changing, and, you know, you look at a screen, and you click a mouse, and you order something, and it shows up, but to have a tangible experience, to be able to come in to taste things, to see things, to smell things, all those things, it's very important that you do so. >> okay. i want all of san francisco to hear us, so louder. >> all right. we want to first off welcome our mayor, the mayor of san francisco, mayor london breed.

[applause] >> we've got to check this out. >> the hon. london breed: the pressure. [speaking foreign language] [applause] >> the hon. london breed: i am so excited to be the mayor of such an incredible city, where we celebrate our diversity, where we celebrate our culture, where we focus in on really important opportunities to really engage with our families and our communities. lunar new year is that celebration, which really highlights the importance of family, of coming together, of community, and of celebrating each and every person that is important to our communities and our neighborhoods. and i'm being upstaged by a

pig. but happy year of the boar, everybody. here in our city, we will break bread together, we will watch and celebrate the festivities together. there's an incredible market in chinatown where there are flowers can you purchase, goodies that you can purchase chas, and i. i along with many people that you see will be participating. the beautiful floats, the outfits, the excitement, the kids, the costumes. firecrackers, all of this is an exciting time to celebrate lunar new year in san francisco. i hope you will join us, i hope you will celebrate the year of

the boar as one of luck and prosperity and hope for the future. thank you today for being here, everybody. [speaking foreign language] >> wow. a lot of the events in chinatown wouldn't happen without the chinese chamber of commerce. the president, eddie yao. >> i have to say something in chinese today. [speaking chinese language]

>> wow. one-fifth of the world is smiling today. everybody's happy, all around the world. and we have the general council from china here, mr. wong. general council wong, give him a super global hand, yeah! [applause] >> honorable mayor london breed -- [speaking chinese language]

>> -- and to improve the business environment, and i think great progress was made. [inaudible] >> -- equivalent to $13.6 trillion u.s. representing 6.6% year over year. and china's trade with foreign countries amounted to $12

$12.6 trillion u.s. and china's trade with the u.s. raising $6.25 million u.s., and created by 8.5% with china's exports to u.s. all those figures represent -- i think demonstrate that china's economy has maintained stable and good momentum for developing. and well, the tariffs increased on china's exports to the united states were counter productive, and that -- that's led to the down sizing of the

united states market share in china. that's also told us that there's an urgent need to bring u.s.-china trade relations back to normal sooner rather than later. looking into the new year, i think china and the united states would work together, work together to develop the relationship based on coordination, cooperation, and stablity as outlined by the two presidents cheering on the sideline of the g20. and i think our countries are working very hard now to implement a consensus. and i would like to work with all of you to materialize the

consensus reached by two presidents. both of our countries can benefit more from our cooperation. thank you. happy new year again. [applause] >> wow, council general from china. we're all supposed to be happy. good news, so happy new year, mr. president trump. hope that you will continue to preserve a positive relationship between our countries. yeah. okay. so we've got all of the big shots here, a lot of big shots fr . from the board of supervisors, i was advised that supervisor norman yee would come up and speak, and all the other supervisors would back him up. come on.

>> president yee: [speaking chinese language] >> president yee: happy new year of the pig. >> there you go. aren't they cute? >> president yee: i just want to say this is going to be a great year of celebration starting today, new yes, sar's. many things are coming to make chinatown a place where more people are coming. last year, they opened up the new chinese community centers. this year, we -- for the first time, i've actually seen the children from ctccc that started the first bilingual chinese preschool in chinatown. so this is going to be a great year for us, and i'm glad that my colleagues are all here to help kick off the new year's, the year of the pig. thank you very much.

[applause] >> supervis >> supervisor fewer: [speaking chinese language] >> supervisor fewer: hello, everyone. i'm sandra fewer, the supervisor of district one. i just want to say how happy i am today to join you in the celebration for the lunar new year celebration this year. wishing everyone a lot of prosperity, good luck, good health through 2019. [applause] >> all the way from sacramento -- no, he's really from san francisco. assembly man david chiu. >> i want to welcome everyone to the heart of san francisco in chinatown on this warm and

balmy day. i often in our state capitol brag about the fact that san francisco has the oldest, the moe most historic, and the most significant chinatown in the entire country. we have the best line dancers, the best dragons, and the cutest kids, and the cutest pigs. a this is an amazing chinese community with our wonderful mayor london breed, our president of the board of supervisors, normanier, and board of supervisors, and nonprofits organizations like ccdc, and on behalf of our state delegation, we want to welcome everyone and wish everyone a happy lunar new

year. happy year of the pig. thank you very much. >> we've got the chief here, we have the district attorney. i think he's going to try to speak a little chinese. give it up for diego gascon. let's see if he speaks any chinese. [speaking chinese language] >> this is a special day for me. i come from a family that's very large and very close. i know this time of year in the chinese community is a time of hope, it's a time of community, it's a time of family, and it's a time of looking forward, so i'm very proud to be here with you today, celebrating. i want to thank the entire chamber, entire city family for being here today, and again, happy new year, and happy year of the pig.

[applause] >> my favorite blessing is the one that says may your dreams come true, so we're going to yell out, right? okay. help me lead it. her chinese is better than me. go ahead. >> okay. norman wants us to say -- [speaking chinese language] >> one more time, one more time. >> one more time. [speaking chinese language] >> hello, everyone. my name is carmen chu, and i serve as san francisco's assessor, and i want to wish everyone a happy lunar new year and year to come. [speaking chinese language]

[applause] >> okay. i want to acknowledge a lot of people, and thank you for not speaking today, okay? it's coal. commissioner allen low, standup. city administrator naomi kelly. we have all the supervisors, we've already mentioned them. there's some big shots that keep this park clean, and our alleyways. one of my favorites, mohamed, is over there to may right. yeah, you know it. chief william scott, we'll give you a chinese break today. council member stevens couldn't make it today. do you want to say something for him? >> i just want today say dr. stevens couldn't make it, but we have over 100 communities being represented, coming down to the parade and looking at the fine art. >> and there are a lot of other

big shots here, but we don't have time. but i hear the mayor has a proclamation or certificates or something? can we do them all at once? okay. you got them? [inaudible] >> the hon. london breed: thank you, reverend fong. and before i issue the certificate, i just want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the new member of the board of education, jennie lam, and just add that the san francisco chinese chamber of commerce for so many years continues to not only promote and support businesses in our chinese community, they have led the efforts to make lunar new year here in san francisco one of the best lunar new years anywhere and especially because of their commitment to

basically hosting and pulling together one of the -- putting together one of the best parades anywhere. so on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, i'd like to present the president of the san francisco chinese chamber of commerce, eddy ao honoring him with his commitment and his work in making this parade even better, and the best is yet to come. thank you. [applause] >> before the dragon comes out, all you big shots right front and center so we can take a group picture. sorry i didn't get to mention everybody, malcolm, you know, everybody's here, captain yip and everyone, we're going to take a big picture right in front here.

the mayor just volunteered to hold the pig. [laughter] streets. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> i wanted to wish you a best

wishes and congratulations the community has shifted a lot of when i was growing up in the 60s and 50's a good portion of chicano-american chinese-american lived in north beach a nob hill community. >> as part the immigrant family is some of the recreation centers are making people have the ability to get together and meet 0 other people if communities in the 60s a 70s and 80s and 90s saw a move to the richmond the sunset district and more recently out to the excelsior the avenue community as well as the ensuring u bayview so chinese family living all over

the city and when he grape it was in this area. >> we're united. >> and growing up in the area that was a big part of the my leave you know playing basketball and mycy took band lessons and grew up. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> allergies welcome to the community fair it kicks off three weeks of celebrations for the year and let's keep everybody safe and celebrate the

biggest parade outside of china on february 11th go best wishes and congratulations and 3, 2, 1 happy enough is enough. >> i grew up volley ball education and in media professional contrary as an educator he work with all skids whether or not caucasian hispanic and i african-american cumber a lot of arrest binge kids my philosophy to work with all kids but being here and griping in the chinese community being a chinese-american is important going to american school during the day but went to chinese school that is community is important working with all the kids and having them exposed to

all culture it is important to me. >> it is a mask evening. >> i'd like to thank you a you all to celebrate an installation of the days here in the asian art museum. >> one time has become so many things in the past two centuries because of the different did i licks the immigration officer didn't understand it became no standard chinese marine or cantonese sproupgs it became so many different sounds this is convenient for the immigration officer this okay your family name so this tells the generations of immigrants where they come from

and also many stories behind it too. >> and what a better way to celebrate the enough is enough nuru with the light nothing is more important at an the hope the energy we. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> relative to the current administration it is, it is touching very worrisome for our immigrant frames you know and some of the stability in the country and i know how this new president is doing you know immigration as well as immigrants (fireworks)

later than you think new year the largest holiday no asia and china those of us when my grandparents came over in the 19 hundreds and celebrated in the united states chinese nuru is traditional with a lot of meani meaning. >> good afternoon my name is carmen chu assessor-recorder i want to wish everything a happy new year thank you for joining us i want to say. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> (speaking foreign language.) >> i'm proud to be a native san

franciscan i grew up in the chinatown, north beach community port commission important to come back and work with those that live in the community that i grew up in and that that very, very important to give back to continue to work with the community and hope e help those who may not be as capable in under serving come back and giv. i'm scott adams. i'm board chair of the a.p.a. heritage foundation. we want to thank you for joining us this evening as we celebrate lunar new year, the

year of the boar. we wish you and your family the best of fortune, prosperity and much happiness. we are a nonprofit organization dedicated to securing funds and coordinating resources to support the city's annual a.p.a. heritage organization festivities. our organization is made up of a very small board, and i'd like to introduce to you our directors. we have our treasurer, irene yee riley, our incoming treasurer, j.j. lara. board member matt mooey, and our founder and president, claudine ching. [applause] >> so although we're a very small organization, we're able

to put on celebration events every year because of the dedicated members of the a.d.a. celebration committee, and that's a group of 30-some odd representatives of the community that makeup the a.p.a. community. so if you are a member of that group, can you please raise your hand? okay. everyone give them a hand. [applause] >> want to thank you so much for being part of the a.p.a. team. now please give a warm welcome to our president and founder, claudine ching. >> thank you, scott. [applause] >> thank you, everyone for helping to come celebrate lunar new year. today is the third day of the new year. some of us were in chinatown for the first day of the year with mayor breed, and when i friend, walter wong, celebrated the biggest celebration in chinatown with eight pigs, is

that right? and firecrackers, so i want to acknowledge of the presence of the mayor who will be speaking shortly and the members of the council and community members of the so eve-- members. every year, we kick off events in the community with the lunar new year celebration. we can take the opportunity to tell you a little bit more about what we are doing for a.p.a. heritage month this year. some of you may not have been to our a.p.a. heritage month celebration, so i want to take the opportunity to talk about the a.p.a. heritage month. last year, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the law that established this particular celebration. so the month of may, why is it the month of may a.p.a. heritage month?

congress decided because of two reasons. the first day of 1943 marked the rival on may 7 of the first japanese immigrant into the united states in the record so that was one reason. and the other reason was on may 10 -- 1843 -- 1869 was the completion of the trans-continental railroad. so that's why the month of may was selected, and this year was the 150th anniversary of the trans-continental railroad. so for this year's celebration on may 1, as you all are invited to our event, together with mayor breed, we'll be celebrating two significant historic events. one is the completion of the trans-continental railroad, and the other one actually is the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the college of ethnic studies at san francisco

state. this is unbelievable that to this date, although there are a lot of ethnics -- different studies classes in many universities and colleges, our san francisco state remains the only ethnic studies department in the whole country where asian american studies african american studies, all ethnic studies had a part of. this is a momentum decision. we are very happy to be celebrating these two significant occasions this year, and during our event, we will be presenting the second annual edwin mah lee public service award. last year, the winner was our assessor-recorder carmen chiu. we're very happy to have her -- in the month of may be able to

bring to our city a whole month of activities. we have plenty of events because we have celebrations, partners such as the asian art museum, san francisco public library, and the country's largest asian american themed festival. with all of these organizations, i think we have a healthy calendar. but back to today, we are happy to be here, celebrating lunar new year. we are very lucky to be in a city that we have cultural offerings with the different cultural offerings. so some of you -- some of you may not have met mayor breed. mayor breed is a native of san francisco. she grew up in the western addition in the public housing, graduated from schools -- from

schools in san francisco, from galileo, as i remember, and without taking the time to read the mayor's long bio, many people have asked me how is it working with mayor breed? and i just have to say, i am not jewish, but if i were jewish, our mayor has a lot of chutzpah. no matter what issue she is addressing, housing, transportation, public education, every time i hear the mayor talk about this, she's open-minded. she's willing to look at other solutions of the city that have been -- of problems of the city that have been around for years and decades. so we're very proud to have mayor breed with us today. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: thank you, claudine. you know, when i first started on the board of supervisors, i attended this event, and it was

always in room 201, in the mayor's conference room. and i would always say, claudine, we're growing. we need more space. and finally, she took me up on my word, and she decided we were going to move this incredible celebration to here, the north light court. this is our great celebration of our a.p.i. heritage month kind of kickoff. even though it's not in the month of may, it is during the lunar new year which is of course fitting that we celebrate such a time honored tradition here in our city. i want to thank so many people who are joining here -- joining us here today, including so many folks from the leadership, many of our sister cities, folks from manila, from osaka -- yes, you can clap -- from seoul, taipei, ho chi mint

cities, places that we share more than our brotherly and sisterly loves, but relationships of community, of business, and a number of other things that are so important and vital to the success of not just san francisco but the entire world. i also want to take this time to recognize that we have a number of council generals who are with us here today. starting with the council general of the philippines, who is -- i hope i don't butcher your name council general. i apologize from the philippines, and his wife. thank you so much for being here. council general for the republic of korea is here, as well. and council general from japan. thank you so much for joining

us. we have really an incredible relationship with so many of our sister cities as well as the council generals from all over the world, and san francisco, as you know, has been the gateway to the pacific, and we truly value our relationships which promote trade and cultural and educational exchanges. we -- we know sadly we're living in a time our immigrant population and our cultural diversity are sometimes not welcomed in other cities across the united states, but i want you to know that here in san francisco, it's not only welcomed, it's celebrated. it is celebrated in a way that really honors our rich history and our traditions. and we have many celebrations throughout the year, including during the month. we just kicked off black history month here in the rotunda in city hall, chinese

lunar new year, which is amazing, along with an amazing parade and a number of festivities, and we will kick off asia-pacific heritage month, which we started celebrating in 2005. when i served on the board with supervisor -- well, actually, only supervisor president yee was on the board when we passed that resolution, making it official in san francisco. and here he is now, the president of the board of supervisors, along with his colleagues, and they'll be talking in just a minute. so i am just here to say thank you to so many of you, especially because as we know, it takes a lot of resources to put together so many amazing community activities that promote our diversity and our culture, and i just want to thank the a.p.i. heritage committee for their continued work and fund raising and bringing people together. and claudine, at this time, i'd like to honor you and the members of the committee with a

certificate thanking you for your service and the work you continue to do every year, not only asking for support, but twisting our arm and making us all participate and help us to understand how important this is to so many of our asian communities around the city. thank you for being a real advocate for the a.p.i. community in san francisco.

[applause] >> the hon. london breed: thank you, everyone. [speaking chinese language] >> so understand board president norman yee's here with all his colleagues, and from the dinner we have in chinatown recently, i was shocked to hear that every single one of the board members of supervisors speak beautiful chinese, japanese, all kinds of languages. so in the interest of time, because i understand that mayor breed might have to leave, so i'm going to ask you to maybe just say two lines of greetings in your own language, whatever you prefer. and try not to repeat what the -- what the preceding speaker have said, okay? but maybe we should start with president yee. >> president yee: thank you, claudine.

[speaking native language] >> president yee: happy new year to every one of you. this is a great celebration that happens every year. i want to thank the a.p.a. heritage foundation to sponsor this every year because it really means a lot to our community. yes, mayor breed, it's true. in san francisco, we embrace our diversity. in san francisco, and probably the only city, the public school actually gets a day off for lunar new year. probably the only district -- we should give them a big hand. [applause] >> president yee: and that was made possible because of the leadership of supervisor fewer and myself and a few other a.p.i. school board members that were able to provide to

say you know, it makes a difference to 50% of your students, and they made it happen. now another thing, every year, we get to look at the new stamp. by the way, claudine, i still have the original one, 1993, when you unveiled that, that was such a happening. this is something that took a little while to get the federal government, the post office to actually engage and make this happen for us because they didn't -- there was a little rip resistance there, but after a while, they said wow, this is pretty good. to all of you, to all of my colleagues here, we are here to celebrate, and we are here to honor the a.p.a. heritage foundation. so on behalf of the full board of supervisors, we'd like to give you this certificate. claudi

claudine scott, would you come up and accept it? [applause] >> president yee: so come on up. just say happy new year. >> supervisor fewer: [speaking native language] [applause] >> good evening, everyone. my name is matt haney. i'm supervisor from district six.

congratulations and thank you for all your work to the a.p.a. heritage foundation. i have to say i've been to a few celebrations around the year of the pig, but this is the first one that i've seen where there's a whole pig to eat. happy to celebration with you. >> supervisor brown: hi. i'm vallie brown, the proud supervisor of japantown. unfortunately, can you please tell me how to say happy new year in japanese? [inaudible] [applause] >> supervisor safai: good evening. my name is supervisor ahsha safai. happy new year. very happy to be here for the third or fourth year. congratulations to claudine and all the leadership for a.p.a. this is a wonderful celebration. i actually am also an asian

supervisor from western asia, from the -- from the country of iran, so i'm going to say happy new year in farsi. [speaking native language] >> supervisor safai: thank you. [applause] >> thank you. ve we want to acknowledge d.b.i., the head, tom, and mohamed nuru from the department of public works. we have captain link from central station, and commander lozar. so the highlight of today's program is unveiling of the lunar new year stamp. as board of supervisors president yee mepgsed, inntion

u.u u.s. post office issued the first series of stamps in 1993. this is the last year of the series of stamps. we are not sure if we're going to get the new ones. so there is a pgs for all of you to sign after the program because we want to make sure the united states postal service unders we in san francisco, just like many people around the country, we love our stamp that celebrate our cultural heritage. i would like to invite post master abraham cooper. >> good afternoon. or i should say good evening. you know, it's an honor to unveil the 12th and very last

stamps and celebrating the lunar new year. as the post master of san francisco, i'm proud to present such a beautiful and meaningful stamp. it represents a lot of significance not only to the community but also to the people that we serve in san francisco, but our employees, as well as we celebrate, and they also celebrate lunar new year. the lunar new year stamp is currently available for sale at the local postal service and also independently also as booklets. the board believes to represent luck and good fortune but also symbolized hard work and generosity as trust and also sincerity. i'd also like to think that the postal service fits that description well as the relationships between the san francisco district community and the leaders that's in the room today. and without further adieu, i'd like to bring up the mayor as

well as norman yee and claudine chan for the unveelg of tilinge chan for the unveiling of the stamp. [applause] [inaudible] [applause]

>> it's great to see everyone kind of get together and prove, that you know, building our culture is something that can be reckoned with. >> i am desi, chair of economic development for soma filipinos. so that -- [ inaudible ] know that soma filipino exists, and it's also our economic platform, so we can start to build filipino businesses so we can start to build the cultural district. >> i studied the bok chase choy

her achbl heritage, and i discovered this awesome bok choy. working at i-market is amazing. you've got all these amazing people coming out here to share one culture. >> when i heard that there was a market with, like, a lot of filipino food, it was like oh, wow, that's the closest thing i've got to home, so, like, i'm going to try everything. >> fried rice, and wings, and three different cliefz sliders. i haven't tried the adobe yet, but just smelling it yet brings

back home and a ton of memories. >> the binca is made out of different ingredients, including cheese. but here, we put a twist on it. why not have nutella, rocky road, we have blue berry. we're not just limiting it to just the classic with salted egg and cheese. >> we try to cook food that you don't normally find from filipino food vendors, like the lichon, for example. it's something that it took years to come up with, to perfect, to get the skin just right, the flavor, and it's one of our most popular dishes, and

people love it. this, it's kind of me trying to chase a dream that i had for a long time. when i got tired of the corporate world, i decided that i wanted to give it a try and see if people would actually like our food. i think it's a wonderful opportunity for the filipino culture to shine. everybody keeps saying filipino food is the next big thing. i think it's already big, and to have all of us here together, it's just -- it just blows my mind sometimes that there's so many of us bringing -- bringing filipino food to the city finally. >> i'm alex, the owner of the lumpia company. the food that i create is basically the filipino-american experience. i wasn't a chef to start with, but i literally love lumpia,

but my food is my favorite foods i like to eat, put into my favorite filipino foods, put together. it's not based off of recipes i learned from my mom. maybe i learned the rolling technique from my mom, but the different things that i put in are just the different things that i like, and i like to think that i have good taste. well, the very first lumpia that i came out with that really build the lumpia -- it wasn't the poerk and shrimp shanghai, but my favorite thing after partying is that bakon cheese burger lumpia.

there was a time in our generation where we didn't have our own place, our own feed to eat. before, i used to promote filipino gatherings to share the love. now, i'm taking the most exciting filipino appetizer and sharing it with other filipinos. >> it can happen in the san francisco mint, it can happen in a park, it can happen in a street park, it can happen in a tech campus. it's basically where we bring the hardware, the culture, the operating system. >> so right now, i'm eating something that brings me back to every filipino party from my childhood. it's really cool to be part of the community and reconnect

with the neighborhood. >> one of our largest challenges in creating this cultural district when we compare ourselves to chinatown, japantown or little saigon, there's little communities there that act as place makers. when you enter into little philippines, you're like where are the businesses, and that's one of the challenges we're trying to solve.

>> undercover love wouldn't be possible without the help of the mayor and all of our community partnerships out there. it costs approximately $60,000 for every event. undiscovered is a great tool for the cultural district to bring awareness by bringing the best parts of our culture which is food, music, the arts and being ativism all under one roof, and by seeing it all in this way, what it allows san franciscans to see is the dynamics of the filipino-american culture.

i think in san francisco, we've kind of lost track of one of our values that makes san francisco unique with just empathy, love, of being acceptable of different people, the out liers, the crazy ones. we've become so focused onic maing money that we forgot about those that make our city and community unique. when people come to discover, i want them to rediscover the magic of what diversity and empathy can create. when you're positive and committed to using that energy,

>> sfgov tv. san francisco government television.