Light show programmer and designer Matt Schilling stands next to the “stunt cherry” that will be dropped at the stroke of 9:00 p.m. this New Year’s Eve in Milwaukie, Ore.
Courtesy of the Milwaukie Arts Commission
For the second year in a row, Milwaukie, Oregon, will be hosting a New Year’s Eve celebration — with a twist. There will be lights, music and food, but instead of a ball drop, there will be a seven-foot Bing cherry to ring in the new year.
“I have always been obsessed and in love with the weirdly American tradition of raising and lowering a big thing on New Year’s Eve. I love it,” said Samantha Swindler, a member of the Milwaukie Arts Commission and event chair for the ‘Bing in the New Year’ event.
“So when I heard the story of the Bing Cherry, I thought, ‘We’ve got to drop a cherry in Milwaukie.”
Swindler says the sweet, big Bing cherry was cultivated in the heart of Milwaukie in 1875, thanks to horticulturist Seth Luelling and his Chinese foreman, Ah Bing. But little is known about the man who became the cherry’s namesake. Anti-Chinese racism and rhetoric permeated throughout the United States around that time — the federal Chinese Exclusion Act had been passed in 1882, and likely influenced Bing to leave the country.
“Unfortunately, we don’t know a ton about Ah Bing. I know he was from the northern part of China and at some point he went back — and I don’t even know exactly when,” Swindler said.
“I think it’s kind of a bittersweet history. Part of what we did for the first year is we got grants to install a giant, permanent cherry sculpture in downtown Milwaukie, along with a historic plaque that tells that story of Ah Bing and the cherry. And I think that’s important.”
A red, steel sculpture of the Bing cherry outside the old city hall building in Milwaukie, Ore. The plaque remembers the legacy of Ah Bing, the Chinese-born immigrant, cultivator and namesake for Oregon’s sweet cherry.
Courtesy of the Milwaukie Arts Commission
OPB “All Things Considered” co-host Crystal Ligori spoke to Swindler to give us a preview of this year’s event, and how it’s an opportunity for both celebration and education.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Crystal Ligori: Can we just start with an overview of what “Bing in the New Year” is, and how it started?
Samantha Swindler: “Bing in the New Year” is a free, family-friendly New Year’s Eve event. It happens in downtown Milwaukie, and we rent a crane and raise a seven foot, lighted Bing cherry 60 feet in the air. At the stroke of 9:00 p.m. — because this is family-friendly and we don’t want to actually be there that late, an East Coast midnight, if you will — we ring in the mostly new year by lowering the cherry and having a big party downtown.
Ligori: And what’s the connection between a Bing cherry and Milwaukie?
Swindler: The very first commercial nursery in the Pacific Northwest was started in Milwaukie, Oregon, in 1847. Henderson Luelling came over the Oregon Trail with a cart of trees; his brother Seth Luelling took over the business and became a very well-known horticulturist. His longtime foreman on his farm was a Chinese immigrant named Ah Bing.
Around 1875, they came up with a new variety that was a cross between a Black Republican and a Napoleon Cherry. It was very sweet, it was very large and it was very firm — which meant it could ship well, and it was a hit. One of the descriptions was that the cherry was so big, and that Bing was such a big guy, that’s why they named it after him.
Ligori: That’s incredible. What do we know about Ah Bing, the man who is the cherry namesake?
Swindler: Unfortunately, we don’t know a ton about Ah Bing. Around the time that the cherry was becoming very popular, which was around the 1890s, there was a lot of anti-Chinese sentiment in this country. It’s when the Chinese Exclusion Act had been passed, there were race riots around this in the state of Oregon. It was not a pretty time.
Chinese immigrant Ah Bing, first from left, stands in front of a packing house in Milwaukie, Ore. Bing cultivated his namesake cherry in 1875 with horticulturist Seth Luelling. Bing likely went back to China following the passage of the federal Chinese Exclusion Act.
Courtesy of the Milwaukie Arts Commission
So part of what we want to do with this event is — because we don’t know that much about Ah Bing, and we don’t feel like he had a lot of representation in the story as it’s been told — that this is a way to focus it a little bit more on Ah Bing. We want to do something that really ties into Bing and his cultural heritage.
Ligori: So what is going to be happening?
Swindler: We’re working with the Oregon Chinese Coalition as a partner on this event. So a lot of what we’ll have is various Chinese dancers, we’ll have drummers at the event, we’ll have lion dancers at the event for the big countdown. So it’ll be a cultural celebration: It’s a celebration of Milwaukie history, of Chinese culture here in Oregon and it’s also just fun to drop a really big cherry in downtown.
A crowd stands in downtown Milwaukie, Ore. as they wait for a giant Bing cherry light fixture to drop on Dec. 31, 2023.
Courtesy of the Milwaukie Arts Commission / OPB
Ligori: I love it. How did this idea first bubble up?
Swindler: I have always been obsessed and in love with the weirdly American tradition of raising and lowering a big thing on New Year’s Eve. I love it. There are, all across the country, hundreds of towns that drop different things. Atlanta drops a giant peach; Orlando drops an orange; Mount Olive, North Carolina drops a giant pickle; Boise, Idaho drops a giant potato. I love it. It’s so kitsch and it’s so fun. So when I heard the story of the Bing Cherry, I thought, ‘We’ve got to drop a cherry in Milwaukie.’ People think I’m joking about this kind of stuff, but it didn’t really take off until I got to Milwaukie. And I mean the cherry? It’s perfect.
