Families and friends from as far south as San Diego gathered at the USC Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena for a Lunar New Year celebration full of live performances, art, activities and traditional Asian food. The museum welcomed the Year of the Dragon on Saturday with an estimated thousands of visitors.

The celebration commenced with art activities associated with the Lunar New Year. The museum’s courtyard, intended to be reminiscent of China’s classic gardens, bustled with visitors trying their hands at the art of calligraphy. Artist Ching Ching Cheng led the calligraphy workshop, inviting visitors to write auspicious Chinese letters on red paper lanterns.

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The museum’s parking lot was also busy with a dragon-themed crafts workshop to celebrate the Year of the Dragon. Hosted by the non-profit organization Barnsdall Arts, the workshop invited people to craft dragon face masks out of paper plates as well as fold small dragons out of Chinese take-out boxes. 

The other side of the parking lot had been turned into a stage for live performances. The performance lineup began with a dynamic lion dance and martial arts demonstration by the Northern Shaolin Kung Fu Association. 

Kelley Weng, a first-generation Taiwanese immigrant who attended the event, said her nine-year-old son was inspired to learn lion dance after watching the performance. Weng has been attending USC PAM’s Lunar New Year celebration for several years to introduce her children to Asian culture. 

“The Chinese New Year, to me, is a time to get together with your loved ones,” Weng said. “But here in America, it’s a way to introduce our culture to [our children], to let them see how beautiful our culture is.”

College students also took to the stage; in the morning, the USC Traditional Chinese Dance team offered visitors a glimpse into the elegance of Chinese folk dance. In the afternoon, UCLA’s Vietnamese Traditional Dance team performed an elegant Vietnamese dance sequence. To conclude the day’s events, USC Kazan Taiko entertained the audience’s eyes and ears with a Japanese taiko drumming performance. 

Sam Abalayan, a member of the USC Kazan Taiko for two years and a sophomore majoring in computer science games, said she hoped to invigorate the audience with her club’s performance.

“I’m just excited to show off everything that my club has learned this year,” Abalayan said.

Other performances included opera soprano Shirley Wang singing a traditional Chinese Lunar New Year song, and Lan Nartthaisan Thai Dance Group Los Angeles’ captivating dance sequence. DooDream, a group of middle and high school students based in Irvine, performed Samulnori, a genre of Korean traditional percussion music.

The museum, which partnered with USC in 2013, has been hosting Lunar New Year celebrations for over a decade but has rarely seen such a large audience turnout.

“It’s our first year bringing [the Lunar New Year celebration] back in full swing since the pandemic, and we had a smaller-scale celebration last year,” said Valentina Quezada, the Education and Engagement Manager for USC Museums. 

Last year, the museum made the difficult decision to postpone its Lunar New Year celebration for a month following a mass shooting in nearby Monterey Park. This year, however, Quezada said she was expecting about 3,000 attendees in total.

Kayla Shin, a junior at North Hollywood High School and a member of DooDream, said the number of attendees almost doubled since she performed at last year’s Lunar New Year celebration. 

“I think this is the largest turnout since I’ve been helping the event,” said Nancy Lan, who has been working as a docent at USC PAM for the past 14 years.

Quezada said USC PAM endeavored to represent the variety of Asian and Pacific Islander cultures when inviting performers to this year’s Lunar New Year celebration. 

“By bringing in different performers, what we had in mind was to ensure that people really feel represented when they come to the museum,” Quezada said. She also hoped that people who do not usually celebrate the Lunar New Year would experience a variety of Asian and Pacific Islander customs.

Saturday’s event also offered visitors a free entrance to the museum, which is currently holding a special exhibition called “Another Beautiful Country.” This special exhibition features artworks portraying the nuanced relationship between Chinese American identities and representations and is on view until April 21. Admission to the museum is free for all USC faculty, staff and students with current USC IDs.

Tammi Sison contributed art to the print edition of this article.