The Chinese New Year begins this February 1, with the transfer of the metal buffalo to the water tiger, a celebration in which “renewal”, “physical encounter between people” and “Chinese identity” take on relevance exceptional. This is what specialists who spoke with Télam say about the importance of this festival, its origin and myths associated with Chinese and Taiwanese culture in Argentina.
“The new year for us is to renew,” he says Anna Kuo, from southern Taiwan and arrived in Argentina in 1983. Ana considers herself a “diffuser of culture” and serves as the president of the Argentine Chinese Cultural Association, a place that he also founded.
The days before the celebration of the Chinese New Year, families traditionally carry out a renovation of the space where cleaning is central to “get rid of the ghosts”.
An “Argenchino” who rescues his origins
“What does ghost mean? Something that remains that shouldn’t have remained, and because it remains, it hurts. In many places in China, three or four days before New Year people take everything out of the house, clean it, and choose what to bring back. It’s a very significant cleansing rite,” explains Gustavo Ng, researcher and journalist of Cantonese Chinese descent.
Ng’s father arrived in Argentina in 1954, when he was 17 years old, and “over-adapted” to this country, erasing much of the memory of his country, says his son. At 50 years old and moved by a belated curiosity, Gustavo began to study Chinese culture, a practice he has been doing for ten years.
For him, Argentine society is interested in the “surface” of Chinese culture, that is, in the picturesque or the folkloric, “the China for outside”.
“Everything that we see as picturesque or folkloric, in China it is celebrated because they are very nationalistic. To celebrate this year is to celebrate Chinese identity, Chinese people, culture and ancestors, it’s not just about celebrating a new year,” says Ng.
In this sense, the figure of the dragon becomes relevant, he adds. “There is a preference for the dragon as if it were Maradona because it unifies all the people. They like that the dragon is dancing in all the streets because it is a symbol of the influence that China is gaining throughout the globe and that people accept it and like it”, sums up Gustavo.
The reason for the celebrations
The reason why the New Year is celebrated on this date – which varies from year to year according to the lunar calendar – is the arrival of spring. “When we say that the spring season has arrived, it is because it has reached its maximum splendor, but it started earlier. The agricultural calendar is made up of the movements of the sun and the moon and is used by the Chinese to determine cultivation matters. From this date you can start working in the field because the great cold is over,” explains Kuo.
In this line, it also tells that it is a date on which “a prosperous year is wished”.
“In ancient times, when it was a more agricultural society, the good wishes were that nature march normallyflow as it should. Nowadays, what is asked for is prosperity, abundance”, says Ana and says that it is a time of the year when red envelopes with new bills or pairs of bills are given to infants and pregnant women “so that they can spend the year with abundance and without fear.”
On the other hand, Kuo maintains that “the reason or the essence of the party is to meet physically once a year”.
“Within the community, the royal celebration is more intimate. Many people here do not come with their families, so they spend it with friends. The idea is to get together. The wealthiest people return to China to see their families“, bill.
The private way of celebrating the New Year is maintained by most Chinese and Taiwanese families residing in Argentina. But nevertheless, for around 15 years the celebration has also been celebrated in the streets, with epicenter in Barrancas de Belgrano.
“The first years we had a table and we sat outside, but it did not attract attention. They were the first steps to be outside, in the street. In 2008 it began to take shape with the intervention of the government of the city of Buenos Aires and the Olympic Games held in Beijing,” says Ana.
The importance of the new generations
Luciana Denardi has a doctorate in Social Anthropology from the IDAES School of the National University of San Martín and researcher at that house of studies and the Conicet. He is dedicated to studying Chinese and Taiwanese migration in Argentina, and its relationship with State policies.
For her, “The great change in the celebration occurs with the second generation of migrantswhen the children who arrived in the country at the age of 10 grow up, learn the language, become translators for their parents, go to university and work in Argentina”.
“There is a difference in how young people present Chinese culture and how older generations would like it. The older ones perhaps seek to preserve everything as it was and the younger ones are changing it, making it more attractive, including some elements that sometimes they make noise,” he describes.
The passage from the metal buffalo to the water tiger will be “an abrupt change”
The passage from one animal of the Chinese horoscope to another marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year and, on this occasion, the transfer will take place from the metal buffalo to the water tiger, which implies an “abrupt change because it is an animal where the energy is more impetuous,” says Gustavo Ng, a journalist and researcher of Chinese culture for 10 years, who in the Chinese horoscope is precisely a water tiger.
About this animal, which is the one that will govern next year for Chinese culture, Ng explained that he is considered the “king of the earth”, and “rules over reality and dictates over it”.
“It is a year where that is the force that commands: Nothing is accepted, neither the pandemic, nor capitalism, nor the supremacy of China. In addition, it implies a year with a lot of energy, which if it is well channeled is wonderful and if not, it is a mess, a promise of problems. You have to be careful because the energy of the tiger is often uncontrollable,” explains Gustavo, who year after year publishes books on the Chinese horoscope.
But nevertheless, the element that will rule the year – water – can calm the “heady” energy of the tiger. “Water in general is a state of energy that makes things more adaptable, flowing and not truncated. This softens the tiger that usually collides and is not flexible. In addition, water has beneficial effects when it is contained. This means that all that force of the tiger must try to contain it and channel it, “says Ng.
“If a Chinese person is asked what year it is, they will answer ‘the year of the tiger’ or, more specifically, ‘water tiger,'” says Ana Kuo, president and founder of the Argentine Chinese Cultural Association. In this sense, Kuo dismantles a widespread myth in the West about the year by which China is governed, which for the coming year would be 4,720.
“4720 is a year that refers to the Yellow Emperor and the beginning of history. However, the Chinese in general do not know that year. It’s a western thing. I didn’t know what it was at first,” he says.
And he emphasizes: “The truth is that Chinese New Year is celebrated regardless of dynasties. In other words, it is not celebrated according to that calendar but, fundamentally, for the transfer of the animal”.
The researcher also shows that “the event in recent pre-pandemic years had Argentines as the majority spectators and the Chinese mostly go to work with the sale at stands or the organization of the event.”
“It is a super important date for the community and striking for those of us who are not from it, but I always try to go a little further and get the exoticism out of it. It’s good to show all this colorful part that is beautiful, but also to think that we are closer than we think,” Denardi concludes.
