Phoenix Chinese Week

In its 2015 location at Hance Park, this became more a «fun if you’re in the neighborhood» event than a «mark your calendar» event. The small children showing off their martial arts skills were adorable. There were a small number of booths selling various forms of Chinese-​associated things, ranging from swap mart level to serious art, and I bought some stuff because why not? But a cursory search for Year of the Ram items came up dry! How is this possible? On visits to San Francisco’s Chinatown and even its barely-​still-​functioning Japantown mall thingie, you can’t miss what year it is.
I tracked down a food truck selling actual Chinese food — this was challenging — and enjoyed that, and it’s pleasant to walk around on a nice day, and hey! now I know there’s Chinese hip-​hop!

The new location at the Margaret T. Hance Park in 2014 was not the best location. The annual festival is usually held at the COFCO Chinese Cultural Center and it’s unfortunate they were unable to have it there this year. To be perfectly honest it was not very festive. The food booth’s alone range from Indian Fry Bread to churro’s and I really was ready for authentic Chinese food and there wasn’t very much to choose from.
The entertainment was boring… I wanted to see dancing dragons, drums and the beautiful dances and we came at the time when there was nothing going on. To me there should be music going on all the time. I will say the Koi fish exhibit was interesting.
The event did provide a beautiful free program and included quite a bit of information of the events happening during the week.
I just wished the festival itself was a little more festive and more options for authentic Chinese food. I really miss the old venue.