BOISE, Idaho — This article first appeared in the Idaho Press.
The Chinese New Year is coming up this Sunday. Here’s how Idahoans can help celebrate in the Treasure Valley.
This holiday is important within Chinese culture, and over 1 billion people celebrate it worldwide. This year is the year of the rabbit.
“We want to promote Lunar New Year culture and tradition. We want people to know us,” Idaho Chinese Organization President Yong Gao said. “To know that, we are the same as them, hard-working people.”
The Idaho Chinese Organization and the Idaho State Museum are partnering to celebrate the new year together on Jan. 21. Their event will feature performances, including a Chinese traditional dance group, Chinese character calligraphy workshops and traditional Chinese tea service, Gao said.
The organizations also received 30 entries for their Lunar New Year Art competition, whose theme was “The Lunar New Year I Know.” The winners will be announced on Saturday. Voting ends on Jan. 19.
Winners will be exhibited in the Idaho State Museum for a month, Gao said.
Boise has a complicated history with Chinese people. Downtown Boise’s Chinatown was destroyed in the 1960s for urban renewal.
Boise also surrounds Garden City, which is named for the gardens raised by Chinese immigrants living in the area. The name of Chinden Boulevard, which runs through Garden City, is a combination of the words China and Garden.
As of 2021, 1.6% of Idahoans identified as Asian alone and .2% identified as Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But in 1870, Asian people made up almost 30% of the Idaho territory’s population.
“We came to Idaho very early, we have pioneers (who) came to Idaho for mining, for other activities,” Gao said. “There was a huge population in Idaho, the Chinese population, but because of policy, everything, many people left.”
In the 1860s, gold discoveries began drawing Chinese people to Idaho as miners or support services, according to the University of Idaho. Many later worked on railroads, though others were in professions like medicine or hospitality.
The British had brought their global capitalism to China which disrupted local traditions and land ownership systems, Jeff Kyong-McClain previously told the Idaho Press. Kyong-McClain is the director of the Idaho Asia Institute and associate professor of history at the University of Idaho.
Many Chinese people sought after America not necessarily as a new place to live but as a different place to earn some money with new economic possibilities.
Because of the Civil War, the 14th Amendment gave American-born individuals citizenship. More Asian people started giving birth on U.S. soil, and others started to view the United States as not just a place to work but as a place to stay.
“You get at that moment, a transition,” Kyong-McClain said. “This is now their home, they’re not going back to China, they’re not going back to Japan. You really get more even clearly, this creation of an Asian American identity.”
Elsewhere in the area, Boise State University’s Chinese Club will host the annual “China Night: A celebration of Chinese culture” on Jan. 26.
Nampa has no formal plans, according to a city spokesperson. Meridian has a social media post planned, a city spokesperson said. Boise did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meichun Lin, Idaho Chinese Organization Committee Member, remembers helping to prepare food for the Chinese New Year with her mother. It’s a holiday where family and friends get together to celebrate the past year and look toward the future, she said.
“I am sharing my culture with people who want to learn about it. It’s more like a sense of responsibility, instead of celebrating with my family, like what I used to do in China,” Lin said. “I feel like I’m promoting it. ... I’m trying to share with people who would like to know more about a culture.”
For the Chinese New Year, people can wear something red, Lin said.
“That's the color of the new year,” Lin said. “It means happiness.”
The Idaho Chinese Organization’s event will help give people a taste of home as well as introduce the culture to others, Gao said.
“We also have our holidays, we have our traditions. We want everyone (to) know who we are and respect our culture,” Gao said. “ I want Idaho to be a great state that welcomes people. ... Idaho is not just filled by one culture, it’s filled by multi-cultures.”
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
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