Chinese celebrate year of the tiger

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This article was published 30/01/2022 (962 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A round table at a Chinese restaurant, with a lazy Susan rotating tray at the centre, isn’t just a convenient way to share food, but a motif for the values 20,000 Chinese Winnipeggers will celebrate Tuesday on the first day of the Lunar New Year: unity, companionship, and respect.

“It’s always about that kind of relationship, of everyone being kind of together in that grouping, rather than looking down the table, so there’s a real sense of building community,” said Tina Chen, who sits on the board of directors and the program committee for the Winnipeg Chinese Cultural and Community Centre.

The holiday is the most important on the Chinese lunar calendar, occurring on the second new moon after the winter solstice. It is celebrated by over one billion people around the world.

The evening before the new year is traditionally meant to be spent at a dinner reuniting with loved ones. In Winnipeg, banquets are held at Chinese restaurants around the city. This year, celebrants will have to find new ways to connect for the second year in a row.

“I think a lot of us miss eating together — eating, the traditions, the foods that are part of a Lunar New Year banquet, but just eating together, and that kind of noise and energy of the room,” Chen said. “That’s what I miss.”

Chen has been busy preparing for the traditions she and her family can still do. She has to clean her home (meant to sweep out bad luck and create space for good luck) and prep for making dumplings (a symbol of coming together).

“There’s always new ways, and everyone’s found new ways to do this, but that interpersonal connection that’s often at the centre, it’s very different in this moment,” she said.

Other traditions that have moved to the virtual realm or been cancelled range from the lion dance, considered to be good luck, the trading of Mandarin oranges and red paper envelopes filled with cash to extended family members.

It can be a lonely experience for some in Winnipeg’s large Chinese community, Chen suggested. Many come to Winnipeg without family or friends, including some of the international students at the University of Manitoba.

“It’s not really that different than when it’s Christmas or various other holidays — people want to come to the family, and it’s hard,” she said. “Many people here, their family may not be here, and I think, particularly, one of the ways that not having in-person events impacts them is those who are here apart from family don’t then have an opportunity to find another physical space to go to celebrate.”

Keeping loneliness at bay is one of the many goals the Winnipeg Chinese Seniors Association tries to keep at the forefront of its programming. The group, which holds around 80 events a year for its membership of over 1,000 Chinese seniors, will host its own online New Year’s event for the second year in a row.

“For us, the majority of people are seniors, 55-plus. So we’re really worried, there’s COVID and the variants,” said vice-president Songyan Liu. “Probably next year, we will have celebrations in person. That’s our plan. This year, we want to be cautious.”

The events were planned months in advance; some pre-recorded, and some livestreamed. Performances include tai chi, square dancing, poetry readings and songs.

“It’s tradition, you know. Even when we leave our home, our motherland, still we don’t want to forget our tradition,” he said.

One upcoming event is unique to the seniors group — a lecture for members who are less technology-savvy on how to take a photo of yourself or your family and how to send it to loved ones in China. More than 400 people have already registered.

“It’s kind of fun. We just want to keep people busy, that’s it,” Liu said.

Some of their membership are frustrated they won’t be able to take part in the typical large-scale celebrations of the Lunar New Year for the second time, but Liu said most understand safety is a priority.

It’s important to keep traditions alive, no matter how they’re carried out, Liu said.

“We don’t want to miss this, we want to keep our kids remembering Chinese tradition, we don’t want them to forget those things,” he said. “(The way) they celebrate Christmas, we also want them to remember, Chinese New Year is an important day for them.”

This year’s Lunar New Year marks the year of the tiger, the third of the Chinese Zodiac’s 12-year astrological cycle. People have already taken the year of the tiger to symbolize myriad things to come, from good news for the Cincinnati Bengals to extra luck for anyone born under the same sign.

Chen laughed and said she just hopes that with the tiger comes some good news.

“I think there’s much hope that the energy and vitality of the tiger will at least sustain us through whatever this year has to come,” she said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca