Thursday, February 6, 2025

This Lunar New Year snake game is projected onto a Long Beach building—and yes, you can play it

Share

Intertrend Communications continues its wonderful annual tribute to the Lunar New Year in Long Beach. The Asian-centric marketing firm—which has been an essential cog in bringing everything from Long Beach Walls to the restoration of the historical building it is in—honors the Year of the Snake with an interactive, playable version of the old-school snake game found on phones during the late 1990s and 2000s.

lunar new year Long Beach
The new Lunar New Year art installation at Intertrend in Downtown Long Beach. Photos by Brian Addison.

How this year’s Lunar New Year in Downtown Long Beach installation works

To play is super simple: Use your phone to scan the QR code presented at the first-level, street-facing windows of Intertrend at 228 E. Broadway. Enter your name, enter the queue to play, and you’re on your way. You must be near the building to play.

lunar new year Long Beach
Intertrend’s 2016 Lunar New Year installation in Long Beach honoring the Year of the Monkey. Photo by Brian Addison.

Past installations from Intertrend for Lunar New Year in Long Beach

  • 2016: Year of the Monkey

For this installation, Intertrend covered the entirety of their first-floor windows were covered with red envelopes that visitors could freely peel off and open as they passed by. Behind them, a series of pieces by Long Beach Walls veteran and world-renowned artist James Jean honoring the mighty monkey.

  • 2017: Year of the Rooster

Taking over Intertend’s first floor center window, this beautiful sculpture used over 1,000 crystal jewels to create a piece inspired by traditional Chinese landscape painting.

  • 2018: Year of the Dog

In one of the earliest public examples of AI in the city—if not the first—visitors’ movements, were tracked, bringing digital dogs to life that interacted with them in real-time.

2019: Year of the Pig

Ah, the slot machine that was the Year of the Pig (or boar, depending on your preference). A giant slot was made where visitors could win actual prizes thanks to a giant slot sticking out of the building and a digital display for the game itself.

lunar new year Long Beach year of the mouse
Intertrend’s 2020 Lunar New Year installation in Long Beach honoring the Year of the Mouse. Courtesy of Intertrend.
  • 2020: Year of the Mouse

One of the most direct pieces in the decade-long series, Year of the Mouse in 2020 featured a cheeky and cheesy neon light installation on Intertrend’s east-facing facading.

  • 2021: Year of the Ox

Is that James Bond? OOX—a play on the famed 007 spy—featured custom animations that took over the windows of the Edison Theatre building across the street from Intertrend, with OOX walking alongside visitors as they passed by.

  • 2022: Year of the Tiger

Embracing everything tiger—from the famous golf player to Frosted Flakes cereal—and the Intertrend crew wrapped it up with the iconic song “Who Let the Dogs Out” (because “tiger” in Chinese sounds just like “Who-Who”).

  • 2023: Year of the Rabbit

This year, Intertrend “flipped the famous saying ‘down the rabbit hole’ by inviting everyone to jump out of it! We collaborated with an artist to create anamorphic art that appeared flat to the human eye, but from the right angle on camera, it looked like visitors were jumping out of the rabbit hole.”

  • 2024: Year of the Dragon

The dragon “symbolizes boldness and protection, and that’s exactly what we did! We worked with an artist to bring a giant dragon to life on top of our office building, blessing the entire city of Long Beach for everyone to see.”

lunar new year Long Beach psychic temple
The Psychic Temple building—where Intertend is housed—as it was being restored in 2015. Photo by Brian Addison.

The restoration of the Psychic Temple is one of Intertrend’s most beautiful contributions to the Downtown.

Across three years—2013, 2014, and 2015—the wonderfully gorgeous structure that sits on the south side of Broadway in between the Promenade and Long Beach Blvd. had a white wall with colorful nods toward Long Beach culture wrapped around its front face. This was because Intertrend was moving in to take over the space and would not only make it home to their marketing firm but use the actual building as a space for art and culture in Downtown.

Intertrend bought the building for a $1 in 2012 after the RDA dissolved and left a multitude of properties within the city under a giant, existential question mark. Of course, there was a caveat to the seemingly cheap purchase: since the building, known as the Psychic Temple, was an historic landmark, a very pricey and lengthy restoration of the structure would have to be covered by Intertrend. It wasn’t much of a steal when millions has to be put into its proper restoration. When the front of the building was first complete around March of 2014, van Dijs worried that the impeccable facade was too perfect.

“It came out so beautiful that I was worried that people wouldn’t think it was a true restoration,” van Dijs said. “But it is exact—we even have the pictures to prove it.”

- Advertisement -
lunar new year Long Beach psychic temple
The Psychic Temple was under renovation in 2015. Photos by Brian Addison.

A small history of the Psychic Building showcases it is an appropriate place to be an epicenter of culture.

When it had finished construction in 1905, the Psychic Temple building opened with a bang: it became none other than the headquarters of a local cult by the name of the Society of New & Practical Psychology, known to members as The Holy Kiss Society.

Amidst lawsuits and enemies, owner and Society leader William C. Price was forced to sell the building to Anna Sewel for about $3K. Throughout DTLB, it then became commonly known as the American Hotel thanks to its signage that survived the building’s many other incarnations. A speakeasy. A brothel. A flophouse. Yet somehow, through all the debauchery and dilapidation, the building survived, even becoming an historic landmark in the city in 1989.

Brian Addison
Brian Addisonhttp://www.longbeachize.com
Brian Addison has been a writer, editor, and photographer for more than 15 years, covering everything from food and culture to transportation and housing. In 2015, he was named Journalist of the Year by the Los Angeles Press Club and has since garnered 30 nominations and three additional wins. In 2019, he was awarded the Food/Culture Critic of the Year across any platform at the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. He has since been nominated in that category every year, joining fellow food writers from the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Eater, the Orange County Register, and more.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Subscribe to The Insider

Get weekly updates on Long Beach's evolving culture, urban development, and food scene. Become a Longbeachize Insider today

By clicking "Subscribe," you agree to receive weekly newsletters from Longbeachize and accept our Privacy Policy posted on our website.

Read more

Popular Tags

More From Long Beach

The owner of this website has made a commitment to accessibility and inclusion, please report any problems that you encounter using the contact form on this website. This site uses the WP ADA Compliance Check plugin to enhance accessibility.