2023 Year of the Rabbit

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Hoppy New Year! Read New Gods for a Lunar New Year: A Guide to China’s Light Chaser Fantasy Films ~ My Latest Review for Den of Geek



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Lunar New Year mass shooting in California traumatizes Asian Americans already on edge
Families who started the night celebrating a major Asian holiday in Monterey Park, California, are now devastated by trauma and grief.
Dion Lim Opinion contributor

As we grapple with the tragedy of 10 killed in a mass shooting during Lunar New Year celebrations in Monterey Park, California, I encourage the public to see horrific events like these through a different lens.

Whether this is deemed a hate crime or not, there are families grieving on what is supposed to be a day symbolizing a new, prosperous beginning. No matter who the shooter was, families who started the night celebrating a major Asian holiday are now shattered with trauma and grief.

This attack is not helping the Asian American community already on edge from hate violence that started during the COVID-19 pandemic and is still continuing. The best we can do is to continue the momentum of sharing these stories and continuing the oftentimes painful discussions so that not just our community, but also those who do not look like us, understand that the virus of hate is still alive in America today.


Lunar New Year celebration brought thousands to Monterey Park

Monterey Park, a city of 60,000 east of Los Angeles, is 65% Asian American, 27% Latino and 6% white, according to census data.

Authorities on Sunday released photos of the male Asian suspect who hit the Star Ballroom Dance Studio on Saturday night, killing five men and five women. Ten survivors were rushed to the hospital, some in critical condition. The shooting took place shortly after a Lunar New Year celebration brought thousands of people to the city, where many shops feature signs in English and Chinese.


People watch police near the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, Calif., on Jan. 22, 2023, the morning after a gunman killed 10 and injured 10.

About 20 minutes after the shooting, L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said, a male Asian suspect with a firearm walked into another dance hall in the neighboring suburb of Alhambra. Patrons wrestled a gun from a suspect who fled in a van.

This weekend had marked the first time Monterey Park had held its Lunar New Year celebration since before the pandemic. While the shooting took place away from the city-sponsored event, officials canceled the two-week festival’s second-day events as a precaution.


'The nail that sticks out gets hammered down'

Reflecting back on the past several years, being on the forefront reporting on the attacks on Asian Americans and the #stopaapihate movement, I know we have come a long way in raising awareness. But there is an astronomically long way still to go.

In the Asian culture, it’s commonplace for many, especially those from an older generation, to adhere to the adage of “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.” Meaning, speaking or acting out of turn, such as when tragedy or trauma strikes, is dishonorable and looked down upon.

However, I am encouraged by the number of youth who buck tradition and understand the importance of sharing their stories, no matter how painful. They’ve seen how a simple interview can make a major impact.


Just a couple weeks ago, a Chinese woman shared with me a surveillance video of her 78-year-old father being senselessly assaulted and knocked to the ground while walking down the street in broad daylight. While I was relieved and grateful to be trusted with her story, I couldn’t help but feel anxious at the same time.

Would the public continue to care? Could I get this story approved to bring it to a widespread audience?

Dion Lim is an anchor/reporter for ABC7/KGO-TV in San Francisco.
Not to mention that comments from the public such as “it seems like it’s getting better” were becoming more frequent. I’m afraid of frequency fatigue, and that this woman’s father could become “just another victim.”

Dion Lim is an anchor/reporter for ABC7/KGO-TV in San Francisco and the author of the upcoming book "Not Your Model Minority" (Third State Books). Follow her on Twitter: @DionLimTV

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This year had The Warrior Monks in Action from 1:32:26 to 1:37:32 The performers were from the Henan Shaolin Temple Tagou Martial Arts School...

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Follow the White Rabbit... Read Chinese New Year 2023: Year of the Wet Hare by Gene Ching

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Lunar New Year holiday trips surge in China after lifting of Covid restrictions
By Nectar Gan and CNN's Beijing bureau
Published 12:15 AM EST, Sun January 29, 2023


China saw 226 million domestic trips during the Lunar New Year holiday, state media reported, a 74% surge from last year after the government lifted all travel curbs under its now-abandoned zero-Covid policy.

For the first time in three years, Chinese people were free to travel without the hassle of quarantine or fear of lockdown for the most important holiday of the year, when families reunite in their hometowns to celebrate the new year or go on vacation together.

The number of trips made inside China during the week-long holiday, which ended on Friday, is the highest since 2020. They include journeys made by all means from flights, trains and cars to boats.

But the figure still fell far below pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, 421 million domestic trips were made over the holiday.

The pent-up demand for travel saw China’s tourist hotspots flooded with crowds during the holiday, from the tropical beaches on Hainan island to the ancient villages in the mountainous Yunnan province.

Overseas travels also skyrocketed after China finally reopened its borders earlier this month. During the Lunar New Year holiday, 2.88 million trips were made across the border, an increase of 120% from last year, according to the National Immigration Administration.

During the Lunar New Year holiday in 2019, 12.53 million cross-border trips were made, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The Chinese government abruptly abandoned its costly zero-Covid policy in December, following mass protests against stringent lockdowns and Covid tests.

The sudden lifting of restrictions saw the virus spread rapidly throughout the country and caught the healthcare system unprepared. Residents were left to scramble for fever medicines and antiviral treatments, while hospitals and crematoriums were overwhelmed.

With once-ubiquitous Covid testing mostly scrapped, the government stopped reporting the majority of infections, making it difficult to assess the severity and scope of the massive outbreak.

Amid international criticism over China’s limited release of data, Chinese health authorities in recent weeks published more detailed epidemic information that suggests the outbreak has already peaked.

On Wednesday, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said recorded visits to clinics on January 23 had dropped 96.2% from a month earlier, when the peak of cases was reported.

Only 15,000 people tested positive for Covid via PCR tests on January 23, compared to more than 6.9 million on December 22, according to the CDC report.

It’s not clear the extent to which the levels of testing have changed during that time – which could affect such figures – or how many people have been infected overall since China moved away from zero-Covid in early December.

On January 21, the CDC’s top epidemiologist Wu Zunyou estimated that 80% of the country had already been infected.

The officially reported Covid death toll is also in decline. Between January 20 and 26, China registered 6,364 Covid-related deaths, according to the CDC, about half of the 12,658 deaths reported a week earlier.

China revised its overly narrow way of counting Covid deaths earlier this month, following mounting criticism over its lack of transparency – including from the World Health Organization. It now includes the deaths of Covid patients who had underlying conditions, instead of only counting fatalities from respiratory failure.

CNN’s Simone McCarthy contributed to reporting

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Chinese film industry gets boost from strong showing over Lunar New Year
With takings of just under US$1 billion, this year’s holiday period beat the 2019 and 2022 performance, although it was below 2021’s record level
Full River Red by the acclaimed director Zhang Yimou and the sci-fi drama The Wandering Earth II were the most popular features over the holiday
Yuanyue Dang in Beijing
+ myNEWS
Published: 9:00pm, 28 Jan, 2023


An audience settles down for a screeing of Full River Red at a cinema in Shanghai. Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

The Chinese box office performed strongly over the Lunar New Year holiday, lifting the gloom over the country’s film industry and giving a strong boost to the country’s economic recovery.
As of Saturday, takings stood at 6.8 billion yuan (US$973 million), compared with 5.9 billion yuan during the 2019 Spring Festival and just over 6 billion last year, according to box office statistics provider Maoyan Pro.
However, the figure was still below 2021’s record figure of 7.8 billion yuan.
The most popular film was Zhang Yimou’s historical suspense film Full River Red, which accounted for 2.7 billion yuan, followed by the sci-fi movie The Wandering Earth II, which accounted for 2.2 billion.
According to Maoyan Pro, over 120 million people went to the cinema in China during this year’s Spring Festival holidays.
A total of seven new films were released in China during this year’s Spring Festival, all of which were domestic films.
Public interest in Full River Red and The Wandering Earth II, based on a story by the popular sci-fi author Liu Cixin, was boosted by online arguments by rival fans about which of the two films was better.
Other major releases have not fared so well however. Hidden Blade, a second world war spy thriller, had mixed reviews leading to the ratings website Douban, not disclosing the film’s rating for a while.
But another new release – Ping Pong: The Triumph, a drama about the men’s team’s victory in the 1995 world championships – was suddenly withdrawn from release on Wednesday because of its dismal box office ratings.
The Spring Festival has long been regarded as a barometer for the fortunes of the domestic film industry because it has become customary for people to go to the movies during the week-long holiday.
The box office suffered during the early stages of the pandemic, with many releases being cancelled in 2020 and total takings reaching just over 10 million yuan.
Although the zero-Covid restrictions in place during the 2021 and 2022 Spring Festivals did not appear to have a significant impact, with several patriotic blockbusters and high ticket prices helping to boost takings.
Ticket prices for this year’s Spring Festival season fell to 53.5 yuan, down from 56.1 yuan last year.

All the films released during the holiday were domestic ones. Photo: Getty Images
The total number of screenings was also down on previous years as the length of films was generally longer this year.
Financial media outlet 36Kr argued that although the box office total is not as high as in 2021, this year’s Spring Festival performance is already a positive one for the film market.

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Yuanyue Dang

Yuanyue joined the Post in 2022 and covers culture and society news. He graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a bachelor's degree in journalism and holds a master’s degree in anthropology from University College London. Previously, he worked as a features reporter for Esquire China, The Beijing News and Initium Media.

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