LUNAR NEW YEAR GETS A BOOST FROM SCOUTS
BY LESLIE CASIMIR DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, February 5th 2000, 2:12AM

The Empire State Building will be drenched in red and gold lights this weekend in observance of the Chinese new year, the first time the honor has been bestowed on the Asian community.
All of New York has two Chinatown girl scout troops to thank for the visual celebration marking the lunar new year 4698.

"There's green for St. Paddy's Day, blue for Chanukah - all we asked was that we be recognized, too," said Carolyn Hom Chow, who leads Troops 3175 and 3197. "Asians are contributing to this city. We are just not down in Chinatown; we are all over."

Members of the two troops started a letter-writing campaign last month, said Lydia Ruth, who coordinates the lighting of the 102-story skyscraper.

The scouts' appeal was bolstered by a request from the Asian American Business Development Center.

In turns out no one had ever asked for the special lighting display for the Chinese new year. The building's management was pleased to oblige.

The colors of red and gold - representing luck and prosperity - lit up the top of the structure last night and will be turned on again tonight and tomorrow evening.

"I think it's nice that the Empire State Building is doing this," gushed Victoria Cheng, a fifth-grader at Public School 130.

"We gave them the suggestions for the colors, too."

Added Christine Tucker, 10, a junior girl scout and fifth-grader at PS 1: "I would never think that the people at the Empire State Building would respond to us - they are a busy building. We've sold cookies, made arts and crafts, but this is the biggest thing we ever accomplished."
Members of the girl scout troops, public officials and community leaders met yesterday to mark the new year and the building lighting and to call for further reductions in the cultural gap between the Asian immigrant and mainstream communities.

"We hope the new year is not just celebrated by Asians but the entire community," said John Wang, president of Wall Street-based AABDC. "We are part of New York's culture."

For the next two weeks, the city's Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese communities will celebrate the lunar new year with family visits, meals and holiday blessings.

There'll be parades of dancing dragons and lions throughout the city, too.

One such parade was held a day early. A 100-foot-long dragon - manipulated by the Jook Tong Long kung fu group - slivered through the Empire State Building yesterday.

The bamboo dragon, draped in silk, satin and papier-mache, chased a fuzzy pearl, providing a surprising spectacle for tourists.

"Only in New York can we come together and celebrate the diversity in this city," said Manhattan Borough President Virginia Fields. "It helps us to tell the world how we as a people can live together."