Reflections of Echoes of the Lunar New Year
By Jeannie Hua
When you google “Lunar New Year,” you would see that for 2024, it’s February 10, when the first new moon of the lunar calendar year reveals itself to us. This is the Year of the Dragon based on the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac. The holiday is popularized with dragon dances, firecrackers, gifting of red envelopes as well as meals including fish (the word for “fish” in Chinese sounds like the word “surplus”), puddings (symbolizing advancement), and dumplings (because they resemble gold ingots) with families. It’s a colorful, vibrant holiday that all cultures can relate to because it’s a time spent with families.
Perhaps for non-Asian Americans, it’s seen as an exotic holiday, different from the western tradition of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Ironically, the Lunar New Year has been celebrated in United States as early as 1700’s when Asian immigrants settled in Louisiana. The reason it may be viewed as exotic and not from this country is because Asian Americans are still seen by a number of people as exotic and not from this country. We’re still seen as foreigners even for those born in America.
The majority of Asian Americans deal with this misconception by working hard, contributing to their communities, and avoiding conflict. While respect has been gained from those efforts, one corollary effect is that Asian Americans are judged by our utilitarian value. Once the railroads were built in 1869 and labor was no longer needed, immigration laws were implemented in 1882, designed to keep Asians from immigrating to the United States. Over the years, recorded documentation to commemorate the contributions of Asian Americans were scarce. Even more tragically, many Asian Americans are buried all over United States in unmarked graves, victims of violence.
Artwork by Jeannie Hua. “Self Portrait,” acrylic on canvas, 24”x18”x1”, 2021.
Recognition of the Lunar New Year serves as a bridge between acceptance of Asian Americans as simply Americans. There’s no reason to view Lunar New Year as an exotic holiday when the overarching theme is familial connections and the precious moments we share with loved ones. For many Asian Americans, parental love is expressed with food. What we DO for our children can be more powerful than what we SAY to our children. To take the time and effort to nourish the ones we love is to express the inexpressible—the deep and powerful feeling of love for our children.
Even if your family ties are strained with differing views and past wrongs, how you interact with people is bound by your familial identity. Whether you pull away or embrace your relationships, it’s a reaction to your familial history. And how you view yourself in the outside world is colored by your experience within your family. This is not a cultural phenomenon specific to Asian Americans; it’s the human condition.
Lunar New Year, like any holiday, is a measuring stick. It has an image, an ideal of how to celebrate it. Whether you measure up to the ideal, is determined by where you came from and where you are going. Our propinquity to family members during those special occasions serve to remind us of whether we have met familial expectations and more importantly, our self-acceptance. To say you love your family leaves out the complexity of what your ideal is, what you’re fighting against, how important your family’s approval is to you, whether you’ve accepted yourself. So, whether it’s Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Holi, Magha Puja, Diwali, we celebrate with families, and we return to where we came from to get an inkling as to where we’re headed.
If you don’t view Lunar New Year as an exotic holiday then I thank you. I invite you to celebrate this holiday and enjoy it along with my family and me. Your perspective tells me that you can look at my Asian features and see a fellow American who feels just as much love and patriotism for our state of Nevada and our country, as you do.
Jeannie Hua is a Las Vegas- and Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist. She received her MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Double Down Blog photo courtesy of Jeannie Hua.