Happy Lunar New Year Bay Area - the Year of the Ox! - Seb Frey, Silicon Valley + Bay Area REALTOR

Welcome to the year of the Metal Ox! Last year was the year of the Rat, and we all know how that turned out. But now that the Ox is ascendant, he will drive away evil spirits with his power, and he represents good harvest and good luck. The Ox is grounded, loyal, trustworthy, and gentle. And of course, the Ox enjoys hard work, to make his dreams come true.

As with most folks who grew up in California, Lunar New Year has not been a big feature in my life…unlike in Asia, where in many countries it is the biggest and longest celebration of the year.

But my family has some connections to China going back a hundred years. My mother’s family fled the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. Family lore holds that they stuffed jewels in their shoes and forked them over to Chinese border guards to gain entry to China, and they ended up living in the northern city of Harbin for a decade. We took a family trip across Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railroad in 2000, and after hopping off the train we made our way to Harbin to check out the town. Here’s a picture I took of St. Sofia’s Cathedral in Harbin, built by Russian immigrants:

Eventually my grandmother’s family moved on to California, where they had to quarantine on Angel Island upon arrival. My (American born) grandfather met my grandmother just after she finally set foot in San Francisco. As I heard it, grandfather went down to the docks specifically to meet newly arrived immigrant women because so many of them were reportedly single and eager to mingle. 😍

This same grandfather had himself spent time in China. He was in the US Army for some years, part of it spent stationed in Tianjin, in the years after the Boxer Rebellion. My family has a photo album of his from his time there, although I none of it’s been digitized yet so I can’t share any of those pictures with you now.

I grew up in Berkeley, famed for its progressivism. My elementary school (Thousand Oaks) is the very same elementary school that Kamala Harris, our new Vice President, was bussed to as a child, but she was about 5 years ahead of me, so I wouldn’t have run into her. I have many fond memories of Thousand Oaks – all my teachers were lovely. My 3rd grade teacher was Mrs. Wong, and she gave me perhaps my first awareness Chinese New Year, when she handed out the famous little red envelopes to all of us – alas, they were filled with stickers, not cash.

I think though that every lunar new year we made some kind of observation in school. Certainly they taught us to say Gung Hay Fat Choy (“Happy New Year!”) which is Cantonese, the Chinese language which was prevalent in the Bay Area at the time.

But in my late teens and early 20’s, my preferred way to observe Chinese New Year was catching some of the Grateful Dead Chinese New Year shows, complete with a colorful parade of dragons through the crowd in the second set. In ’93 they had what I believe was the official China Acrobatic Troupe come out to perform on-stage. Before they went on, an announcer came out to teach us all to say “xie xie” (“thank you”) to the performers for when they’d finished. Nearly 30 years later, I’m still in awe of their performance.

As a Pacific state, I think it’s very fitting that California enjoys such a strong Asian influence. Growing up in Berkeley, we probably went out for Chinese food more than anything else. All the tables in every restaurant I can recall were set with chopsticks – you had to ask for a fork. I learned to use chopsticks at a very young age, although I’m no Mr. Miyagi.

While I grew up in Berkeley, I spent considerable time in San Francisco in my formative years, as my parents put me in the San Francisco Boys Chorus. I schlepped across the bay to San Francisco on public transportation at least twice per week for 4-5 years.

San Francisco has a large Asian population – about 35% of the present day population is Asian, and about 23% Chinese. 40 years ago it was probably lower, but by how much I can’t say. Regardless, then as now, the weight of Asian culture was everywhere, to the point where to me, it didn’t really feel very foreign.

In the late 1990’s, I hosted an Australian friend of mine I’d met from a year I had spent working in Malaysia (itself about 33% Chinese). I took him around the Bay Area, and of course, we went to San Francisco. As we were walking somewhere downtown, he said to me, “Mate, is this Chinatown?” Surprised, I looked around and I said, “Uh, no, this is just town.” I guess I hadn’t really noticed how many storefronts had Chinese characters splashed across them. To me, it just seemed so ordinary, and I’d never given it much thought.

And that’s kind of an indictment on our educational system, progressive as it supposedly is. Certainly the experience, history, and culture of Asians in America is well worth studying. And embracing, as the world’s dominant economies tilt inexorably from West back to East.

You know the expression: it’s a small world. And it’s getting smaller all the time. At last count, I’ve visited 42 countries, and I’ve found something to love in each and every one of them. One thing that is clear to me, is that whatever the contrasts in culture, we humans across the globe have much more in common than we have differences. There really is no “them,” for they are us. While we may not observe every holiday in every culture across the planet, there’s much to learn about and appreciate in all of them.

My favorite day on the calendar is January 1, because I love a new year! I expect celebrations of Chinese New Year in California and around the world will be muted this year due to COVID. But I know that the Ox is going to work hard this year to pull us through this difficult time, so I’m optimistic that we’ll come out of this year in much better shape than we went into it.

Wishing you good fortune in the coming year!