One of our major discoveries on this visit to Austin, Texas was the Asian or more properly Chinese Lunar New Year celebration hosted by the Asian American Cultural Center. The first time is probably the best time but we have tried to attend these celebrations whenever we can and this is still by far the most spectacular.
If you have not been able to guess by just glancing at the the following photographs this was the year of the rabbit or the fourth in the Chinese Zodiac occuring in 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011 and again in 2023. Rabbits are characterized as creative, compassionate, and sensitive according to Chinese Astrology. While engrossed in the performances I met a young lady, well they're all young at this point, who forgot her camera and I'll share here the small part of my almost 400 photographs I shared with her.
Austin has such a large Asian population that there can be several groups from any specific region or country. While the program tried to include each region in both the morning and afternoon performances I'll try to group them by area and since I have a copy of the program can mostly identify the individual groups. In the morning Anna Hand who is apparently quite well known in the community played the Guzhen. In the afternoon Eugene Ng gave what I consider a remarkable Cello performance for such a young man and classical music is my real preference.
The morning group of Indian dancers, from India not Amerinds, belonged to the Malayalee Association of Austin and gave several performances based on age and experience level with a common thread of all of the dancers enjoying the program as much as the audience. The youngest dancers in white and blue emphasized exuberance while the older girls were much more practiced. With all of these dance groups you see girls predominate.
The afternoon group from the Natyalaya School of Dance were older girls dancing together with a much more choreorgraphed presentation involving a series of elaborate movements. I also focused on capturing them individually in what looks to be an almost identical place in their routine.
Three groups of Hawaiian and Polynesian dancers belonged to the Kona Isle Hawaiian Dance Studio. The older more accomplished girls have the green leis while the younger less experienced group wore the red. The trio with the purple headdress were of course the most outstanding rivaling a professional chores line in their coordinated movements. All three performed in the morning.
As expected the Japanese contingent was one of the largest featuring several groups belonging to the Hanaygi Japanese Dance Studio. Most of these dances revolve around telling a story. I can't remember the details and can't find a good reference but the boy or young man doing the fan dance involved distracting or impressing the tax collector to reduce the burden on the village.
The Japanese group also featured quite a number of older dancers again showing that dance is not just for young girls at least in these more sedate story telling modes.
The Austin Chinese Choir sang several songs obviously in Chinese which I don't understand. I believe the conductor Chung-Hwa Chen is in red and the emcee for this wonderful day is Amy Campney in turquoise.
Originally the Korean dancers should have followed the choir but I recall them being delayed trying to find parking so I think the following three groups belonged to The Love of China.
Once these young performers get all dressed up in identical costumes and doing complex dance movements I am sure the parents can identify their own but I certaintly cannot. Hopefully I captured closeups of all seven dancers but I'm far from sure.
This group with some very young performers was the most precious with several of the younger ones having a limited attention span. They are trying hard but it takes awhile to get all the movements exact.
While the costumes are very close to the first group these very athletic performers are a distinctly different set of seven. At this point trying these moves would put me in the hospital but young kids have this flexibility.
From their position in my camera sequence just before some individual dancers I know are Korean I think the purple fan dancers should be part of the Park Koyng-Cha Dance Studio. Naturally I apologize if I have them mixed up but I do remember some mixup in the printed schedule. None the less their performance was exquisite which the camera fails to capture.
Again like the Japanese dancers these two individual performers are older ladies telling a story without the vigor of their younger counterparts.
This concludes my photographs from the inside performances and we finally get to the really important stuff. The long line of balloons each contain a prize and the kids try to pop a special one to release their treasure. This seems to be the Asian version of a pinata.
While boys may not have been included in the traditional dances, they are very much in control of the large heavy Lions running quickly about the parking lot which is what complicated parking for all of us spectators. I should also mention that it is traditional to feed them money which is why all these people are so close.
I probably have all the photographs mixed but during the lunch break the Texas Dragon/Lion Dance Team performed and the Summit Dragon Dance Team performed later in the afternoon.
It takes the heaver build of the older boys to operate the full size lions but the younger ones get to chase the ball with the dragon. You might note that some girls have invaded this traditional male preserve.
For us westerners the Lion is typically operated by two performers much like an animated horse if you'll pardon the comparison. The Dragon is much longer typically about 110 feet operated with poles. Longer dragons better promote good luck and the current world record is over 18,000 feet.