Imagine yourself dressed in red from head to toe in a room where your family and relatives hand you packets of red envelopes. Wrapping your left hand on top of the right fist, you point it at them twice and say, “Gong Xi Gong Xi!” After countless greetings, you walk over to the buffet platter and grab a strip of barbequed pork. While savoring the taste of the meat, you are tempted to grab two oranges from the bowl. Outside of the house, firecrackers pop and neighbors form a circle around the dancers, who are hidden underneath a lion costume. Although there is no midnight kiss or a star-studded countdown event, this is how the Chinese celebrate the New Year.
Recently, the (lunar) new year of the Monkey coincided with the Superbowl. While it wasn’t a widely celebrated holiday nationwide like Cinco de Mayo, the placement of the New Year a day after America’s biggest sports/entertainment event elevated the its significance. As someone who grew up celebrating Chinese New Year, I was proud of having my culture to be (finally) acknowledged. However, I wasn’t happy with the fact how it was (and still is) a cultural novelty here.
Whenever I celebrated Chinese New Year in Singapore, schools shut down, shops were closed and restaurants remained open. My sister and I always followed our parents to visit our relatives, whether it be my mother’s three sisters or my paternal grandfather and the rest of my extended family, who mainly consisted of the brothers/sisters of my parents’ cousins. During each gathering, we exchanged small talk, gossiped about the guests, dished about our personal lives, received ang pows (little red envelopes), popped White Rabbit milk candies and ate thick strips of bak kwa (barbequed pork glazed with fish sauce). On the occasions where we went to Imperial Treasure (or any other fancy Chinese restaurant) for dinner, we chanted for peace, prosperity, love, good health and better luck as we tossed the lo hei, sending strips of shredded carrots, salmon slices, red peppers, radishes, pickled gingers and crispy wontons high in the air. While these gatherings were mandatory and often overwhelming, it brought me to socialize and be more engaged with my family. Based on my past celebrations of the holiday, this is what I wish to see in America as a nationwide holiday.
Aside from the socializing, we wore Chinese-themed clothing. For women and girls like myself, we had to wear cheongsams (short-sleeved body con dresses with a Mandarin collar) whereas with men, they wore Mandarin collared jackets and pants. Although the rules for clothing wasn’t completely traditional amongst my family, we were still able to get away with wearing jeans during the festivities. Since these garments were being worn only throughout the New Year festivities, it brought me to see that I shouldn’t be afraid to celebrate my family’s and my own Chinese heritage. Now that Chinese-themed clothing is an “it” trend as seen on popular retailers like Nasty Gal, Reformation and Opening Ceremony, it disappoints me to learn that the majority of the consumers of those retailers and the retailers themselves (except for OC) capitalize on appropriating a culture without really understanding the cultural significance of a garment.
As we are now entering into a new year, I hope that that one day Chinese New Year can be appreciated and practiced nationwide.