and flexibility. it is easy. get up on your feet and step to the beat. senior dance class is from sf rec and park. a great way to get out and play. >> for more information,

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>> while they are breaking that down, why don't we thank norman law and the dance team one more time? [ applause ] i'm not sure if everybody knows this, but this is actually one of the first all-girls line dance teams that we've got. good evening, everybody. my name is carmen choo, i'm honored to serve as san francisco's elected assessor and honored to be here with you tonight celebrating lunar new year. welcome to san francisco city hall.

there are so many people who are here today, and so i want to make sure that i recognize some of them so that you know who's celebrating here with you. i actually don't know if i've seen so many people who have filled san francisco city hall for a lunar new year celebration, so thank you so much for coming out tonight. first off, i want to introduce, of course, our mayor, london breed. our major co-host for tonight. we have many other co-sponsors, as well, who have also joined us today. i want to recognize the president of the board of supervisors, norman yee. supervisor fewer. supervisor gordon mar, and though this person may not be chinese, he certainly is an honorary chinese, supervisor

representing district 3, supervisor peskin. supervisor matt haney. supervisor ahsha safai. sitting over here, supervisor shamann walton. our district attorney george gascon. city treasurer jose cisneros. our sheriff, hennessy, and i believe we have representatives from our assembly member david chu and phil singh's office, as well. i want to thank the consul general for being here from china. and, of course, the many, many commissioners, the department heads, and representatives who are here with us today, as well. you know, i think that many of us know that our lunar new year

is a very celebratory event, but we all know that we are also missing a wonderful asian-pacific islander, leader, who passed away this weekend, and i want to take a moment just to recognize, of course, our public defender, jeff, who is someone who fought tirelessly for those who didn't have a voice, so please join me in just a moment of silence. thank you. and so now, one woman who i've seen at every single chinese new year event that there possibly could be and lunar new year event there possibly could be in san francisco, she probably works harder than anybody i've seen, she's in this valley, she's in the bay view, sunset, irving, chinatown, i want us to

have a warm and big welcome to the 45th mayor of san francisco, mayor london breed. [ applause ] >> good evening, everyone. [ speaking foreign language ] i want to thank all of you for coming out here to celebrate lunar new year at city hall. it means a lot to have each and every one of you, along with so many amazing performers, to just really highlight the significance of lunar new year, especially in san francisco with such a rich history and a diverse culture within our chinese community. i'd also like to, along with carmen, assessor recorder carmen

chu, acknowledge jeff adachi. we know that if he were alive today, he would be sitting right in that front row cheering on this program, continuing to support each and every one of us. it is a big loss to our city, and i am just really honored to have called him a friend. so thank you, carmen, for taking a moment of silence to acknowledge public defender jeff adachi, and thank you all who have shown up here today. now, many of you know that jeff loved to party. he loved a great event, he loved a great performance, and so to honor his legacy, we are going to celebrate tonight. we are going to celebrate the new year like it's 1999. are you with me? okay, maybe not, but that's okay. we got some great performances that are going to get you out of your seat and get you excited about what we have to bring forward here today. and so i want to take this opportunity to thank the consul

general of china, ambassador wang, thank you so much for joining us today, it means a lot, as well as eddie alt from the san francisco chinese chamber of commerce. the chinese new year parade was absolutely incredible. all of the work that you did to make it possible, along with many of the events to celebrate lunar new year made san francisco just a shining jewel and an envy amongst all communities around the world. so thank you so much, the san francisco chinese chamber. congratulations to ms. chinatown usa, katherine wu, who will be performing for you all later. and i just want to say, today's a celebration. yes, there will be a few speeches, but we have kids from elementary school, the all-girls lions dance team, one of the first to ever exist in our city.

we have so many incredible folks here to really put a smile on your face and celebrate all there is to celebrate on lunar new year. i want to thank each and every one of you for being here today, and at this time in honor of our relationship and our friendship with china, i'd like to ask ambassador wang to come forward and to accept a certificate of honor on behalf of the city and county of san francisco. ambassador wang? we know it is the year of the boar. we are celebrating prosperity and wealth, and i am looking forward to continuing this time-honored tradition here in san francisco, so on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, we would like to declare this year the year of the boar officially in the city and county of san francisco. thank you, ambassador, for being

here. >> thank you, honorable mayor. i would say that i'm very pleased and honored to join all of you in celebrating the chinese lunar new year, the most honored chinese traditional festival. i don't think any words can describe my excitement at the moment. i would like to thank you very much, mayor, for the celebration, which is, indeed, the most unforgettable one i have ever had outside of china. [ applause ]

as a new citizen of san francisco, i think i'm very proud of the new achievements made in the city development under your leadership. as the chinese consul general, i'm very pleased to note the new progress in the collaboration between china and san francisco last year. looking into the new year, we all have new aspirations and expectations. i think a better relationship between china, the united states, will enable the two countries to grow stronger and will enable all of us to live a better life, so i would like to work with all of you to expand the collaboration between china and san francisco and california, and to pursue a better relationship between

china, the united states, this year and beyond. lastly, a very happy new year to all of you, and also thank you very much, mayor, for the certificate, which is a great honor and also a great treasure for me. so i would work even harder to promote the collaboration between china and san francisco. thank you. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> and before i turn it back over to our assessor recorder carmen chu, i would also like to acknowledge a few other leaders who are joining us here today. commissioner goretti louis is joining us, as well as someone who has been just a tremendous person to so many incredible causes here in san francisco and internationally. thank you, florence, for joining

us here today, as well. and with that, have a wonderful time, enjoy this amazing celebration. this is your city hall. this is your celebration. have a great evening. >> thank you so much, mayor breed, consul general. i also want to acknowledge supervisor rafael mandelman, who is here, as well. next, you're in for a treat. we are going to be having a performance from the marina middle school singing. marina middle school, are you here? you're ready to go? let's give them a warm round of applause. [ applause ] let's give them a warm round

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[ applause ] marina middle school. let's give them a round of applause as they take a picture. [ applause ]

[ applause ] let me take a moment to also thank the apa heritage foundation and claudeen chang who works tirelessly every year to organize this event. thank you so much, claudeen. now, one of the things that i know mayor breed cares a lot about is making

please join me in a big round of applause for gordon j. lau performers, fourth and fifth graders. congratulations. come on in. ♪ ♪ ♪

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>> let's give a big round of applause to the gordon j. lau elementary school kids! [ applause ]

and now a gentleman, of course, who needs no introduction, someone who's worked his entire life to support children, to support children's services, i want to introduce to come up to the stage, of course, the president of the board of supervisors, supervisor norman yee. [ applause ] >> give those kids a big hand from marina and gordon j. lau, yeah! [ applause ]

general wong, and everybody else that's here.

so they want to have to just come on up. supervisor fewer, supervisor peskin, supervisor safai, supervisor mandelman, supervisor walton, yes. so i just want to wish everyone here a very happy, happy lunar new year, year of the boar. it's a real great year to be celebrating with all these kids, with all my colleagues, with the mayor, mayor breed, with consul general wong, and everybody else that's here. keep this short -- [ speaking in chinese ] happy new year. >> thank you. of course, it feels strange then to not invite my citywide colleagues to stand up here with me then. george, will you come on up, vicki, will you come on up and just say a quick few words? >> happy new year, everyone. let's celebrate the year of the pig and have a great time

tonight, thank you. >> what else can i add? happy lunar new year and thank you all for coming tonight. >> and now i'd like to introduce a wonderful artist, benjamin sun. he's a renowned master chinese irwu musician. for many of you who can remember what you did when you were age 7, this gentleman started playing when he was aged 7. he's world famous for his abilities and his achievements over his lifetime, so please join me in welcoming benjamin sun. ♪ [ applause ]

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♪ ♪ >> thank you so much, mr. sun. the next two individuals are people that we have worked with time and time again in the community to ensure that we have

not only the wonderful lunar new year parade that happens every year in san francisco, but also to provide great community service and benefits scholarships for many of our family associations. i want to, of course, welcome up the president of the chinese chamber of commerce, eddie awe, as well as glenn fong to represent the ccba. [ speaking chinese ] thank you for a wonderful celebration. the chinese chamber of commerce is happy to conclude another

successful lunar new year festival, from the street fair and to the parade, asian-american culture was displayed on a large scale. the u.s. attracts tourists from all over the world, and we could not be more proud. thank you for your support during the festival. as we could not have done without you, and may the year of the boar be the best year with good health and good fortune. thank you. >> thank you. honorable mayor london breed, honorable government officials,

ladies and gentlemen, we, the chinese association representing the chinese community, are honored and pleased that honorable mayor set up the nice event. to celebrate the chinese new year, the year of the boar, we thank you, mayor, for understanding that the chinese new year is the biggest holiday for the chinese community, celebrating with us tonight. accompanied with me are the

persons of the sixth company, president steve boar right there, president of the war association, an honor, president, of the young war veteran association. please stand up. steve, please stand up, and executives, secretary. hope everyone have a happy and wonderful chinese new year. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you, eddie and glenn, and now coming from visitation

valley, we have the visitation valley neighborhood association dancing a group performance for all of us. please welcome mrs. kayling wong. [ applause ] ♪ ♪

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>> thank you to the visitation valley neighborhood association. [ applause ] and now our final performance for the evening, someone truly special, i want to introduce you to our 2019 ms. chinatown usa, katherine wu. [ applause ] she will be playing tonight for all of us to listen to, and she's one of my personal favorites, because we've actually volunteered so many

times together at community events. please welcome ms. katherine wu. [ applause ] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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>> thank you, katherine. i'd like to also acknowledge two other individuals who have joined us this evening, the community college school board, ivy lee, as well as our san francisco usd jenny lamb, newest appointed. of course, an event like this could not be put together without the work, tireless work, of organizers and also volunteers. i'd love to bring up to the stage claudeen chang to please thank the volunteers and countless sponsors of tonight's event. >> thank you. happy new year, everyone. i think when we celebrated the first day of the new year with mayor breed and all the community's leaders in chinatown and saw all the picks, we saw

the sun was shining, so we know this is going to be a very good year for all of us and for the city and county of san francisco. the a.p. heritage foundation is very, very happy to support the work of the mayor's office of neighborhood services in putting together this event, and we really thank mayor breed for your vision of including so many varieties of entertainments, because in thousands of history in china, we have so many varieties of talents and with every little difference in the different provinces and we really appreciate opportunities to see so many of them this year. it's really special. thank you, mayor breed. so with this event, i'd like to first thank the chinese consolidated association for contributing year after year, the line dance, and also, of course, our master benjamin sun, thank you for being here. you travel around the world all the time. i'm glad you're in san francisco.

and inside the reception hall, as many of you have been here every year, we also have the master calligrapher, who will be continuing to write calligraphy, so everybody loves to line up and get the lucky words written for the year, so master terry luck will be at the reception waiting for you. i also would like to extend a warm thank you to all the volunteers from the committee, the a.p. heritage committee foundation who are volunteering today. mr. thomas lee. thomas, where's thomas? who is responsible for all the design that's going on, the invitations, so thank you so much, all, for being here. and i know that next year will be great. hopefully, we'll see everybody next year here with this celebration ushering in the new year and thank you again for the opportunity to support this. [ applause ] >> thank you so much, claudeen.

as we conclude the event, i'd like to invite all the dignitaries, our mayor, elected officials, and all the performers to please come up so we can take a group we are celebrating the glorious grand opening of the chinese rec center. ♪

1951, 60 years ago, our first kids began to play in the chinese wrecks center -- rec center. >> i was 10 years old at the time. i spent just about my whole life here. >> i came here to learn dancing. by we came -- >> we had a good time. made a lot of friends here. crisises part of the 2008 clean neighborhood park fund, and this is so important to our families. for many people who live in chinatown, this is their backyard. this is where many people come to congregate, and we are so happy to be able to deliver this project on time and under budget. >> a reason we all agreed to name this memorex center is

because it is part of the history of i hear -- to name this rec center, is because it is part of the history of san francisco. >> they took off from logan airport, and the call of duty was to alert american airlines that her plane was hijacked, and she stayed on the phone prior to the crash into the no. 9 world trade center. >> i would like to claim today the center and the naming of it. [applause] >> kmer i actually challenged me to a little bit of a ping pong -- the mayor actually challenge me to a little bit of a ping- pong, so i accept your challenge. ♪

>> it is an amazing spot. it is a state of the art center. >> is beautiful. quarkrights i would like to come here and join them >> greetings, everyone. we are ready to begin.