Happy Year of the Rat! With Chinese New Year occurring this weekend and as a Chinese learner myself, I feel obliged to hone in on this holiday for my first cultural artifact post. Ethnically Chinese Malaysians make up over a fifth of the population of Malaysia, so this holiday (called Tahun Baru Cina in Malay) is an important one and easily makes it to the list of publicly celebrated holidays in Malaysia. Rather than rehash the basics of the Lunar New Year and Chinese zodiac, I want to outline some of the distinct ways Chinese New Year is celebrated within the Chinese diaspora in Malaysia.
For this multi-day festivity, many Chinese households start to prepare by undergoing a 'Spring cleaning' of sorts, purchasing new clothes to wear on the first day of the New Year, and cooking large, family-style dishes to be eaten over the course of the holiday. While feasts on the first day are typically meant for members of the families themselves, subsequent days will often feature extravagant parties and open-houses for outsiders and non-Chinese guests to join. This inclusivity is one of the distinct elements of multiethnic society in Malaysia and often extends to other important public holidays for Malays, Indians, and indigenous groups as well. One very popular dish is called Yee Sang, which consists of thin slices of fish because of the similarity in pronunciation in Chinese of 'fish' and 'abundance' or 'prosperity' (魚 and 餘, respectively). The distinctly Malaysian variant of the dish adds an additional assortment of vegetables to the mix, symbolizing prosperity. This is just one of the scores of symbolic and deep-rooted cultural traditions and icons that emerge over the course of the New Year.
[Yee sang, a popular dish during the Chinese New Year, with a Malaysian flare. (Image source: https://m.buro247.my/images/cny-2020-yeesang-mandarin-oriental.jpg).]
In addition to reunion dinners and the like that stay within the household, there is also a more public-facing side of Chinese New Year in Malaysia: street parades. In the cities with the largest Chinese populations, particularly Kuala Lumpur and Penang (both in peninsular Malaysia), these parades are grandiose and vibrant. Certain religious or personal practices, such as ancestral worship and incense burning, are major components of the parades, as well as street performances and dances. One of the most popular performances is the Dragon Dance, which features several people dressed in elaborate dragon costumes and performing coordinated dances, or several people holding a long dragon cut-out. This is a fun and exciting aspect of Chinese New Year that draws in young and old alike and celebrates a quite long-standing and respected tradition for the Chinese population.
[A smaller-scale Chinese New Year celebration in Sarawak, East Malaysia (Borneo), featuring a dragon dance performance (Image source: https://i1.trekearth.com/photos/8646/dragon_dance.jpg).]
Chinese New Year is a fun and exciting celebration worldwide, and Malaysia is no exception. The celebration last night on campus was a reminder of the sizable Chinese international student population here. I hope one day I can travel to East or Southeast Asia for Chinese New Year and witness the celebrations and festivities firsthand.
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