Chinese New Year is an
extremely important holiday for Chinese people and is celebrated worldwide.
It’s based on the Chinese lunar calendar, which existed since 14th century
B.C., and lasts about 15 days, from the end of January to the end of February.
Each year is represented by one of 12 animals which rotate every year in a
cycle that lasts 12 years. This year was Year of the Pig, which is the 12th
animal in the cycle and symbolizes wealth, compassion and generosity. The
celebration itself is characterized by an emphasis on spending time with
family, indulging in feasts and making way for good luck in the coming year.
This time, my fellow Chew
Crew member Marco Salinas and I visited Kirin Court, a local Chinese
restaurant, to celebrate Chinese New Year with the Malaysian Family Club, a
cultural group that caters to Malaysians in Texas. The demographic is quite
diverse, as Malaysia consists of mostly Malays, Chinese, Indians and other
indigenous peoples. Malaysian Chinese people make up the largest portion of
overseas Chinese people in the world. However, since Malaysia is so
multicultural, people from the Malaysian Family Club often celebrate traditions
and holidays beyond Chinese New Year, including celebrations such as Eid for
Muslims and Diwali for Hindus.
At Kirin Court, the banquet hall was filled with
the color red, and everyone who attended wore some kind of red in their clothing. Red symbolizes prosperity and happiness
and is often emphasized in clothing and decorations during the New Year
celebrations.
We ate
a traditional Chinese New Year dinner, which consisted of a full, eight-course
meal. I wasn’t used to anything beyond three courses, and it turned out that
the portion size of each course was small enough that you could eat a few bites
of each dish without getting full too quickly. The meal itself consisted of
crab meat and seafood soup, jellyfish and fried shrimp balls, beef tenderloin
in red wine sauce, Hong Kong-style prawns, roasted quail, mixed seafood and
vegetables, stir-fried flounder with greens, fried rice and — my personal
favorite — sliced oranges. I couldn’t eat a handful of the dishes because I eat
zabiha halal meat, but I indulged in all the seafood that was new to me.
The
crab meat and seafood soup tasted distinctly like egg drop soup and was creamy
and chunky with bits of fish in it. The jellyfish had the texture of zucchini
noodles and tasted like sweet chow mein, but I couldn’t eat more than a bite
because I was slightly off-put by the fact that I was literally eating
tentacles. My favorite savory dish was actually the stir-fried flounder, which
turned out to be a crispy, bony flounder fillet with stir-fried bits of
flounder on top. Despite my fear of eating fish bones, the crispy bones
underneath were the best part of the dish. Marco and I doused them in red chili
sauce, and they tasted like spicy potato chips.
During
the meals, members of the Malaysian Family Club performed several dances
including the famed lion dance — not to be confused with the dragon dance,
which is performed by multiple people in a large dragon costume held together
with poles. The lion dance mimics the movements of a lion and is said to bring
good luck and prosperity. This time, there were two lions that interacted with
one another on stage and throughout the hall. The dance was accompanied by
thunderous drums and cymbals that played to the rhythm of the lion’s steps.
There was something enchanting about seeing people from
so many different cultures celebrating the same tradition. Some people I spoke
to there weren’t Chinese or Malaysian. It goes to show that holidays and
celebrations aren’t just reserved for people of one culture.