Young Tsinoys find meaning in enduring Chinese New Year traditions

Weston Lee has been celebrating the Chinese New Year in the Philippines since he can remember, but the 21-year-old Filipino-Chinese student still considers himself intrigued by the wealth of customs and traditions a typical Chinese family observes during the Lunar New Year celebration.

“I’m more mystified than anything,” he said. “It means that my family is rooted in a tradition and it becomes interesting for me, that in order to get to know my family and roots better I have to understand those practices.”

In observance of the Chinese holiday, Weston’s family makes it a point that they study their zodiac’s compatibility with the incoming year’s, something they need to do to invite luck and repel misfortunes throughout the year.

“Let’s say it’s the year of the tiger, and I am a goat. The goat won’t experience good fortune on that year because the goat and tiger are enemies,” he says.

Aside from studying feng shui and observing other superstitions, other Chinese Filipinos also make it a point to attract prosperity in welcoming the new year.

For Candice Chung, 21, eating the traditional sticky rice cake (tikoy) never goes out of style, especially with the abundance of different variants, shapes and sizes.

“We eat misua noodles (egg noodles) and you can’t bite them because the noodles symbolize long life so you have to eat the entire strand,” she says.

Candice says her family may not be the typical traditional Chinese – her father is a third-generation immigrant while her mother is a fourth-generation Chinese-Filipino – but they still look forward to celebrating the Chinese New Year.

“I know for the non-Chinese, it's a gimmicky holiday but it has a cultural meaning for us. For one thing, the fact that we continue to celebrate it is a testament to the value we put into the lunar calendar,” she says.

She says the days after the Chinese New Year mark the start of the warm weather, were families make it a point to go out and eat. They also set off fireworks in the belief that they ward off evil spirits.

For the more traditional Chinese, one has to mutter words of prosperity while tossing the yusheng or prosperity toss, a raw-fish salad that signifies abundance.

The words range from the simple “fa” which means abundance, to more specific ones like “Chanel bag.”

Hong baos, or red envelopes filled with money are also given to young people before the family heads to a Buddhist temple to pray.

Not all Filipino-Chinese, however, take Chinese New Year traditions very seriously, as some get more assimilated with the mainstream Christian culture which considers Christmas as the most important holiday of the year.

“Quite honestly, as a Filipino-Chinese who was born and raised in the Philippines, I don't really look forward to the (Chinese New Year). I guess the only thing I enjoy about it is that we get to eat out together with my whole father's side of the family and that's always fun, but other than that I don't really look forward to it,” 20-year-old Edmer Maguan says.

Edmer, a third-generation Filipino-Chinese, says his family looks forward to celebrating Christmas more since there are more opportunities to celebrate it with more people.

“Maybe just because my parents aren't very traditional so they aren't strict with imposing things in valuing Chinese New Year. We celebrate it, but we don't make too much of a big deal of it,” he says.