Celebrate Chinese New Year in NYC

Best Of New York. Sep 13th 22

How does NYC celebrate the Chinese New Year?

There are many ways to celebrate the Lunar New Year, from the wildly renowned Chinatown parade to the highly acclaimed Broadway production Chinglish.

For the renowned Lunar New Year Parade in Manhattan, more than 500,000 spectators are anticipated to fill the streets of Chinatown.

If you want a good view of the acrobats, musicians, beauty queens, floats, and, of course, the elaborate and eye-catching dragon puppets that dance their way from Little Italy along every main street in New York City's Chinatown neighborhood, you must arrive early.

At Sara Roosevelt Park (on the corner of Canal and Forsyth Streets), where the parade route ends, the celebrations continue with musical, dance, and martial arts performances.

After the parade, stay for dim sum at one of Chinatown's top eateries. (Try Mott or Pell Streets; both are surrounded by fantastic eateries.) For longevity, be sure to order traditional holiday meals like long noodles.

Even a classic Chinese menu, featuring soy sauce chicken, pork buns, and ginger and garlic Napa cabbage, will be available in the cafeteria. Every program is free with general entry.

A new Broadway play by Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, who also wrote "M," will round off your celebratory week.

The cross-cultural farce Chinglish tells the tale of an American businessman who visits China in search of new contracts but discovers complete perplexity (and a little love) when the complexity of the Chinese language and customs defy his expectations.

Gary Wilmes plays the naive American Daniel Cavanaugh in Leigh Silverman's Chinglish, which also stars Jennifer Lim as Xi Yan, a local government official who becomes his love interest.

English and Mandarin are used in Chinglish (with subtitles that provide much of the comedy).

Conclusion

Whatever way you decide to celebrate the Chinese New Year in New York, remember that the Year of the Cat is a sign of luck and wealth. That's something we can all rejoice about now!

Check out the list of things-to-do in NYC below and start planning your trip today!