbed onto a lamppost, peering at men in costumes depicting Taoist deities. Ru’s other daughter, Arielle, 8, was nervously anticipating her own rhythmic gymnastics performance later in the Flushing Mall.
Eileen Melton, 45, a fifth-grade teacher at PS 163 in Flushing, said her students looked forward to the day all year.
“It’s their favorite holiday, and it’s also mine,” said Melton.
Some 3,500 people marched in the parade, and police estimated that the good weather brought 10,000 people to watch, making it the biggest parade in Flushing’s history.
Of all the marchers, the crowd favorite was Il Doo Yum, the 7th-degree black belt who shot eight-foot flames out of his mouth. Yum accomplished the trick by spitting lighter fluid out of his mouth and through the flames of a torch he held in his hand.
Yum, the 42-year-old master of Yum’s Martial Arts Academy in Elmhurst, said he had been working on the trick for 30 years.
“You have to practice for a long time,” said Yum, who, after taking a break from the trick, launched a series of front kicks.
The people in the crowd, many of whom stood on the LIRR platform above Main Street to get a bird’s-eye view, also gave a large cheer to two members of the 2002 Korean World Cup, who juggled soccer balls with their heads and feet for much of the parade route.
Members of the Falun Gong, banned by the People’s Republic of China in 1999 as being subversive, were the final marchers in the parade, silently practicing their spiritual exercises in front of the crowd.
While the parade was full of traditional Lunar New Year spectacles, such as men dressed as Taoist deities and Asian dragons dancing frantically, this year’s event drew groups new to the parade.
A group of teenagers who plan parties for the Flushing Mall was possibly the most enthusiastic groups of marchers.
“It’s great!” screamed J. Kim, 16, as she bounced back and forth between her friends in her group, many of whom sported foot-high Afros.
A group of 15 men from the Bahamas beat drums as they strolled down Main Street in extravagant white, blue and yellow paper costumes.
“The way they bring in the new year is similar to what we do,” said James Turner, who organized the parade’s Bahamians as district manager of the Grand Bahama Island Tourism Board. “They bring it in with singing and dancing, and so do we.”
Fred Fu, president of the Flushing Chinese Business Association and one of the event organizers, saw the parade as part of the formation of a new American culture based on different immigrant traditions.
“We’re going to combine [Chinese] culture with other cultures to become a better culture,” said Fu.
After the parade, a group of Queens politicians, which included Borough President Helen Marshall, state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing), state Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin (D-Flushing) and Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) spoke in front of a crowd at the Flushing Mall’s parking lot.
“I want to thank you for sharing the richness of the oldest society in the world,” said Marshall.
Following the speeches, the event broke up, with Koreans heading to Flushing HS and Chinese to the Flushing Mall for separate indoor new year’s celebrations.
Reach reporter Alexander Dworkowitz by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 141.
