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By: Parker Zhang
The Significance of Chinese New Year. In the Motherland and Abroad. The Past and the Present.
Chinese New Year was when I would be dragged to meet family friends, awkwardly greet adults, and hang out with the other children— what I would give to live in simpler times. There would be red pocket money distributed while parents said to each other, “Aiyahhh, that is too much to give my friend."
I would sometimes watch a dragon dance parade. The parades were somewhat for the Chinese community yet also just to attract tourists who would accept this exaggeration of culture as fact.
Much has changed since the pandemic. Many are too scared to go out to celebrate because of the virus. Meanwhile, the rise of anti-Asian hate means the number of non-Asian customers frequenting Asian businesses has decreased. I personally know many Chinese-run businesses that have shut down permanently.
Photo by Vladislav Vasnetsov from Pexels
New Year in China
In China, the Lunar New Year is the equivalent to Christmas in the West. For around two weeks, many migrant workers travel back to their hometown to visit their parents and their children. Train Stations, unlike the West with airports, are packed with travelers eager to go home. Most businesses stop working and it’s a joyous time to catch-up, to reminiscence, and to hope for a prosperous year.
For many in China, the New Year is the only time they can see their family. Migrant workers leave their children behind in the countryside while they go work in the cities, sending home remittance money and saving to buy an apartment in the city. Because of this separation, you can easily find a landfill full of sappy reunion videos online — ahh, human sentimentality.
It’s refreshing and heart-warming to think about such reunions, such disregard for anything besides love. Love for family, for friends, and for making up for lost time.
The Present in North America
During the height of COVID-19, shocking videos surfaced of people attacking people from the AAPI community. Heartbreaking clips of seniors being chased around and taunted were posted to social media accounts, and for weeks on end, the news displayed atrocious CCTV footage of people assaulting and pushing Asian seniors into traffic. What angered me the most was that other racial minorities were verbally and physically abusing AAPI people.
In May 2021, President Biden signed a bill that makes it easier to report hate crimes, with particular emphasis on the Asian American community. However, this bill falls short in two areas. The first one should be clear: it’s taken an entire year and then some to respond to anti-Asian hate. No one seems to be talking about anti-Asian hate anymore, and so the general public has moved on. Two, the bill creates a taskforce to investigate large hate crimes, not the hate crimes perceived as minor or insignificant. If we don’t treat the minor cases seriously, it just empowers the perpetrators and continues to victimize minorities. It’s truly disparaging being a minority and seeing bills passed that are just lip service and more of a political gimmick (Disillusionment. Photo by Ike louie Natividad from Pexels).
Prior to the pandemic, Asian Americans were seen as the model minority. A minority who earned on par with the white, who were studious and hardworking––an example for other radical groups. See, systemic barriers don’t exist!
Yet, the hard truth was and is, that Asian Americans have to study at a much higher level to equal the median white wage. A simple characterization misleads the populace into thinking that the land of the free is truly the land of equal opportunity. The truth is that as a whole, the Asian community studies way more. And if you compare two people, one Asian, one white, with the same education the white person will earn more — just like always. An inequality today, just serves as a reminder of the inequality of yesteryear.
History of the Chinese American Experience
Starting in 1875, the Page Act prohibited the recruitment of Chinese, Japanese, or anyone from an Oriental country for “lewd purposes,” effectively preventing Asian women from entering America. The laws that followed reflected the deep bigotry that the majority of Americans held during the 1800s through the mid 1940s. In this era, laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act and the “Asiatic Barred Zone” were enacted and white mobs committed numerous hate crimes, making the experience of residing in America a true hell hole. The government attempted to deprive them of due process and idly stood by while white men would terrorize Chinese American communities — sometimes leading to even the arson of an entire Chinatown.
Many figures challenged such discrimination. Supreme Court cases brought by Asian Americans helped define birthright citizenship and made clear that ship captains were not in control of customs. In 1943, after severe labor shortage caused by the Japanese internment camps, Chinese citizens were allowed to immigrate to the United States. But it wasn’t until 1952 with the passage of the Immigration Act that the process to move and naturalize became a completely race-neutral process.
Of course, employment discrimination was still very prevalent. Most lived in ghettos, and some were subject to Jim Crow laws. As I have written about in my Martin Luther King Jr. piece, the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Act barred racial discrimination and set up protections.
It’s truly inspiring reading a history where many, despite the many obstacles, persist. To persist through adversity––if you look closely enough––is still prevalent in the Chinese mentality. Regardless of the struggles, migrant workers in China will try their best to travel home. The dragon symbolizing strength shows that although many Chinese small-business owners have declared bankruptcy, they are trying once more.
Photo by Valeria Boltneva from Pexels
So while I eat dumplings , the symbol of a Chinese gold bar , get a haircut to invite in good luck , and clean out my room to wipe the slate clean, I remember to count my blessings. But I also wish for a better future for racial minorities; a future where people are just people.
As the pandemic rages, Chinese relatives across the globe will exchange wishes of good health and well-being — something that actually means something now, rather than just another running through the motions.
Keep safe. Happy Lunar New Year. I wish you well, to be blessed with many fortunes, and to have the best year yet — free from discrimination.