Cai Sen Yeh, God Of Prosperity

I thought when i left for this trip, i would not be seeing too much of the CNY festivities. Nothing proved me more wrong. It seems for this trip, i am destined to see just what American marketing is all about and how important it is to know who your customer is. There were a few shops in San Francisco that closed for the first 2 days of chinese new year, which according to Edna, now is becoming pretty common. Years ago, there was no pause from business to celebrate the event. Now, you see the shops owned or run by chinese or vietnamese or any other race that celebrates the CNY, close for business to have a break. It would seem that as we progress further into the new millienium that family ties and cultural traditions become more important. I am glad it is so. The new generation of Asian kids are so wrapped up and seems to think that being western in outlook or westernised is so cool. The older Asian Americans had to work very hard for their families, to put their roots down so to speak. The new generation of Asian Americans take a break and celebrate. In Las Vegas, the notion of know who your customer is so so clear..they do know that out of the millions of tourists that hit the City, is the Asian customer. And to show that they know and appreciate, they put in so much effort to theme their decorations. To decorate a hotel the size of The Venetian or Bellagio is no easy feat. Because of this, i therefore had the good fortune to bump into Cai Sen Yeh statute at The Bellagio. Propped to about 10 feet in height. Within the garden concept, they even carved out the rat figurine just to show they know which animal year it is.