New York, NY —

Thousands of people filled the streets of Chinatown yesterday to usher in the Year of the Pig. WNYC's Arun Venugopal was there.

REPORTER: After the fireworks and as the crowd thinned out, an Asian singing contest was held on a stage in Chatham Square. One of the 3 finalists Tunde Weeks, who is, quite clearly, not Asian. His family is from Trinidad, but after college he spent time in China, Japan and Taiwan, and in recent years, he's honed his skills on the karaoke battlegrounds of New York.

WEEKS: I was singing a song by Jackie Cheung. Ching dang Sui. I love his voice, and usually when I do karaoke I like singing this to the music.

REPORTER: In the end the crowd gave its approval to his competitor, 10-year-old Maria Ling. To celebrate, she sang "Lucky," by Britney Spears. For WNYC, I'm Arun Venugopal.