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Lunar New Year Memories with StoryCorps

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Spread with Sticky Rice, Soup, Rice, Pickles, Chive Cakes. Photo by Elizabeth My-Tuyen Phu.
Spread with Sticky Rice, Soup, Rice, Pickles, Chive Cakes. Photo by Elizabeth My-Tuyen Phu.

By Momo Chang, CAAM (2/18/15)

The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) partnered with StoryCorps in San Francisco to create the first recordings dedicated to the Lunar New Year. You’ll hear Jenny (My-Viet) Phu and her parents, Frank (Dieu Tho) Phu and Jacqueline (Thanh La) Phu, who are from Vietnam and Alice Wong with her mother Bobby Hiuwan Wong.

For many Chinese, Vietnamese, Koreans and others who celebrate the Lunar New Year, this is the biggest holiday involving a feast for the family.

Bobby Wong talks about one of her favorite dishes and traditions during Lunar New Year: “money dumplings.”

Alice Wong with her mother, Bobbie, in San Francisco.
Alice Wong with her mother, Bobby Hiuwan Wong, in San Francisco.
Jenny (My-Viet) Phu and her parents, Jacqueline (Thanh La) Phu and Frank (Dieu Tho) Phu at StoryCorps in San Francisco.
Jenny (My-Viet) Phu and her parents, Jacqueline (Thanh La) Phu and Frank (Dieu Tho) Phu at StoryCorps in San Francisco.

Frank Phu remembers the sounds of firecrackers during Tet in Vietnam.

Jacqueline and Jenny Phu talks about cooking for their ancestors.

New Year, New Beginning – “We transform the whole person from the bad to the good.”

Pork and steamed bamboo shoots spring rolls.

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Interviews recorded at StoryCorps in San Francisco. Audio edited by Davin Agatep.

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