Central Coast rings in Chinese New Year

Posted: Jan 23, 2012 10:25 PM by Nancy Chen
Updated: Jan 25, 2012 11:40 PM

We are now 23 days into 2012, but that didn't stop billions of people around the world from ringing in the new year Monday--the Chinese New Year, that is, the biggest holiday celebration in China and other parts of Asia.

It's the Year of the Dragon, which is the considered the luckiest year of all the animals. About a hundred people or so showed up in Cayucos Monday night to ring in the new year, but it had special meaning for Maddie Phillips and Mollie Basile, two little girls adopted from China.

"See them?" Maddie asked as the Cal Poly Lion Dance team performed. "It's just people dressed up, so don't be afraid."

Adopted and brought to the United States of America when she was nine months old, Phillips had a lot to celebrate; she was abandoned as a newborn in China but now lives in Morro Bay. In the tow, however, it's not always easy to embrace her Chinese heritage.

"I don't want to cut the middle," she said to her mother Karen as they poked at some noodles in a buffet.

"That's right," her mother said. "You don't cut the middle because the noodles stand for longevity." Karen Phillips says just because there isn't a large Asian community there doesn't mean she's not going to try and keep Maddie connected to China.

"I would just like her to know where she's come from and not forget that," she said. "I think it's going to be important for her."

The process is also providing an learning opportunity for Karen and her husband.

"She's five and a half, so she's just now starting to get into all that," she said. "So we're starting to have to research all that so we can learn right along with her."

DeDe Basile brought her nine-year-old daughter Mollie, her second child from China.

"They don't look like me or my husband. so when someone sees our family, they immediately know that my kids are adopted," Basile said, saying that's why it was important for her children to know their heritage.

The event Monday night was hosted by Sherry Sim of Sims and Company, a real estate group in Cayucos.