Thoughts on this Chinese New Year
Photo by SAM YEH/AFP/AFP via Getty Images as seen in CNN Travel - Lunar New Year 2021: Ushering in the Year of the Ox
Chinese New Year is centuries old -- a celebration ushering in the first day of the Lunar year. It is also known as the Spring Festival and is observed in China and surrounding East and Southeast Asian countries.
It is a holiday rich in traditions of honoring ancestors and in rituals that bring in good fortune and happiness while simultaneously driving out evil. This holiday was celebrated minimally in my family, with red envelopes filled with money -- ang pao as it’s called in the Philippines. This holiday is a happy time for many Asian families, yet in light of the many incidents of anti-Asian racism that took place in 2020 and most recently the January 28 attack and death of Vicha Ratanapakdee, this Chinese New Year is a heavy realization of the neglect Asian-Americans face.
In 2013 I was an intern for a blogger. I was the hands on intern, working to put together crafts, contributing my illustrations skills here and there, and occasionally modeling for shoots. Rarely did I offer ideas. The one idea I pitched was to create content for Chinese New Year. My idea was turned down. I still remember my employer's reaction of disinterest. I felt silly, telling myself that it was turned down because it wasn’t on brand with the art and the Scandi-inspired crafts and lifestyle content. But then I found myself, an Asian woman, modeling for Cinco de Mayo content.
A couple of weeks ago, I found that the same former employer created and published Chinese New Year content. I was angry and hurt because I, an Asian-American woman, back in a time when the masses weren’t talking about racism, tried to implement ways to include and represent marginalized people and their traditions in a very white and western dominated industry. I was denied only to find that almost a decade later this tradition, but not it’s people are recognized and, seemingly, only because it’s trending.
So today on Chinese New Year, if you’re celebrating, regardless of whether you have any Chinese or Asian heritage, I hope you’ll think about the Asian-Americans who brought their traditions from their homeland to yours. Think of the many Asian-Americans who should be celebrating with family, wishing for good health and prosperity only to be apart from their loved ones and having experienced racism and heinous hate crimes because they have been blamed for this pandemic.
As you adorn your homes in red decor, a color that symbolizes the driving out of evil, I urge you to, in a very real way, drive out evil by standing against racism of all kinds by including Asians in your anti-racism work.
To learn more about Chinese New Year celebrations’ food and decoration watch the magical Liziqi prepare for Chinese New Year.
The Washington Post Covid fueled anti-Asian racism. Now elderly Asian Americans are being attacked. was used for reference.
