Dragons return to Red Bluff for the weekend
by Maxwell Tedford
Thu, February 1st 2024
Chinese New Years is officially on Febuary 10th. (KRCR)
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RED BLUFF, Calif. — Red Bluff is hosting a once-in-a-century event this weekend. For the city's second annual Chinese New Year's celebration in a hundred years, they are hosting a Chinese Dragon Parade to celebrate—something that hasn’t been done since 1908.
“The symbol of the dragon is that she blesses the town with strength and power," shared Jessica Chew. "Whereas the lions bless the towns with prosperity and good wealth and fortune for the year.”
This map sits in the Historic Chinatown Alley showing how Red Bluff used to look in the early 1900s.(KRCR)
Chew is one of the founders of the of Helen and Joe Chew Foundation which helped put together the past two years of Chinese New Years celebrations. A tradition that had disappeared in Red Bluff by the mid nineteen hundreds.
“My grand fathers home was the last one to be demolished from one of the wooden structures," Chew said. "Luckily his birthplace has survived all these years and this is the only building that’s left from the original Chinatown.”
The former location of Chinatown in Red Bluff is marked by these signs installed last year after a campaign by Jessica Chew. (KRCR)
Chew’s family has a long history in the town potentially being the second ever Chinese family to settle in the area.
“The Chew family arrived in 1865," she says. "They were doctors, and they treated the Chinese community because during that time the Chinese community couldn’t go to the hospital.”
With this years celebration bringing the Dragon Parade back to town after over a century. Chew says they want to highlight Wong Foey, the first Chinese immigrant in Red Bluff. He commissioned the first Chinese dragon in America.
“Moo Lung arrived in the 1880s in San Francisco before she went to Marysville," she said. "Marysville then commissioned her all across the united states, with Red Bluff being one of the only stops in Northern California.”
With only enough funding for one more celebration Chew says she and other descendants of the original families are ready to bring it all full circle.
”A lot of us are coming back just to make sure that we do this together and recreate history, and give the town an opportunity to really experience a reenactment of our heritage and our towns history.