A Chinese parade dragon chases after its pearl during the annual Bok Kai parade outside the Bok Kai temple gate at the intersection of D and 1st in Marysville’s historic Chinatown.

 

MARYSVILLE, CA (MPG) - Jon Lim and the Marysville Chinese Community are asking residents to mark their calendars for March 1 and 2.

This will be the return of the annual Bok Kai festival, held in accordance with the lunar calendar, in California’s last surviving Chinatown of the Gold Country - Maryville.

This year marks Bok Kai’s 145th “birthday,” an event long touted as the oldest continuously held parade in California and will also commemorate the year of the Wood Snake.

The snake is the sixth animal in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac and is said to symbolize wisdom, adaptability and renewal, and is associated with themes of introspection and intuition. Likewise, wood is the most “human” of the elements, according to Chinese culture and is associated with the capacity to look forward, plan and make decisions leading to growth and expansion.

Already, the Marysville Chinese Community is touting this year's Bok Kai as a year for “elegance, wisdom and transformation.” It seems fitting then that Jon Lim, president of the Marysville Chinese Community, recently disclosed to the Territorial Dispatch that he will receive an Engage Empower and Implement (EEI) grant from the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) in the amount of $500,000.

“This is a pilot program grant and we’re very excited for it,” said Lim.

Lim announced that he would apply for the grant, when he stood before the Marysville City Council on July 2 seeking both their support and partnership. Without the city’s partnership, Lim said, grant funds would have been limited to $80,000.

A partnership opened the door to more funding that will result in a 70/30 split, with approximately $150,000 going toward the city for administrative purposes and the remaining $350,000 going to the Marysville Chinese Community.

“It's a grant to help come up with a blueprint for what the Marysville Chinese Community would want Chinatown to look like,” said Lim. “It gives us a way to have a voice in government, to do things the government can’t do.”

According to the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, this is the first time that the organization has implemented a funding program that encourages partnerships between cities, counties and local community-based organizations (CBOs) for the purpose of planning more equitable projects together.

“The goal of EEI is to create a pipeline of equitable, safe, and sustainable projects that are developed with communities,” said Rosie Ramos, project manager for Engage Empower and Implement. “The number of applications and total grant requests shows that there is a strong interest in this new type of community-focused planning and development.”

On Nov. 14, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments’ board of directors approved $3.8 million in funding for 11 projects across the region, including $498,049 for Lim and the City of Marysville’s proposal, and another $500,000 for an Industry Assessment & Workforce Development Strategy proposed by Yuba and Sutter counties in partnership with the Yuba-Sutter Economic Development Corporation.

Over the next 20 years, goals listed by the Marysville Chinese Community include identifying community stakeholders, determining stakeholders’ needs, defining Chinatown’s physical borders and gathering community input. Lim said the plan also includes developing a land use model and design and identifying public and private investment funding opportunities.

By setting clear borders on Marysville’s Chinatown district, Marysville Chinatown Community members hope to have more control over the look, function and nature of developments being brought into the area and have their ideas added to the city's masterplan. The proposed blueprint can also set up the community and city to obtain further grant funding.

As for the upcoming Bok Kai celebrations, Lim and his team are actively seeking volunteers, sponsors, vendors and parade entries, specifically marching bands. The parade is scheduled for March 1, 2025, starting at 10 a.m. and fireworks will go off near C Street around 8 p.m. Lim plans to find other activities to fill the afternoon such as music, dancers and martial arts demonstrations.

On March 2, the following day, Bomb Day will proceed as usual at 4 p.m. and organizers are looking to bring back both the car show and rib cookoff. The Marysville Chinese Community is still accepting applications for the 2025 Bok Kai hostess; eligible applicants must be age 16 or older, 1/8th Chinese and be from the Yuba-Sutter area.

For more information, visit bokkaitemple.com or contact Jon Lim at 530-329-2254 or email [email protected].