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Town honors unsung Chinese builders Mail Tribune / Drew Fleming Jacksonville merchants Jeffrey Levin and Bill Graham don a $500 lion costume, which was purchased in San Francisco recently, in preparation for next February�s Chinese New Year celebration. On the day of the festival parade, the lion will weave down California Street, collecting children off the sidewalks as it goes. In January, Jacksonville will whoop it up in memory of those �who did all the work and got nothing for it� By Melissa Martin JACKSONVILLE � Merchants are planning a 10-day Chinese New Year celebration for this 140-year-old town that was once home to thousands of Chinese miners. Firecrackers and paper lanterns, a fashion show of robes worn by ancient Chinese emperors and children chasing a lion parade are just a few of the highlights they�re planning. "We want to honor the people that developed Southern Oregon, the Chinese who did all the work and got nothing for it," said Jeffrey Levin, owner of MacLevin�s Whole Foods in Jacksonville. He�s helping plan the Chinese New Year gala that begins with a lantern festival Jan. 24 and continues with a Year of the Snake Celebration Feb. 3. There will be a parade, a fashion show with multidynasty clothing borrowed from cultural centers in Seattle and San Francisco, guests from Taiwan performing music and dance, historical and cultural displays, lectures and mining demonstrations. "We hope to get a traditional Chinese band, even some people from the Bay area and Seattle to do Chinese or Taiwanese opera," said Jeresa Hren, a Jacksonville resident who was born and raised in Taiwan. She�s bringing folks from the Overseas Chinese Cultural Center in Seattle, North American Taiwanese Women�s Association in San Francisco and some of her old high school friends to serve as models in the fashion show. "We want to get the children of the community involved, too," said Hren, who plans to recruit her husband, Ronald, and their 10-year-old daughter, Jenessa. "We want this to be an educational opportunity for the whole community." Jacksonville merchants already bought a $500 lion costume from San Francisco�s China Town. On parade day, the lion will weave down California Street, collecting children off the sidewalks as it goes. Then the children can visit shops for sticky rice candy and tangerines � Chinese symbols of good fortune. Merchants will hang paper lanterns in the street and nail to their door posts spring couplets � Chinese New Year wishes brushed with black ink on bright-red paper. "Traditionally, they are poems and usually done by an artist with fancy calligraphy," Hren said. "It�s a time for people for show off skills in writing and Chinese literature." The U.S. Hotel also will be a flurry of activity, said Darlene Turner, public relations coordinator for the Southern Oregon Historical Society. There may be booths demonstrating Chinese writing and paper cutting, as well as exhibits about local Chinese pioneers such as Gin Lin, who owned mining claims in the region. Before he returned to China in 1894, Gin had deposited more than $1 million worth of gold dust in the Beekman Bank in Jacksonville. A trail near Applegate Lake is named in Gin Lin�s honor. Also at the U.S. Hotel Ballroom will be the fashion show, mixed with performances of folk singing and dancing. "The coolest part of this program will be the fashion show that highlights Chinese clothing, both ceremonial and traditional," Turner said. Local merchants hope the celebration will pay tribute to Chinese workers who, in the mid-to late-1800s, dug ditches that carried water to the gold mines. They also built roads and railroads and worked abandoned mining claims. Although they lived in Jacksonville�s China Town, the Chinese considered themselves sojourners, staying until they earned enough money to return to their families in China and buy property. "There was so much activity brought about by the Chinese people, yet we don�t see a lot of them at all right now," Hren said. "We wonder where they went." Jacksonville merchants also hope the Chinese New Year celebration will drum up business. "January through March are suicide months for all businesses, and it�s also a dark and dreary time of the year," said Linda Graham, owner of Scheffel�s Toys. "This will liven things up." Reach Melissa Martin at 776-4477. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.