‘A time when family comes together’: Metro Vancouver MLAs host Lunar New Year event

There’s a history to B.C. Tourism Minister Anne Kang’s Lunar New Year celebrations.

The NDP MLA —  who was first elected in 2017 to represent Burnaby-Deer Lake, now Burnaby Centre — says she was amazed by the vibrancy of the Asian community.

So in 2018, Kang held a small gathering in her constituency office to mark Lunar New Year, a festival not only celebrated by the Chinese diaspora, which she is a part of, but also by people from Singaporean, Korean, and Vietnamese communities, among others.

As the parliamentary secretary for seniors at the time, Kang says she wanted the event to showcase the talents of the seniors who would use her office space to rehearse their Chinese orchestra and dance.

“Lunar New Year is essentially a time when family comes together — and I see my constituency as a family,” Kang says. “People who live in Burnaby and the people I work with as stakeholders or partners — we’re all family. And so, it’s a time for us to get together.”

By 2019, Kang grew the scale of the Lunar New Year celebrations by moving it to Burnaby’s Bonsor Recreation Complex.

Flash forward to today, Kang is planning to ring in the Year of the Horse on Feb. 21 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm at the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre, which she says will allow capacity for up to 1,400 people.

“Because the Nikkei Centre is not in my riding … I decided it would be a really great opportunity for my colleagues and I to celebrate Lunar New Year together, combined regionally,” Kang says. “Yes, [our] casework is separated by postal code of which MLA is serving which community, but when we think about Lunar New Year, I think about British Columbia.”

Her fellow BC NDP MLAs taking part in the event are Kelly Greene of Richmond-Steveston, Rohini Arora of Burnaby East, Paul Choi of Burnaby-South Metrotown, Raj Chouhan of Burnaby-New Westminster, Sunita Dhir of Vancouver-Langara, Janet Routledge of Burnaby North, Jennifer Whiteside of New Westminster-Coquitlam, and Terry Yung of Vancouver-Yaletown.

Kang says the event is non-political and cross-cultural, where it is not only about spotlighting Chinese performers but also other arts from across Asia.

Attendees can expect traditional and fan dances, tai chi, and choir performances at this year’s Lunar New Year celebration, as well as Korean and K-pop dances. Fluffy & Friends Lion Dance, a gender and body-affirming non-profit lion dance group, and drummers from the Tian-Jin Temple in Burnaby are also among the lineup.

“I just love learning about other people’s culture. I’ve become more South Asian, I’ve become more Japanese, I’ve become more Korean just because of the friends, the community, and the events I’ve attended,” Kang says. “This is a platform for everyone to really understand the beauty of each other’s culture, to come and share.”

Moving to Canada at age six, Kang says she continues to learn about her heritage through her work, volunteering, and events like this one.

“I think our next generation who are born here would really like to be part of that learning experience and continue to keep ties with their roots.”

Kang says the collaboration involved in hosting the event depends on which partner MLA or MP is available and would like to participate. In the past, she says she teamed up with former MPs Peter Julian and Jagmeet Singh, who was also the previous federal NDP leader.

She hopes attendees make new friends and connections with the participating MLAs and their constituency advisors.

“I’m hoping they see MLAs as part of their community, as their neighbours, as someone who is here to troubleshoot. Many people think their elected representatives are people who are really busy … but that’s not really the case.”

For more information and to RSVP, visit www.eventbrite.ca/e/2026-lunar-new-year-tickets-1976670430468.