Inland Valley Daily Bulletin Date Published: Monday, January 15, 2001 Author: Marianne Love Year of the Snake greeted at expo Celebration starts a bit early at 16th annual Asian American Expo Outstretched arms and hands tried to catch multicolored pieces of folded paper blowing around a glass encasement “I wanted the red ones because you can trade them for red envelopes with dollar bills in them.” Say Liwen Ton, 14 from Diamond Bar High School who was on her fifth attempt. Ton and more than 100,000 people began celebrating the Chinese New Year a little early Saturday and Sunday at the 16th annual Asian American Expo held at Fairplex in Pomona. Young and old wandered shoulder-to-shoulder in the four pavilions checking out the nearly 800 booths showcasing legal and financial services, health food, cosmetics, jewelry and a petting zoo. All day long, stroller-pushing parents with balloon-clad children at heir sides noshed their way through the authentic Asian food booths, or watched nonstop cultural and traditional entertainment at one of the six stages. Seventeen years ago, the Rosemead-based Chinese Overseas Marketing Service Inc. organized the Asian American Expo to share a cultural heritage and promote understanding and unity among people of different backgrounds. Jan. 24th marks the Year of Snake when people all over the world will recognize the Chinese Lunar New Year by hanging red banners in hopes of good fortune. After a 15-minute wait at the Western Union exhibit, Judy Chen, 13, of Diamond Bar tried her hand at the flying pieces of paper and walked away with a yellow fanny pack. “You stick your arms in as far as you possibly can and grab whatever you can and throw away the blue paper because it isn’t worth anything,” Chen explained as her sister, Jennifer Chen, 15, stood empty handed. Outside one of the pavilions, people waited for more than 30 minutes to spin a wheel and win a chance to enter a life-sized booth with $1 bills flying around. As Florentino Martinez, 73, of Alhambra stood in line he said he wasn’t thinking of any strategy he could use once he entered the booth. “I just treated it as a game,” he said through a translator. “It was just pure luck.” Martinez caught one $1 bill, but walked away with two quarts of soy milk and T-shirts for his patience. “Yes,” he said. “It was worth the wait”.