Super high score: international friends have also begun to pay attention to the Spring Festival. Which state in the United States makes the Spring Festival a public holiday? Is it Hawaii? Or another continent?
Details are as follows:
On February 10, 2005, the Empire State Building, the tallest building in new york, USA, lit up in red and yellow to celebrate the arrival of the Spring Festival in China. New york, USA, has made the Lunar New Year's Day in China a state-wide legal holiday since that day. In California, which has the reputation of "Sunshine State" in the western United States, the number of Chinese is also huge, and the contribution of Chinese is no less than that of new york. Why does new york, not California, make the Spring Festival a legal holiday?
International Herald Tribune article "Golden Rooster Announces Dawn to Welcome the New Year". When 654.38+03 billion Chinese sons and daughters are immersed in family reunions and gatherings of relatives and friends.
In a happy and peaceful atmosphere, New York State across the ocean also held a statewide large-scale celebration. The Empire State Building lights up red and yellow lanterns in the fifth year; The traditional float parade in Manhattan's Chinatown attracted hundreds of thousands of spectators, and many Chinese even drove from places outside new york to feel the festive atmosphere all over the world. The reason for holding such a large-scale celebration of the Spring Festival is that new york has made the Spring Festival a state-wide legal holiday, becoming the first state in American history to make the Spring Festival a holiday.
It's not because the Chinese in new york's politics are powerful.
According to the statistical report of the Census Bureau of the US Department of Commerce, the total number of Chinese living in New York State is about 420,000. In the same period, the number of Chinese in California reached1120,000, and it firmly took the first place in the "Chinese First State". In terms of education and employment, Chinese in new york are not dominant: nearly 75% of Chinese are not fluent in English; Among China immigrants over the age of 25, 45% have no high school education, and 30% have families with an annual income of less than 20,000 US dollars. In California, Chinese immigrants have a long history, and the Chinese are highly educated. The local Chinese policy and public policy system are more perfect than those in new york.
The system of taking the Spring Festival as a legal holiday was born in New York State, not in California where there are many Chinese, indicating that the implementation cost in New York State is relatively low. But in what way is this relatively low price reflected? Are there many Chinese in New York's political circles? That doesn't seem to be the case. In the American election in 2004, the Chinese California Congressman in San Francisco has occupied four seats. On June 2, 65438, Meng Guanghui took office as a representative of New York State, ending the 200-year history that there were no Chinese parliamentarians in New York State. Although "a new official takes office with three fires", for the 200,000 self-reliant and hard-working China people, it is indeed limited to legislate for Spring Festival travel rush.
Developing tourism economy is the source power of festival legislation
With this question, I visited the official website of new york Tourism Bureau. What comes into view is a long timetable, which shows various New Year flower markets, gardens, exhibitions and performances held in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens during the Spring Festival. Looking at these colorful, flashing and jumping words, I seem to have some clues.
As we all know, both new york and San Francisco have world-famous Chinatowns. Although Chinatown in San Francisco is the oldest and oldest city in the United States, it is also relatively old; In contrast, the development of Chinatown in New York is very rapid. Old China Street in Lower Manhattan used to be only two or three streets, but now it has developed into a Chinese community with a radius of 20 square kilometers and 30 streets, with nearly 200,000 Chinese, which is likely to surpass and surpass San Francisco's Chinatown. In recent years, with the increasing number of China immigrants to new york, three new Chinatowns have been established in Flushing, Queens, Yangtouwan and Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and a considerable number of Chinese have bought properties in them, forming a very concentrated Chinese residential group.
In recent years, China people's activities to celebrate the Spring Festival have become more and more exciting and larger, and Chinatown has gradually become a good place to appreciate China culture. New york Tourism Bureau listed the Spring Festival in Chinatown as a "must-visit" in its travel brochure, and published the official website of New York Chinatown, which is the best proof. The charm of China's traditional culture and continuous financial resources make some big companies such as new york Tourism Bureau, Bank of America, American media and Disney willing to promote, sponsor and even participate in the celebration of the Spring Festival. At this time, it is logical to make the Spring Festival a public holiday, organize large-scale activities to welcome the Spring Festival, and combine this "golden signboard" in Chinatown, New York to attract tourists, develop tourism and stimulate the economy.
With the will of the people, the cost of implementing the system will be greatly reduced. It is precisely because of this that Gao Dun's Spring Festival proposal was put forward, and the legislators in China also tried their best to fight for it. In contrast, the California government, which is dominated by high-tech industries, obviously does not regard Chinatown as an important tourist attraction. All kinds of Spring Festival activities from California can't catch up with new york in both scale and content, and most of them are spontaneously organized by Chinese people, not government agencies. In this case, the cost of proposing to write the Spring Festival into law is obviously too high. Even if China people support it with both hands, as long as there is little economic demand, the proposal will naturally be shelved or even rejected. New York State lists the Spring Festival as a public holiday, which seems to be a manifestation of "the rising status of Chinese", but it is still caused by economic factors.