Chinese New Year
The Year of the Dog and the beginning of the Spring Festival were marked by over 200,000 revellers in Chinatown on Sunday, January 29th; among them 35 intrepid Oundelians. We witnessed the biggest parade in the event's history in London, with dragons and lions, drums, ribbon and fan dancers making their way from Leicester Square to Trafalgar Square.
The true challenge was squeezing into one of the dozens of packed-out restaurants in and around Gerrard Street; certain groups managed this better than others, but industrial quantities of duck were eventually consumed by all but the most committed vegetarians among us. The stage in Trafalgar Square hosted musical performances through the afternoon, introduced in enthusiastic Mandarin, Cantonese and English to impressive though occasionally bemused crowds.
The narrow streets of Chinatown are ill-equipped to handle large crowds, and one group of Oundelians, sandwiched between two onrushing lion dances, feared that they might never emerge; all returned safely to begin the New Year, however. Next year Chinatown may be a very different place; a multi-million pound project, which Westminster Council hopes will double the area's size, begins on Wednesday.
Simon Kent