MARYSVILLE – A historic Chinese parade attracts thousands of visitors to Marysville, an area that has a rich history surrounding Chinese immigrants, each year. 

“The Chinese miners built 30 Chinatowns during the gold rush. This is the only one that still stands,” said Brian Tom, director of the Chinese American Museum of Northern California. “The history is here. This is the only museum you can really tell the complete history of Chinese in America because it starts with the gold rush.”

The oldest-standing gold field Chinatown is in Marysville. It is also home to the longest-running parade in California: Bok Kai. 

Put on by the Marysville Chinese Community, this will be its 145th year. The nearly century-and-a-half-old Marysville celebration highlights the once bustling Chinese community the area saw in the 19th and 20th centuries.

“If you compare what Chinatown looks like now if you go back and look at old pictures, it’s just so much different. There was a thriving Chinese community down here,” said Jon Lim, the president of the Marysville Chinese Community.

“Because of the anti-Chinese movement, many Chinese had to come to Marysville,” Tom said.

Tom said in the 1870s, 30 percent of Marysville’s population was Chinese.

Tom said one of the most important parts of the Bok Bai celebration is the firing of the bombs on the second day of the second month of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

“There’s a banner wrapped around the bamboo ring and young people fight for the rings during the firing of the bombs and take that banner to the temple and it’s put on the wall for one year they make a donation to the temple,” Tom said.

He said in recent years, parade visitors have taken a greater interest in learning about the past at one of the most extensive Chinese history museums in the state, with thousands of artifacts in Marysville. 

While the streets of Chinatown may look different today, the essence of Chinese influence still remains

“These people were tough people,” Tom said. “These were people who understood the importance of what they were doing here. So you have the pioneer spirit of the Chinese that came to Marysville first and that’s continued on all these years.”

The Marysville Chinese Community recently received a $500,000 grant from the Sacramento Area Council of Governments to come up with a plan to revitalize Chinatown.