Chinese New Year Cultural Fair

Sandy's Event #2

I don't think my Chinese New Year celebration quite beat Maya's in the lameness department, but it was below even my low expectations. When we first arrived at the Oregon Convention Center, a long line was serpentined around velevet ropes, leading into a room with music and dancing. When we handed the usher our complimentary tickets (from F.X.'s tai chi master), he said, "Oh, Chinese New Year is downstairs. This is Vietnamese New Year." Chinese New Year, it turned out, was not much more than a trade show at which local businesses handed out their brochures in Chinese. Wells Fargo bank offers free checking to Chinese people! Panda Express hires Chinese people! How to ride Tri-Met in Chinese! Oh, and there were a couple food carts dishing up noodles and dumplings. Not many non-Asian faces there at all, except for adoptive parents. We spent about 20 minutes wandering from booth to booth, which was 15 minutes too long.

Fortunately, the next day we went to "New Chinatown" and had excellent HK-style dim sum. We also visited the brand new FuBonn Supermarket, which was like a Chinese + Vietnamese + Thai grocery combined (with a few overly priced Japanese goods too.) So our East Asian weekend was only halfway lame.