A Chinese-Canadian Perspective on Chinese New Year and Chinese Culture

Frances Chan

Alright, so I wasn't born in China or Hong Kong (H.K.), but my parents are both from H.K. Thus my first language was Cantonese, and like every typical Chinese kid, I was put through six grueling years of Chinese school. Today I still find it amusing when people who were born in H.K. automatically assume that I know nothing of the Chinese language because my English is so fluent. Sadly, they tag me as a "C.B.C." (Canadian-Born Chinese).

Despite cultural differences, I still hang on to some of the conservative values and traditions of my heritage. Chinese New Year is definitely the highlight of the year in the Chinese culture, like Christmas is for many North Americans. And NO, Chinese New Year is NOT about getting $$$ stuffed in red envelopes (red is considered a "lucky" colour that repels evil). Like most cultural festivities, there is a tale behind this one as well.

Once long ago, an immortal beast whose name is the Chinese character for "year" went on a wild rampage once every twelve moons to terrorize and devour innocent Chinese villagers. It is a curious thing that the character for "year" is much like the character for "ox", except with a couple of extra strokes on top to symbolize the dreadful head of the beast. Nevertheless, twelve moons became known as the year, named for the frequency at which the Year Beast would appear.

Eventually one man, whose name I do not recall, wanted to alleviate this problem. When the right time of year came again, he clad himself in red apparel and sat outside his doorstep with a cleaver in each hand and a thick cutting board, waiting for the arrival of the Year Beast. When the beast was within his view, he began to chop rapidly at the cutting board with all his might. The beast, being rather simple-minded, was frightened by the loud racket coming from such a tiny man clad in red. From that point on, the beast kept its distance from anything red and anything that made a loud racket. That's why there are so many red-coloured items during Chinese New Year and lucky sayings written with black ink on red paper. The loud racket nowadays is achieved with red firecrackers. In addition, Chinese people will spend much money for an extravagant feast on Chinese New Year's. Linking this back to tradition, a part of the feast would be a peace offering to the Year Beast to appease his hunger.

Sometimes I feel I have no cultural identity_I am not 100% Chinese, according to those from H.K., and I am not 100% Canadian, compared with some of my Canadian peers. It's as if I were half acid and half base, and thus I am neutralized into nothing. But perhaps the reason I feel that I don't belong exclusively to one culture or the other is because I have emerged from a new, unique generation defined precisely by the fact that I am a hybrid of both cultures.

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