Sunday New Year's

Just got back from Washington, D.C.'s Chinese New Year celebrations. My Taiwanese coworkers at TECRO (Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, in lieu of an Embassy due to the Taiwan-China dispute) encouraged me to go. I assumed we'd all stand on the sidelines and watch the procession of dancing dragons and such go by. Turns out we were part of the parade!

Not the dragons, of course, but simply marching with lines of alternating Taiwanese and American flags. I initially felt a bit self-conscious, as I was the sole white guy in a sea of Chinese, but then I remembered the 8 months I'd spent in exactly the same position while studying in China, and it was easily shrugged off. I'd never been in any kind of parade before, either--it was neat to try out the opposite perspective. And so many people! Perhaps in New York or San Francisco I would have expected a big deal, but we actually had a pretty good turnout.

The parade appeared to have been organized and put on entirely by the Taiwan Chinese population of the District, with the only sign of the mainland being a large PRC (People's Republic of China) flag on display at a souvenir stand. I must admit I felt a few brief pangs of worry that taking part and associating myself so visibly with the ROC (Republic of China) flag might affect my chances of future employment on the Mainland, but barring an unexpected downturn in currently upbeat cross-straits relations, I highly doubt it.

The parade ended with several speeches by Taiwanese and D.C. government dignitaries, including one surprisingly interesting one by a D.C. "senator" whose name escapes me. This fellow spoke of the lack of official representation from which D.C. and Taiwan both suffer, and gave a rousing call to action for both parties. I'm not sure I'd give much for Taiwan's chances of representation, what with the current government's stated desire somewhere between "don't talk about it" and "eventual reunification", plus a very large neighbor threatening instant annihilation or at least invasion at the first sign of declared independence, but it was a nice thought. Sigh, and for all that, D.C.'s chances are probably pretty equivalent, so I suppose it was an apt comparison.

I did see current Council member and former mayor Marion Barry up there with the officials, and I'd never seen him before despite having heard so much about him, so that was kind of cool.

The whole event was scheduled to end with an awesome Chinese firecracker display so long that it had to be held up by a crane, but the DCFD came along at the last minute and cancelled it. Admittedly, there may have been some hidden issue of which I was unaware, but come on guys, it's just a bunch of gunpowder packed in paper held up by a crane. They even pushed the crowd back far enough to form a good-sized empty circle before the DCFD showed up, which probably wasn't necessary. If the fire department thought this was dangerous, they would have had a collective heart attack at the week-long celebrations in Beijing (videos forthcoming!).

Ah well, still a fun time in the parade. Happy Year of the Ox!