'For the love of Chinatown': Multicultural performances, food and vendors shine at street fair

Brian Moy, a 28-year-old emergency medical technician, has entered the Chinatown Summer Fair for the last five years as one half of a lion.

“It’s a blessing, we scare away evil spirits and bring good luck,” the Bridgeport resident told the Sun-Times. “I just like helping people out. … This is just contributing to the community in a different way. You see joy when you do this.”

Moy is a part of Yu’s Lion Dance Sports Association of Chicago, helping to train 9- to 15-year-olds in the traditional art while also performing. His parents, who immigrated from Hong Kong, started Moy in lion dance when he was about 13.

He said he was shocked by the number of kids interested in it due to how physically demanding. Though after three years of training for intermediate students, and two months of prep for festival appearances, everyone manages to sync up and find their rhythm.

“It’s a mixture of a lot of improv and routine,” Moy said. “You have to overcome your own shyness sometimes. … You’re a lion. If you do it right, they only see a creature, they forget there’s a person inside it.”

They were among the numerous groups performing and 70 vendors setting up shop in Chinatown for the 45th iteration of the festival, which continues Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on South Wentworth Avenue between Cermak Road and 24th Street.

A stage features a fitness demonstration, Japanese drumming, tai chi demonstrations and Indian and Chinese folk dances.

Alice Eng, another Bridegport resident, said she was excited to see the different dance groups throughout the day, including the more recently added K-pop groups.

“I think it’s great,” Eng, 48, said. “It actually perked my interest in it. … I’m all for anything that brings more people to the area and diversifies it.”

But Eng’s family also has personal ties to the fair. Her husband, Michael, grew up across the street from St. Therese Chinese Catholic School, which their children attended. The school is less than a block from the festival’s main thoroughfare.

“It’s great to show off a lot about what this community is very proud of,” Eng said. “He’s hoping our children have the same opportunities and experiences that he’s had here.”

The've made an annual tradition of not only coming to the fair, but helping out. Her kids signed up to pick up trash throughout the day. Hunter, their 4-year-old Pomeranian, was less help, mostly just enjoying being out and about.

She said it also serves as a reunion for family friends from the area who have moved away.

“We try to come here every year and help out,” Eng, 48, said. “We love it, it’s a great time. We see our friends who have moved away who always try to make this event every year, so it’s kind of a nice reunion.”

Marlee Feacher, a DePaul student, was less familiar with the event. She was in Chinatown to eat with her parents, who were visiting from Florida, and some friends from the suburbs when they stumbled onto it.

There was a “long to-do list” before her parents leave Monday, including visiting the Lincoln Park Zoo and taking an architecture tour — but Feacher said it was a nice break to explore the city where she's lived for three years.

“I don’t get to come out here very often because of my schedule,” Feacher said. “It’s sort of an experience to be a tourist in my own city.”

Anita Lau, the co-chair of Chicago Chinatown Special Events, has been helping to put on the festival for several decades. She’s seen it through larger iterations — it used to extend down to West 24th Place with 30 more vendor slots — and smaller ones, such as when it scaled back during the pandemic.

Three years ago the group added a second day to the event, and it’s expanded to the largest capacity it can without impacting some local businesses farther down the street.

“It’s like a baby we raised,” Lau said.

At 75, she said she has considered retiring from her role with the event that now draws 40,000 people annually, but every year the neighborhood she has lived in since 1963 pulls her back.

“This is like giving back to the community,” she said. “We have to show them how friendly it is. … I do this for the love of Chinatown.”