In past years, O'ahu's major Chinese organizations went their separate ways to plan festivities marking Chinese New Year.

No more, thanks to a group of University of Hawai'i at Manoa masters' in business administration students who helped thaw divides that had lasted for generations.

This year, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii and the Chinatown Merchants Association, longtime rivals, along with the upstart United Chinese Coalition are planning activities under one coordinated marketing and scheduling program. They also managed to get participation from a key member of the Chinatown arts community — The ARTS at Mark's Garage, which came up with designs for the collaborative effort.

Alvin Wong, Chinese Chamber president-elect, said the groups set aside their differences and recognized one thing: "Our basic philosophy is to promote the Chinese culture in Chinatown."

Wong credited the MBA students for bringing the groups together last spring. "It was their idea," he said. "They enlightened us on the benefits of joint marketing and a cooperative effort in promoting events. I think the public is better off."

"In the past, there was a lot of confusion," said Evan Leong, who headed the MBA student effort. "Now, there's one marketing plan. Events this year are more in cooperation with each other. Before, everyone did their own event, did their own thing."

Leong, 33, a local-born Chinese-American, has never attended a Chinese New Year event but is looking forward to his first this weekend. The actual date of Chinese New Year this year is Jan. 29. The first of two weekends of events gets under way today.

Lowell Chun, the head of the Community Planning Program for the city Department of Planning and Permitting and one of the city's facilitators in the process, called the collaboration historic.

"After getting past their disagreements, their intent was to stay together," Chun said. "They saw the advantage of having a unified event. They could pool their resources. They could do things like have a brochure that explains and markets the events, and they had posters."

The joint effort also led to the establishment of a new Hawaii Chinatown New Year Celebration commemorative ribbon campaign. For a suggested $5 donation, ribbon-wearers are entitled to discounts at restaurants and jewelry stores around town through Jan. 28.

Gifford Chang, project coordinator for the Chinatown Merchants, said that his group has received calls from tourists — something that didn't happen when there was less publicity. "It's really beneficial in keeping the public informed and keeping the city informed," Chang said.

The city this year provided the groups with additional incentive to work together because it is now charging nonprofits for the special duty police officers and other personnel necessary to put on an event. The nightly cost for officers alone along a closed-off Maunakea Street could cost as much as $15,000.

Next year, the plan is to consolidate events further so that most of the major Chinatown events happen over a single weekend.

Despite Hawaii Chinatown New Year Celebration's early success, Sun Hung "Sunny" Wong, once dubbed "the mayor of Chinatown" and for a long time the face of the Chinatown Merchants, is wary of the joint effort.

Wong said the old way of doing things separately worked well and that there is no need for change. "When you have competition, everyone becomes more creative," he said.

James Yan, co-owner of the Hawaii Chinese News, said the collaboration is significant because diverse backgrounds — different home regions and countries, religions, languages, economic strata and political views — often leave Chinese groups struggling to find common ground.

"It's hard to unite them, that's the truth," Yan said.

Stanford Yuen, a Downtown Neighborhood Board member who has also been connected with various Chinese community groups, said he is amazed by the cooperation.

"This is the first time that you've seen the major organizations' names together on one sheet of paper," he said.

Yuen said the joint effort was aided by the "new blood" represented by younger leaders with a positive, team-minded attitude and an increasingly hazy recollection of issues that may have divided the groups in the past.

"A lot of these things could have happened decades ago. So, who cares?" Yuen asked.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.