White House celebrate Lunar New Year

It is a stark contrast to see the increasing popularity of the Lunar New Year comparing with the time when it was celebrated by very few Asian Americans four decades ago, according to Tina Tchen, assistant to the President Barack Obama and chief of staff to First Lady Michelle Obama.

She made the point in her opening remarks in celebration of Lunar New Year at the White House on Tuesday. Many former White House staff members were among the audience.

"Quite frankly, we did not have a big community to celebrate the Lunar New Year, back in 1960s," Tchen said. "I grow up at Cleveland, my family was probably one of five Chinese American families in Ohio."

Nowadays, the Lunar New Year is celebrated everywhere such as Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center and many other places, and it has become a focal point of the same time of every year, according to Tchen.

As the last celebration of Lunar New Year under the Obama Administration, Asian American White House staff retrospect how far the Asian American communities have come in terms of political participation and promoting Asian cultures.

"Within the Asian Pacific Islander communities, we have more than 200 federal officials across the country from regional offices to connect us with federal resources," said Alissa Ko, associate director for Office of Intergovernmental Affairs at White House.

Over the seven and a half years, Asian American community has gone from one of those blips on the electoral college scenes on our president election night to a time in 2012 with Asian American vote became a decisive vote to talk about in the national election, according to Tchen.

"I'm originally from Indiana, like Tina I have not grown up in a great tradition of celebrating Lunar New Year. Over time, thinking about how far our country has come, I really started to embrace my Asian American identity," Chris Kang, national director of National Council of Asian Americans.

"My experience leads me to me working to provide a national voice for Asian American and Pacific Islanders issues," Kang said.

When asked is favorite Lunar New Year memory, Kang said it happens to the Lunar New Year for this year.

"We decided to let our four-year-old daughter to give all her kindergarten classmates red envelopes with coins and chopsticks in it to celebrate the holiday," Kang said.

It is not only a opportunity for her to teach kids a little bit of her heritage but to embrace it in a way that was empowering, and I never got to have that experience, Kang said.

President Obama sent his Lunar New Year messages on Feb 8, the first day of the Year of the Monkey.

"Michelle and I send our warmest wishes to everyone celebrating the Lunar New Year across America and around the world. This is a time filled with family, get-togethers, and anticipation for the New Year – a tradition I remember fondly from growing up in Hawaii," Obama said.

Pan Jialiang contributed to this story