Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul marched in the Flushing Chinese Business Association’s Lunar New Year parade.

Xin nian kuai le! I want to wish everyone a happy Lunar New Year. I just had a wonderful celebration meeting members of the community. We had some dance and celebration of culture, and I’m so proud to be Governor of a state where one out of 10 New Yorkers can claim Asian or AAPI descendance. It’s part of our vibrancy.

Also, this past week was the first time ever in the history of our state that children could get a day off school to celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday with their families and to continue on embracing these great traditions.

I also want to convey that we’re continuing our efforts to fight hate crimes against all peoples, but as we saw during the pandemic, there was a spike in Asian hate crimes. We want to make sure people know that we’ll do whatever we can to protect them. We’ve added more money to our Budget to give them the security they need to feel safe in their homes, but also on our streets and in our subways.