From IMDiversity.com Asian American Village Acting Editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:
The focal point of Chinese Lunar New Year celebration is gathering the whole extended family together for a big feast on New Year’s Eve.
Just as Thanksgiving has certain special foods that must be eaten like turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes with marshmallows, Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve also features special food that must be eaten, each dish imbued with meaning and good wishes for the new year. A whole fish is served because the Chinese word for fish sounds like “more than enough” (and one must leave leftovers so there will be “plenty” “left over” in the new year). (click on link for more)
Chinese Lunar New Year feasting and family - AnnArbor.com
Showing posts with label Lunar New Year. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lunar New Year. Show all posts
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Release: First LGBT Contingent to March in NYC Parade
The following release announces a Feb 21 New York City Lunar Year event organized by Q-Wave, and supported by a coalition of Asian American community organizations, political officials and media figures.
The NYC march will occur in the wake of -- and likely in answer to -- protests by Asian churches at a California Lunar New Year Parade, which included LGBTQ groups.
Also of interest, see "Backlash against Vietnamese gay groups in parade".
The effort is organized by Q-Wave, supported by the Asian Women’s Giving Circle and has been endorsed by a number of groups including: Project Reach, CAAAV-Organizing Asian Communities, Gay Asian Pacific Islander Men of New York, (GAPIMNY), Nodutol for Korean Community Development, OCA-New York Chapter, Queer Asian Spirit, Chinatown Youth Initiatives, Barangay, South Asian Lesbian Gay Association, Metropolitan Community Church of New York, Asian Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV and AIDS, and National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum., Chinese American Planning Council, CPC-HIV/AIDS Services, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Museum of Chinese in America, Asian American Arts Alliance, Asian American Writers Workshop and Asian Cinevision It has also been endorsed by prominent individuals such as Comptroller John Liu, Speaker of City Council Christine Quinn, actor Joan Chen, Community Leader Rocky Chin and Journalist Helen Zia.
The NYC march will occur in the wake of -- and likely in answer to -- protests by Asian churches at a California Lunar New Year Parade, which included LGBTQ groups.
Also of interest, see "Backlash against Vietnamese gay groups in parade".
---- RELEASE ----
Groups to March in First-Ever Asian American Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Contingent in
***Contingent Supported by Broad Coalition including
and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn
What: First-ever Asian American Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Contingent in New York’s Lunar New Year Parade, marching for the first time in the parade’s 11-year history and the Chinatown community’s 130 year history.
It is the first time on the East Coast that AA LGBTQ groups have been invited to march in a Lunar New Year parade. Marchers will be traveling from
LGBTQ people of Irish- and South Asian-American descent have been repeatedly excluded from marching in their own ethnic celebrations in
Who: LGBTQ Asians (who identify with cultures that celebrate the Lunar New Year), their friends and allies. For more information: www.asianprideproject.org/lunarnewyear.
When/Where: Sunday, February 21st
The effort is organized by Q-Wave, supported by the Asian Women’s Giving Circle and has been endorsed by a number of groups including: Project Reach, CAAAV-Organizing Asian Communities, Gay Asian Pacific Islander Men of New York, (GAPIMNY), Nodutol for Korean Community Development, OCA-New York Chapter, Queer Asian Spirit, Chinatown Youth Initiatives, Barangay, South Asian Lesbian Gay Association, Metropolitan Community Church of New York, Asian Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV and AIDS, and National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum., Chinese American Planning Council, CPC-HIV/AIDS Services, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Museum of Chinese in America, Asian American Arts Alliance, Asian American Writers Workshop and Asian Cinevision It has also been endorsed by prominent individuals such as Comptroller John Liu, Speaker of City Council Christine Quinn, actor Joan Chen, Community Leader Rocky Chin and Journalist Helen Zia.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Discovering the meaning in Chinese New Year's celebrations - AnnArbor.com
From IMDiversity.com Asian American Village editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:
I never even heard of Chinese New Year until I was already 12 years old. We had recently moved from Los Angeles to San Jose, and I had just started attending Saturday morning Chinese School for the first time. One of our lessons was about Chinese New Year stories and customs. Of course, being only 12, I was most interested in the tradition of red envelopes, which contain gifts of money. I went home demanding to know why my brother and I had never before received red envelopes, and insisted on years of back pay.
My brother and I forced our parents to celebrate Chinese New Year that year. We invited all our relatives over for a big dinner of Mongolian hot pot and we made a special trip to the really far Chinese butcher’s for the extra-thin cuts of meat needed. Aunts No. 3 and 6 came with all our cousins, and we had so much fun with the house full of relatives, warm with gossip and food, that we did not even notice until everyone had left that we still did not get any red envelopes.
Every year after that, I would ask my parents what they were planning for Chinese New Year, and the usual response was, "Oh, I don’t even know when it is. I’ll have to check the Chinese calendar." If I was home, and insistent, then they would cook a meal and invite some relatives over; if not, then they would forget. They were modern Chinese who did not need these old world superstitions. But I did. (click on link for more)
Discovering the meaning in Chinese New Year's celebrations - AnnArbor.com
photo courtesy of Andrew Fang photasa.com
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Adventures in Multicultural Living: Wishing for an American New Year's Eve - AnnArbor.com
From IMDiversity.com Asian American Village Editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:
Oh the excitement of New Year’s Eve! The perfect little black dress, impossibly high heels, dazzling rhinestones, an invitation to THE New Year’s Eve party of the year, a handsome and suave “New Year’s Eve Date,” a fluted glass of champagne, cute foods, counting down with the crowd, getting magically kissed right at the stroke of midnight (the primary purpose of said “New Year’s Eve Date”), singing Auld Lang Syne with one’s dearest friends, starting on that new year’s resolution to lose ten pounds (tomorrow)…
Oh the glamour! The style! The fantasy! As the child of immigrants, with my nose pressed up against the glass, it all seemed so exquisitely “American” and romantic, “better” in a way that as a child I had somehow decided that cars with trunks, ten-speed bikes, store-bought clothes, Adidas running shoes, and the symphony must be “better” and “more American,” because they were things “real Americans” (read Caucasian Americans) took for granted but which my sensible immigrant family would never indulge. I thought we were so uncultured and uncouth. (click on link for more)
Wishing for an American New Year's Eve - AnnArbor.com
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Happy Year of the Rat - Part 2
As I wrote in the previous Lunar New Year posting, the editors have been banging away at our Lunar New Year section, our archive of readings from (lunar) years past and present, with new readings to welcome the Year of the Rat. Rolling updates will continue throughout this week and deeper into the month.
Additionally, we've compiled just for fun a supplemental of package of AP stories on the theme, (Re)Consider the Rat. Anchored by a report on Chinese astrologers' predictions for the apparently "turbulent" rat-year ahead, the package is really more a journalistic improv on the actual -- not zodiacal -- rodent.
Sure, maybe the success of the Disney-Pixar Ratatouille has helped raise the rodent's rep a notch, but they've got a long way to go before they are embraced as cuddly. (Hard to imagine something like March of the Rats... taking America by storm.)
But, as the AP reports, the much-maligned lunar symbol of the year has definitely made in-roads with a diverse fan-base, from rights activists to scientists, pet owners to ... umm ... chefs.
So, this New Year's Day, don't forget to hug a rat, and stop by the Village for more this week!
Also, a shout out: The image here is from one of our past New Year's articles, Chinese Lunar Calendar and Zodiac, by and courtesy of the SF Chinese Culture Center, which is planning a bunch of great New Year's programming for all ages this year, including a free, Pre-Party exhibit at the Center, 750 Kearny Street, starting the 21st, and a reading by Oliver Chin from his book for kids, Year of the Rat.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Happy New Year from Asian-American Village!
On February 7, the traditional Chinese calendar rolls into year 4706, and we roll with it with a new feature, Chinese New Year, Los Angeles Style, by frequent Village contributor Susie Ling of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California. Her feature provides a succinct look at area events planned to welcome the Year of the Rat, with a historical twist.
Although our Lunar New Year section has become more of an archive of (lots of) collected readings from years past than a regular annual feature, we will continue to add small news items and other features related to theme as they come.
Now, an important announcement:
Lunar New Year Is Not Synonymous with Chinese New Year
Let's repeat that, for emphasis:
Lunar New Year Is Not Synonymous with Chinese New Year
While we're on the topic, every year we get a few complainers coming by and flaming us (probably without having actually read the section) and accusing us of conflating Chinese New Year and Lunar New Year, or misrepresenting Lunar New Year as an exclusively Chinese thing.
Why don't you say anything about Tet or Têt for that matter!
Why don't you say that Korean Lunar New is Sol, celebrated on the first day of the first month of Lunar New Year?
Why don't you write about Losar, the Tibetan Lunar New Year, which is usually close to, but not necessarily the same day as, Chinese New Year?
Well, the answer is, we do (or at least, have done).
But, we also admit that after years of this, we lack the editorial wherewithal and frankly interest in tracking and in many cases regurgitating stuff about this crazy array of always-moving, never-quite-synchronized, sort-of-similar-but-not-really, moving-target holidays. Now, being honest, we know that it can be hard sometimes to keep track of our own ethnic holidays on a lunar calendar, much less every other ethnic group's.
That said, we do make small updates and run seasonal features about LNY every year, in January or February or March or whenever the heck it is this time around. When we get in submissions related to other aspects of the lunar holidays (not just New Year), we often run them. This can include features, reader letters, events listings, or news items related to theme from around the country and the world from the AP or other sources we subscribe to. But, we have to say, that in general, we get a lot more stuff sent our way about Chinese New Year than others -- whether from contributor pitches or newswires or readers, as well as through mainstream media. We don't know why. Maybe it's becasue there are more Chinese Americans than other groups who bother with a lunar calendar. Or, maybe it's just that Chinese Americans are more "party people"? (I'm not Korean, but I've noticed that over many years now, I'm usually the one my Korean American friends here in the Midwest have come to rely on to remind them when Sol is approaching -- like the seasonal products aisle at Walgreen's.)
So, this year, before you write to berate us for thinking that Lunar New Year is Chinese New Year, we say: Put up or shut up! You have something of interest to say or announce or report on for your New Year, then send it in or, for more time-sensitive stuff, post it here!
;-)
Meanwhile, happy new year/tet/losar/sol, etc., etc. to everyone -- the point being, may the year just starting bring health, happiness, and good fortune to us all!
Although our Lunar New Year section has become more of an archive of (lots of) collected readings from years past than a regular annual feature, we will continue to add small news items and other features related to theme as they come.
Now, an important announcement:
Lunar New Year Is Not Synonymous with Chinese New Year
Let's repeat that, for emphasis:
Lunar New Year Is Not Synonymous with Chinese New Year
While we're on the topic, every year we get a few complainers coming by and flaming us (probably without having actually read the section) and accusing us of conflating Chinese New Year and Lunar New Year, or misrepresenting Lunar New Year as an exclusively Chinese thing.
Why don't you say anything about Tet or Têt for that matter!
Why don't you say that Korean Lunar New is Sol, celebrated on the first day of the first month of Lunar New Year?
Why don't you write about Losar, the Tibetan Lunar New Year, which is usually close to, but not necessarily the same day as, Chinese New Year?
Well, the answer is, we do (or at least, have done).
But, we also admit that after years of this, we lack the editorial wherewithal and frankly interest in tracking and in many cases regurgitating stuff about this crazy array of always-moving, never-quite-synchronized, sort-of-similar-but-not-really, moving-target holidays. Now, being honest, we know that it can be hard sometimes to keep track of our own ethnic holidays on a lunar calendar, much less every other ethnic group's.
That said, we do make small updates and run seasonal features about LNY every year, in January or February or March or whenever the heck it is this time around. When we get in submissions related to other aspects of the lunar holidays (not just New Year), we often run them. This can include features, reader letters, events listings, or news items related to theme from around the country and the world from the AP or other sources we subscribe to. But, we have to say, that in general, we get a lot more stuff sent our way about Chinese New Year than others -- whether from contributor pitches or newswires or readers, as well as through mainstream media. We don't know why. Maybe it's becasue there are more Chinese Americans than other groups who bother with a lunar calendar. Or, maybe it's just that Chinese Americans are more "party people"? (I'm not Korean, but I've noticed that over many years now, I'm usually the one my Korean American friends here in the Midwest have come to rely on to remind them when Sol is approaching -- like the seasonal products aisle at Walgreen's.)
So, this year, before you write to berate us for thinking that Lunar New Year is Chinese New Year, we say: Put up or shut up! You have something of interest to say or announce or report on for your New Year, then send it in or, for more time-sensitive stuff, post it here!
;-)
Meanwhile, happy new year/tet/losar/sol, etc., etc. to everyone -- the point being, may the year just starting bring health, happiness, and good fortune to us all!
Monday, February 04, 2008
Chinese New Year's with Frances Wang
Community Chinese New Year's Celebration
Saturday, February 9, 2008, 2:00-3:30pm
Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads "China and America: Bridging Two Worlds"
Ann Arbor District Library, Main/Downtown branch
343 South Fifth Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Chinese Lunar New Year's Day signifies the beginning of spring and is celebrated by ethnic Chinese and Taiwanese in many countries around the world, including Taiwan, China, Singapore, and America! Come celebrate the Year of the Mouse with Frances Kai-Hwa Wang and Ann Arbor's own Chinese American community with dance, music, martial arts, stories, crafts, and Yo-Yo! with performances by Ann Arbor Chinese Center of Michigan, Ann Arbor Chinese Dancing School, Ann Arbor Traditional Chinese Orchestra and Ann Hua Chinese School.
Saturday, February 9, 2008, 2:00-3:30pm
Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads "China and America: Bridging Two Worlds"
Ann Arbor District Library, Main/Downtown branch
343 South Fifth Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Chinese Lunar New Year's Day signifies the beginning of spring and is celebrated by ethnic Chinese and Taiwanese in many countries around the world, including Taiwan, China, Singapore, and America! Come celebrate the Year of the Mouse with Frances Kai-Hwa Wang and Ann Arbor's own Chinese American community with dance, music, martial arts, stories, crafts, and Yo-Yo! with performances by Ann Arbor Chinese Center of Michigan, Ann Arbor Chinese Dancing School, Ann Arbor Traditional Chinese Orchestra and Ann Hua Chinese School.
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