Celebrating Chinese New Year – London style

New Year celebrations in central London. Photo credit: Anna Pitton

There was no Lion dance, firecrackers, or even the traditional red envelope stuffed with money. Instead, wine corks and empty beer bottles lying around my shared house greeted me on New Year’s Day.

When I woke up with a hangover in the morning on February 14, I realised I just had another ‘not so Chinese’ Chinese New Year’s Eve party. I guess seven years of living in the UK can somehow be the excuse for adapting to what could be called a good party.

But there’s always something Chinese itching inside of me, insisting on dragging me out of bed. It’s time to think positively about what I can do to pay some respect to the good old Chinese tradition and start my New Year with the promise of productivity.

Wash or don’t wash?

Let’s start with the superstitions. It is believed that cleaning before the New Year sweeps away the bad luck of the preceding year and makes way for the good luck. However, there’s also a belief that when you wash something during Chinese New Year, you will be washing away your luck for the whole year—that includes the dishes, your hair and your body.

Cutting your hair is just as bad luck because the word hair is a homophone for the word prosperity in Chinese. Thus “cut hair” or “wash hair” is interpreted as cutting away or washing away good fortune.

My dilemma was solved by the mighty Father Time—it was already the midday on New Year’s day and that meant no house cleaning or even dumping rubbish for me today (Hurray! except that I doubt my housemates will find it funny). I firmly believed that I could survive without a shower for a day, but I did wish that someone hadn’t poured beer over my shoes the night before.

Repaying your social debts

In many cultures, there is always an occasion or two in the year that is particularly reserved for the family members. The Chinese New Year definitely falls in that category. And you guessed it, back home my mom would drag me along to visit her distant aunt’s daughter that I only meet once a year if not less, or go stay with some random cousins, pretending I love to watch them playing Chinese board games. Pure familial love.

Perhaps board games can be good for your brain’s development, but according to my definition of a productive new year, they are for people who seriously bored. However, if that’s what people do religiously even in a modern communist state, it must have its own wisdom.

Chinese New Year is also time for people to pay off their social debts, so we try to do the things that always get put off (visiting you primary school teacher, saying hi to your neighbour, or maybe calling up your long-distance friends for a chat). This makes for a required status update or a barrage of group messages in the hallowed portals of Facebook—a cheery “Hello, Happy New Year…can’t wait to have tea with you!” Followed by a poke if the person is special.

Getting blessed

Buddhist beliefs remain most alive in modern Chinese culture. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a Buddhist temple in London that I can easily visit, and burning huge amounts of incense seems uneconomical to both me and his/her holiness.

I happen to believe that good luck boils down to good planning and self-determination. So while I still have the day off, it seems wise to think about things I have always wanted to do, and put them down in my diary. God bless my little goldfish brain. (I guess the first thing I will do is put down a date to purchase ticket for Kings of Leon’s Hyde Park concert).

After all, I do always find a bit of inner peace after complete my to-do list according to the great tradition. Sometimes London’s hectic life schedule makes me feel I have lost contact with my roots, but with a bit of imagination and a cup of tea with friends, I can recreate my little home away from home. However, if I don’t want to be chucked out of the house by the very same tea-companions, I really do need to clean up the mess after the New Year.

Heng’s fellow First Pinter, Anna Pitton, went to check out the more official Chinese New Year celebrations in the Trafalgar Square area. The two also went on a culinary adventure, on camera, for some authentic Chinese food.