Q: What is Chinese New Year like in the UK?

I've been asked a simple question today which I will answer, "What is Chinese New Year like in the UK? Are there any celebrations?" Let me try to answer this. It's 12:40 am on Monday morning and what do you know, I have looked out of my window and it is indeed snowing quite heavily right now with the temperature at about 0 degrees.

Now firstly, Chinese New Year is not a public holiday here in the UK. That is simply because Chinese people are a tiny minority here in the UK, numbering less than 1%. However, in most big cities, there are usually some kind of celebrations the first Sunday of the Chinese New Year period and this year, it just so happens that 年初一 is indeed on a Sunday. There was a carnival parade in in the West End as well as celebration activities in Trafalgar Square, although the awful weather (maximum of 2 degrees in the afternoon, heavily rain/sleet) kept many people like myself away this year apart from my short visit to Chinatown at 5 pm.

My dinner tonight - sushi and yusheng.

What I love about such celebrations is that it's not just Chinese people doing Chinese things in their own community - rather, it is usually a family occasion where British people learn to know about Chinese culture whilst participating in the carnival like celebrations. There are usually the traditional lion dances, dragon dances and other traditional Chinese cultural celebrations. There are usually all kinds of street stalls selling Chinese food and other goods - but I usually stay away from those as they're expensive and trying to cash in on the crowds. Some places like big shopping centres might put on some kind of celebration activities (especially if there are Chinese businesses in the shopping centre) - but otherwise, once you step away from the Chinatown areas, you won't even know it is Chinese New Year.

Otherwise, if 年初一 falls on a work day, then I usually barely notice it. I do try to make a note in my diary to try to call my parents to wish them gong xi fa cai, but that's really kind of it. And every year my dad would ask me the same question, "你有没有庆祝吗?" (Did you celebrate it?) And I would always give the same reply, I have to work, it's not a public holiday.

Chinatown today: rain and sleet

I guess I am not that fussed about Chinese New Year traditions - for me as a child growing up in Singapore, it was more something we did to make our parents and grandparents happy. For them, it was a chance to bring all the family together and enjoy the reunion. I remember going to grand-aunt's house in Johor Bahru every year as a child and struggling to communicate with my Malaysian relatives as I don't speak a word of Hakka. It got very awkward with my paternal grandmother as she refused to speak to me in anything other than Hakka, whilst the other relatives were happy to switch to Mandarin, Cantonese or Malay to make small talk with me.

I do have fond memories - my grand-aunt was a strict Buddhist so the big meal at her house in JB every Chinese New Year was vegetarian, but it was the best vegetarian meal your money could buy. There was this big casserole of Chinese dried vegetables with tung hoon, all manners of gluten flavoured and shaped into mock meat cooked in a variety of ways, some kind of stir fried root vegetable which was like a cross between a potato and a water chestnut, a mild vegetable curry, a winter melon and date soup as well as fresh pineapple. I loved her vegetarian cooking and that meal was so worth the trip to JB every year. There was also something about ritual and tradition as well - that meal was exactly the same every single year, she would never decide, "oh this year I shall do something totally different and we'll have fried noodles instead."

Then there was the visit to my late grandmother's house where she would make all her best dishes including the best chicken curry in Singapore (she was very generous with the ginger and lemon grass). She loved the ritual of all the grandchildren coming to wish her gong xi fa cai and then giving us red packets. And like my grand aunt, she was also a creature of habit and would always make the same dishes every Chinese new year - including fried noodles with prawns, fish cake and sliced pork, pig stomach soup, chicken in rice wine and fried prawns. Oh us Chinese people, our cuisine is so much a part of our tradition when it comes to festivals.

For me, this year, I enjoyed a lie in and then called my parents to wish them happy new year - then I pretty much stayed in until 5 pm before venturing out for a short while in the sleet to buy some food and that was it. I caught up with my work emails, did a bit of blogging, studied a bit of Welsh and then watched the movie the Painted Veil with my dinner.  It's snowing out there now and I have to go to bed now as I am working tomorrow - there really isn't that kind of 拜年 tradition here. I do have Chinese friends here in the UK, but the thought of specifically going to visit them at home to 拜年 does seem a bit... archaic. I'm far more likely to go for a movie with them or go to an art gallery with them to see an exhibition, you know, rather than specifically visit them to wish them a happy new year.

London Chinatown in the snow

So, no red packets for me this year, no 拜年 either and I suppose at times like this, I think about my late grandmother and I miss her. I kinda associate Chinese new year with her as it's a big thing for her, she loved all the traditions to do with Chinese new year and it made me happy to see her having a good time. Since she's passed away a few years back, I always remember her during Chinese new year. So there you go, that's Chinese New Year in London for you - I guess it is possible to go to down and do all the traditions, but for me, it's a pretty low-key affair.