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RALEIGH -- If you wanted to taste sweet tofu pudding, try your hand at Chinese chess or watch traditional lion dances, there was only one place to be Saturday. The Chinese New Year carnival in Raleigh drew more than 2,000 people to the Lighthouse Convention Center, where vendors showed off traditional foods, crafts and games. The Year of the Rooster also proved good luck for the Triangle Area Chinese American Society, which sponsored the event in advance of the holiday on Wednesday. Attendance was way up from last year, when about 1,200 people attended, said the group's president, Monling Liao. It was the first year the group held its celebration in a carnival format. For the past two decades, participants would pile into Raleigh Memorial Auditorium downtown, watch a formal stage show, then leave. "This time, the atmosphere was more like a real Chinese New Year," Henry Lai said while helping his son load a wooden toy gun with a rubber band. "There's food, entertainment and you can chat with friends." North Raleigh resident Chiayao Wu, 54, agreed with Lai, her tai chi practice partner. "The arena could have been a little bigger," Wu said, sitting among a sea of packed tables. The aisles around the festival were also crowded, particularly in front of booths selling traditional treats like sweet almond gelatin and translucent sticky rice balls stuffed with vegetables. (There were egg rolls and lo mein for the faint of palate.) Many festivalgoers wore traditional qi pao shirts, and a large number were American families who had adopted Chinese children. Besides a dizzying array of performances kung fu, Chinese opera, fan dancers and a youth symphony all took the stage there was serious business too. Vendors included Buddhist groups, organizations raising money to distribute rice in Indonesia and professional networking clubs. Many will later have their own New Year's banquets. "This one, we really wanted to promote cultural exchange and community service," Liao said. "We opened it to everyone." Keh-Liang Lee represented the N.C. Hakka Association, which promotes the heritage of a Chinese minority group. "This kind of event gives a chance for all the different social groups to showcase their unique traditions," Lee said from a booth decorated with straw outfits and gourd artifacts. Staff writer Ellen Sung can be reached at 829-4565 or mailto:esung@newsobserver.com
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