Lunar New Year celebration in Colorado brings hope and sorrow amid California shooting

On Sunday, there was a Lunar New Year celebration at the Far East Center to ring in the year of the rabbit. For many, it's a time of change and a time of hopefulness.

"I'm here to ring in some festivals that I'm missing from back home in Malaysia," said Ming Chew, who attended the event. "To see what the new year can bring in, you know, in terms of health, prosperity, luck." 

But the 2023 Lunar New Year also brought sorrow.

"It's unfortunate," Chew said. "Taking advantage of people when they're gathering in times of happiness with friends and family, to pick you at your most vulnerable time." 

Late Saturday, at least 10 people were killed in a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California. Police said the shooting happened after a Lunar New Year celebration at a ballroom dance studio, in a predominantly Asian community, but they don't know if it was a hate crime.

"It's the same reaction when a shooting occurs with any minority," said Howard Solow, with Shaolin Hung Mei Kung Fu. "The level of bias, whether it's anti-Asian, anti-Black, anti-Jewish, whatever, it's saddening. It's very saddening." 

Community members like Solow said the shootings and hateful rhetoric in this country need to stop.

"I wish that rhetoric didn't exist," he said. "People of all types, sizes, ethnicities can really enjoy each other, and not create these walls of separation and boundaries between people."

A new year tragedy is now bringing heavy hearts for many, leaving some Coloradans like Chew clinging onto hope.

"Bad things can happen but with unity and togetherness you know, we can all overcome anything that is bad," Chew said. 

The Far East Center will have two weeks of new year celebrations.