Author | Zhou Chen Wang Tianshu
from | Vancouver, Canada
"The year is gone with the sound of firecrackers, and the spring breeze brings warmth to the summer." In Canada, where the land is vast and sparsely populated, the Chinese people here cannot experience the lively Spring Festival in their own personal way, but they still try their best to celebrate the Spring Festival in a small circle.
As an immigrant country that advocates multiculturalism, the proportion of Chinese in Canada has reached more than 5%, and many immigrants and international students have spontaneously formed a small circle belonging to the Chinese. In several major cities, government services include Chinese tips, and there are also Chinese supermarkets and Chinese restaurants with a wide range of categories. Chinese people living here even forget whether they need to integrate in a foreign country.
The arrival of the new crown epidemic seems to disrupt their peaceful lives. For a time, the number of racial discrimination and hate crimes against Asians soared. Asians would suddenly be scolded and spit by strangers when walking on the streets. Some cultural buildings were painted with graffiti representing hatred. Such news frequently appeared in the newspapers, which made people worry. Can Chinese in Canada have a good New Year this year?
Old immigrants gradually forgot the Spring Festival
Recently, a community in Vancouver made a news post because every household posted the word "Fu", hung lanterns, and spring couplets. The one who led the entire community to celebrate the New Year together was Su Yiling, a Chinese female teacher living there. She wrote more than 150 letters of initiative to her neighbors, suggesting that everyone celebrate the New Year together, which received enthusiastic responses from most people.
The positive response of neighbors in the community surprised Su Yiling's parents, who believed that inviting people from other ethnic groups to celebrate the traditional Chinese festival together was an "unwelcome thing." Especially now, it is the time when anti-Asian racism is becoming increasingly fierce during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Su Yiling said that the support of the community has inspired her. "Your community meets your wishes and celebrates your culture with great fanfare. This is not a small victory, it is a beautiful feat."
Su was born in Shanghai, China and moved to Canada at a very young age. She clearly remembers how her family celebrated the Chinese New Year when she was a child: they returned to China to reunite with their grandparents and other family members; they would prepare traditional food days or weeks in advance for a hearty dinner; they listened to the sound of firecrackers and watched the whole city be illuminated by fireworks.
Picture: The author provides
"I think the celebration is a way for immigrants and immigrant children to connect with their culture, so that they can start to regain tradition." Su Yiling hopes that his children can also experience more of the New Year atmosphere in Canada.
"Every Christmas, this community is brightly lit and has a lot of decorations. Su hopes that the children will see that this community is also supporting the celebration of the Spring Festival. It is a very involved community," said a neighbor Chris Hanford.
This is not the only case where people from different cultural backgrounds celebrate traditional Chinese festivals together. Chloe, who lives in another community in Vancouver, said that the Iranian kindergarten teachers of her two children were more active than some Chinese parents in the New Year.
In order to welcome the Spring Festival, the kindergarten where the two children are located spontaneously organized a "Lunar New Year Week" to encourage the children to wear traditional clothes. Chloe also specially prepared Hanfu for her daughters. The children's teachers are Iranian and they also wear red cheongsams. Spring Festival couplets and New Year pictures were hung on the wall of the kindergarten classroom. The teacher taught the children to use paper to make lanterns and listen to Chinese children's songs. The children's snacks during class were also replaced with lucky biscuits and fried rice.
The word "Fu" posted on the door of Chinese family. Picture: The author provides
"The community we live in is about 30%, which is a community with a lot of culture. In addition to Chinese, there are Korean, Vietnamese, and Singaporeans who also celebrate the Lunar New Year." Chloe said that during the traditional festivals of other ethnic groups, this teacher will also arrange some corresponding elements to teach and enjoy the children.
The atmosphere of multi-cultural integration makes people more inclusive, but another consequence is that some old immigrants gradually forget the meaning of the New Year. The more they integrate with mainstream society, the more vague their concept of New Year will be.
"The Spring Festival in Canada is not a legal holiday for in . If you don't have a holiday for a long time, even Chinese people will forget it." said Chloe, a Chinese immigrant from Vancouver. She has been in Canada for more than seven years and has gradually lost her feelings about the New Year and can't even be interested in preparing a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner.
"The Lunar New Year traditions across Asia are fading, and even my own family is facing this situation. After moving to Canada, I lost contact with Chinese culture even more." Xiao Xu, a reporter from The Globe And Mail who first reported Su Yiling's story, said that Ms. Su's story brought her childhood memories out of her mind. "I remember how interesting those celebrations were, and how worthwhile it was to spend time looking back on those precious moments. Maybe it's time for me to celebrate the Spring Festival again like her."
The Spring Festival party of new immigrants was interrupted by the epidemic
Immigrated to Canada three years ago. Yinan, who now lives in Toronto , can still talk to the Chinese friends around him. Every year, her way of celebrating the Spring Festival is to have dinner with friends.
This year, due to the restrictions of Toronto's strictest stay-at-home order, she and her husband could only eat hot pot at home.
As the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is still not under control, the government’s social restrictions on people are becoming increasingly strict. At present, health officials in many provinces have issued instructions that all gatherings and activities must be suspended, and no matter how many people are, they cannot socialize with people other than their families.
Compared with Chinese people who are clear about epidemic prevention measures and strictly abide by them, Yinan is very unaware of the casual attitude of some Western colleagues around him. Some people still have no habit of wearing masks and are very unaware of the isolation policy. "Every time I see that colleague who is wearing a broken mask and can't help but touch his nose and rub his eyes, I want to hide away."
February 6, 2021, in Vancouver, Canada, New Year's supplies are sold outside the shop on the roadside of Chinatown. Picture: Visual China
After get off work, you can play mahjong with friends from China, which is Yinan’s favorite, but recently he has to be suspended due to the epidemic.
For Canadian immigrants who are working, less time is another problem they encounter during the Chinese New Year. The Chinese Spring Festival in Canada is not a legal holiday, so only a few Chinese companies will take one day off, and some Chinese companies will not even take a holiday, and at most one hour early after get off work.
This year, Yinan decided to add a little New Year atmosphere to the New Year dinner in a limited time. She specially studied homemade Sichuan sausages with her hometown flavor.
This is a must-eat hometown dish she has been having during the Chinese New Year since she was a child. The sausages you can buy in Canada are all Cantonese and the taste is too sweet. She missed the spicy sausages in her hometown, so she bought the raw materials and made it herself. "The ingredients are very simple. Pepper, chili pepper and meat can be bought in supermarkets here. The main reason is that I am not sure which one to buy. I checked many posts posted by people who make sausages in North America, and bought them recommended on Amazon."
Yinan feels that the sense of ritual of the New Year is to set up a table of dishes, and other things cannot be caught due to the jet lag. "When we had dinner in the evening, they were already the first day of the New Year, and the New Year has passed. Spring Festival Gala can only watch replays, so I can greet my family remotely and grab a red envelope on WeChat."
"Last year, I was at a friend's house. Everyone could cook together, watch the Spring Festival Gala, complain together, drink, play cards, and eat dumplings. It is basically about to part at one o'clock in the evening." Yinan said that everyone returned to work the next day, and the Spring Festival was over.
International students are also inevitably homesick.
In Canada, the Spring Festival is the busiest moment of the semester for international students. They either prepare for the exam or have homework to do.
is University of Waterloo student Tina is very eager for the arrival of the Spring Festival and can temporarily get out of her suffocation.
She came to Canada to study at the age of 14. "After she came, she found that some places in Canada were really very villages." She went to school in a remote place, and except for her grandmother's family, Tina did not know a new friend.
"Only when you lose it, you know how to cherish it."When Tina was in China, she got used to the relatives and friends around her. When she went abroad, she found herself feeling lonely, and then she realized the preciousness of being with her family.
She recalled her first year in a foreign country. She deliberately calculated the jet lag and made a video call to her family in China on New Year's Eve to greet her aunts and aunts who came from afar.
Looking at the lights at home at night, the sound of firecrackers coming from outside, the sincere joy made her happy to be able to close her ears. It seems like I'm back in China.
"Until my grandfather took his cell phone and frowned and tried to see what I looked like on the other end of the ocean. He did not ask me like other relatives, "Are you adapting to the environment? Is it good to abroad?" He said, "Is it good to eat well? How do you think you have lost weight?" I don't know why, but my tears couldn't stop flowing out at that time. I tried not to let him notice, so I turned around and looked outside. But Yu Guangli saw my grandfather and also quietly touched my tears with his hands."
After that, Tina couldn't return to China every year during the New Year, and she would cry when she was videotaping with her grandfather every year.
Now she is in college and hasn't been home for the New Year for five years, and she can't even go home for the next few years. Every Spring Festival, I make dumplings with my friends abroad, bring some hard dishes and have a good meal. Call home. "Show off" her food to grandparents and ask them what to eat for New Year's Eve dinner.
"Let the elderly and parents know that they are good. This is my year," Tina said.
"In foreign countries, not only the New Year, but everything depends on your own fun." Tina's classmate Skylar is more optimistic about his situation of leaving home.
She has been fond of traditional culture since she was a child, including guzheng, calligraphy, chess and painting. When I went abroad, I ignored the risk of being overweight and brought various cheongsams and calligraphy tools.
Obviously, this did not hit her active attitude towards the Chinese New Year. In order to promote traditional culture, she and a few like-minded friends bought red paper brushes every year with her like-minded friends, wrote Spring Festival couplets and Fuji for her friends and homes. At that time, for the sake of the New Year atmosphere, they even put on the New Year song list in the mall while pretending to be hosts to wish people from all over the world. Watching the replayed Spring Festival Gala, counting down the ten seconds.
Picture: The author provides
Although the people who wrote calligraphy together at that time were all in the world for their academic future, she would still prepare paper and pen in advance, write Spring Festival couplets and the word "Fu" during the Chinese New Year. "After all, the sense of ritual is still very important!"
"But this year, due to the epidemic, there is no way to give the written works to friends who are too far away. Many old friends who cannot meet face to face and new friends cannot go to greet and party, so they can only send their blessings through their mobile phones. Of course, they also have to make a big pot of pickled fish to greed for them!" she said.
