Bok Kai Parade

Last weekend, Susan and I went to the Marysville Bok Kai Parade, an annual tradition dating back to at least 1880, and probably to the 1850s; it is considered California's oldest annual parade. The tradition was established by the residents of the local Chinatown, and although the Chinatown pretty much ceased to exist when mobs of white residents drove all the Chinese people out of the city in February 1886 (the same time that similar mobs were driving Chinese people out of other cities throughout much of California), somehow the parade itself continued. A few old Chinese buildings also remain, and some Chinese people from Sacramento and other cities come to town for the day of the parade, but Marysville's year-round population of Chinese descent is almost nonexistent. (A friend I went to high school with believes that her grandparents, who are Chinese and live in Marysville, are Marysville's only Chinese residents.)

This year was the second time that Susan and I attended the parade. The first time we attended was in 2009, when we were enthralled by the bizarre historical inaccuracies of floats that showed Donner Party survivors accompanied by Chinese coolies. (Marysville is named after a Donner Party survivor, Mary Murphy Covillaud, whose husband owned most of the town at one point.) We skipped last year's parade, because we were afraid it couldn't possibly live up to the bizarreness of the previous one. This year, we worked up the courage to go again.



( Tons of pictures! )