Around here Chinese New Year’s is a major event and this year Chinatown went all out. The parade was extra-long and the crush of spectators particularly dense.  Offerings of lettuce and red envelopes hung from almost every doorway, and bands of lion dancers and drummers roamed the streets long after the main parade had dispersed.

A DTES Art Walk ran on the same day, and we  finally got to explore  some of the  spaces we’d lusted after as art students, a couple of decades ago. Back in the ’80’s, the Chinese owners just laughed at us when we asked about studio rentals in those great, high-ceilinged old buildings. But the area’s economic downturn, its aging population and growth of Richmond’s malls has given art students and other gwai lo access where there had been none before.

This beautiful young woman had just come from the parade, and was walking home with her boyfriend. I think  the body-paint tattoo was done at Sun Yat Sen Gardens on Pender Street.  They had events on as well… a local Peking Opera performed… and the gardens were full of music and sunlight.