Riverside’s Lunar New Year festival 2011

Red being a color symbolizing prosperity, it is often the color that is used for lanterns and costumes. A Chinese dance troupe performed on the stage in front of the public library.
The Vietnamese also celebrate the Lunar New Year as do the Japanese and Chinese.

Last Saturday, January 29, Riverside hosted its first Lunar New Year festival.

The organizers of this one-day celebration hope to make this an an annual affair celebrating the diversity of the Asians and Asian Americans living in our city and the region.

In order that this becomes an annual event, I hope the vendors who participated found this worthwhile.

Community events such as this relies on financial support especially in its inaugural year.


Having been a resident of this city since 1987, I’ve watched over the years as UC Riverside slowly became more and more like UCLA. (University of Caucasians Living Among Asians)

Suma Hareesh, decked out in her beautiful sari, were among those who attended teh Lunar New Year festival.

An indicator that a region or, in this case, a city has become home for a critical mass number of Asians is the quality of its Asian restaurants and availability of good markets to prepare those kinds of cuisines.

I still have to travel an hour west towards Los Angeles before I can find a Chinese restaurant I like.

As for the other indicator, Asian markets, the signature Asian market chain, 99 Ranch Market has made it as far east as Rancho Cucamonga.

Could Riverside be next?

This domestic engineer, stay-at-home-dad certainly hopes so.

New Year, New Gear–new skills to learn

I’ve had the Canon 5D Mark 2 at least 3 months now.

In that time, I’ve spent quite a bit of time with it.

The more time I spend with it, the more I realize I’m constantly having to ask myself what I should shoot if I see something great happening in front of me.

Video or Stills?

Grace of Greenwala.com with her family were among the vendors who supported the event.

My 1st love is still photography.

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you the landscape for photography has changed quite a bit.

When I bought my first camcorder years ago, I was asked if I was going to do any editing.

I hastily said no.

After playing with the camcorder a while I quickly realized that my videos were boring and the only way to make them watchable was to edit out the boring parts.

You would be wise to keep an open mind as well.

Folks, video is in all your futures, too, like it or not.

Just like you can’t find a cellphone today without a camera, you might find that in time, that you won’t be able to buy a DSLR without video capabilities.

Embrace it. Adding a new skill for the new year is a good thing.

lunar new year 2011

Peter Phun Photography | 


2 thoughts on “Riverside’s Lunar New Year festival 2011”

  1. Jack,
    Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment. It was a pleasure meeting Samansa and Berniece, both gorgeous young ladies. Looking forward to next year. 😉

  2. Thank you for including Miss Taiwan Brazil Samansa Hu and Miss Teen Taiwan Berniece Chen in your video! I love both your stills and video! They are great! You are a true professional! Jack Liu, Chairman of Miss Taiwan Foundation.

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