Chang Wang's Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, falls on February 12, 2021 this year. Chang Wang, local attorney, professor and author, explains the traditions of the holiday, how many populations celebrate it worldwide and right here in Minnesota. Gong Xi Fa Cai!

*This transcipt from the interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Brianna Ojard:  I'm here today with Chang Wang. Chang arrived in Minneapolis in 2003 and he was the only Chinese student in his class at the University of Minnesota's Law School. He graduated in 2006 and has been practicing law and living in the Twin Cities ever since. He's the author of “New Tales of the Twin Cities: The History, Law and Culture of Minnesota, which is also the first Chinese language book about Minnesota.  He serves as a board member to the U of M’s China Center and he's an adjunct professor at the law school.  He also sits on several state boards, including the Council of Asian-Pacific Minnesotans.

Good to have you here today Wang.

Wang: Thank you, glad to be here.

Brianna: So I wanted to talk about the Chinese New Year that begins on February 12 and it's the year of the ox. What might we expect from this year according to Chinese culture?

Wang: That's a terrific question. On the Lunar calendar, which rotates in 60 years cycles based on to 12 animals, you’ve probably heard of the zodiac. And the five fundamental elements which are gold or metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. So according to these astrology the 2021 is the year of the gold ox or the metal ox starting on Thursday February the 12th. In the year of the rat, which we are completing for 2020, the driving force was yang. Yang means fast, active, and ever changing, but for the coming year, upcoming year, the year of the ox, the driving force is yin which is soft, past, passive, and moderate.

Wang: In the year of the ox we can expect some level of normalcy in life, also hope, so reason and decency will return to politics and America will be a land of possibilities, as President Biden said, again.

Brianna: I like the sound of some normalcy, that sounds very nice.

Wang: Like here. So next year, the coming year, the year of gold ox should be a terrific year.

Brianna: Wonderful. So, are there any other cultures that celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Wang: Yes, the Spring festival, or the Lunar calendar New Year, is celebrated in regions and countries that historically have been heavily influenced by traditional Chinese culture, or with a significant ethnic Chinese populations; including mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, North Korea Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, as well as Chinese communities all over the world. The Spring festival is a statutory holiday in some of those regions and countries, it is most important holiday in Chinese culture.

Brianna: Okay, and Minnesota I know has a pretty large Chinese community do you do you have any numbers on how large it actually is.

Wang: Yes, we, the Chinese, I mean, so the Community is a third largest in Asian Pacific communities across the state with the last census number was 38,238 Chinese Minnesotans.

Those are citizens and green card holders, legal permanent residence.  The Chinese, first the Chinese immigrants came to the state of Minnesota in the 1870s and remained very small in size until after World War Two.  After World War Two more and more people with Chinese heritage came to the state of Minnesota and stayed here.  The University of Minnesota is one of the largest Chinese students and scholars community in the North America.  They are about 3000 students and the scholars of Chinese heritage are studying and working at the University at this moment.

Brianna: That's a large number of students studying there.

Wang: That's true.

Brianna: I have one more question for you. We're obviously still dealing with Covid, still dealing with social distancing and all the other rules to try and help stop the spread. How can we celebrate the Chinese New Year's in light of all those facts?

Wang: Again, that's a great question and I have to give you honest answer.  This year celebration will be much different from the previous years.

In the previous years during Chinese New Year holiday season Chinese families stay together and eat a very large meal. Basically that is for the new year's Eve, but to the holiday season started like a week ago, and a goes until the first a half of January on the Lunar calendar.

So for the new year's Eve, the families stick together, we will make dumplings together. Dumplings, or jiaozi in Chinese, are the most essential course of the Chinese traditional Chinese New Year's Eve feast.  Usually the all the family members sit around the dining table and then wrap dumplings together in the afternoon of New Year's Eve that basically starts this Wednesday afternoon.

But for the past 20 years I rarely had the opportunity to make dumplings with my family. With my parents or my extended family in China. But before the Covid China Center would organize events. The Chinese communities would gather and host parties at a local Chinese restaurants, and Chinese shoppers would raid the Asian grocery stores.  On the true Chinese New Year most Chinese families would follow the protocol and to make dumplings at home with family and friends and neighbors. This year, however, we expect a very quiet spring festival.  No parties,no in person events, but a lot of Zoom and WeChat greetings, and my wife and I will definitely make a lot of dumplings for ourselves and our three Chinese Minnesotan dogs who unconditionally love dumplings and all types of Chinese food.

Brianna: I love that your dogs love the dumplings too.  Well here's hoping that next year's Chinese New Year we’ll be able to get back together and celebrate again and you'll be able to do something a little more traditional than Zoom meetings and dumplings with your dogs. Thank you so much for being here with me today.

Wang: Thank you so much. As we Chinese say, Gong Xi Fa Cai – wish you a very prosperous and Happy New Year. Thank you so much.