TORRANCE TRIBUNE February 4, 2016 Page 3 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7 JOIN US FOR THE SUPER SUNDAY BIG BOWL GAME! CHILI COOK OFF STARTS AT NOON (Bowl Game Kickoff at 3:30pm) LOTS OF TVs SO YOU’LL ALWAYS HAVE A GOOD SEAT! FOOD AND DRINK SPECIALS! TO BOOK YOUR EVENT OR FOR MORE INFORMATION Please call Rick or Charlotte at 310.326-5120 or charlotte@pvbowl.com 26600 CRENSHAW BLVD., TORRANCE, CA 90505 Photos and story by TerriAnn Ferren Chinese New Year 4714, the year of the monkey, falls on February 8th. This centuriesold celebration is huge in China, but here in Torrance I wondered how our Chinese citizens celebrate. Years ago, I attended a Chinese New Year’s dinner with other Torrance citizens at a restaurant in downtown Los Angeles in the heart of Chinatown. It was a Julie (Yeh) Johnson. First day in the United States. very special, festive, celebration dinner. Lazy Susan’s, in the center of each table, were filled with wonderful and exotic delicacies. I can’t remember what year it was, but I do recall everyone at the table trying to figure out what Chinese year they were born in, and which animal represented them. The Chinese calendar (like the Jewish calendar), is unlike our Gregorian calendar, – so if you are going to look up which year you are (which animal), and you were born in January or February, make sure you first find out where your birthday falls on the Chinese calendar (in which year) and go from there. Who knew? We have Chinese immigrants who continue celebrating Chinese New Year in our community. Torrance residents, Nora and Chris Shih spoke with me about their memories and traditions of Chinese New Year. Nora was born and raised in Hong Kong, and was one of three girls and two boys in her family. “Hong Kong is part of China now, but the customs are still the same. It was a big holiday [New Year’s] and there was no school. New Year is fun for kids. You have Chinese candy, and you get red envelopes filled with denominations of money that is given to the kids. The envelopes come in different sizes with different designs and usually the bigger envelopes hold more money. So the kids have a ball. You get food to eat and you get money,” said Nora. Chris Shih told me he also grew up in Hong Kong, and has one brother and two sisters. He told me he celebrated, as all the little children would, with lots of candy, food, firecrackers, and looked forward to the red envelopes. Children would set off firecrackers, creating a loud bang, which supposedly chased away evil spirits. Chris added, “Also friends and family visit each other.” Nora said a tradition she remembers consisted of making many kinds of puddings. Each province, or regions in China, had a special pudding that they made exclusively. “They prepare this [pudding] way ahead to get the food done early. You would clean the house up and down to prepare the house for the New Year. So it will be a good, clean year. Some people would cut out red Chinese characters with gold and put them on their doorstep, or their rooms to bring them good luck and prosperity. You don’t see it too often now. It is big red letters, fancy stuff – on the doors of the rooms too,” said Nora. I remember one of my neighbor’s pasted Chinese characters with red and gold on their front door and I couldn’t figure out why. Now I know. Nora also told me lots of food is prepared in advance and served on a ‘lazy Susan’. For example a lazy Susan may include: preserved food, candy, seeds, red seeds (red is good luck), and dry lotus. Chris told me, “‘Lotus’ in Chinese is pronounced the same way as having many children…so it is good luck.” “Chinese are very superstitious,” added Nora. Chris and Nora met and fell in love in the United States while attending college. “A lot of people sent their children away to college, as there were limited colleges in Hong Kong, and China wasn’t that developed at the time. You don’t go to China for school,” said Nora. “Now we don’t do it as much [cooking]. We don’t go to all that work now,” laughed Nora. The women would work very hard preparing food and cleaning the house, which was quite time consuming. Nowadays, Nora doesn’t spend weeks in the kitchen cooking, but their son, Stephen (now Dr. Stephen Shih, M.D.) did receive red envelopes growing up in Torrance, and Nora and Chris continue the tradition, giving ‘red envelopes’ to their grandchildren. Nora also told me just gathering the special ingredients for many of the dishes made for Chinese New Year, can be challenging. There is, however, a market in Gardena that carries special ‘New Year’ foods that are imported for this special holiday. “We order the special pudding,” said Nora. “It’s like a cake,” added Chris. I then spoke with Julie Yeh, who was born in China. She told me her dad was a pilot in the National Air Force, fighting the Communists, so her entire family moved to Taiwan in 1948 when Julie was only 4 months old. “I grew up in Taiwan with a sister and older brother until I was 25,” said Julie. “[New Year’s] was a big celebration…the best part of being a child at Chinese New Year’s is you receive red envelopes from your parent’s friends, your uncles, your aunts - whoever comes to your house, or you go to their home. Inside the red envelope is money. So for kids, that is the biggest event of the year. And the children compete with each other on who gets the most money,” said Julie. She told me that the family would have New Year’s Eve dinner together, comprised of at least ten courses. They began with hors d’oeuvres, usually cold cuts, then soup, a whole chicken, a whole duck, pork, beef, and vegetables. But the most important dish was the whole fish. “You don’t finish the fish – you save it for the next year – ‘so every year you will have extra’ – so you will never be short [we saved it until the next day]. What my mom would do is she would prepare two fish. One we could eat and the other one - completely don’t touch, until the next day,” said Julie. “We would stay up until 12 o’clock and then we would light firecrackers to welcome the next year. Then on the first day, [of the year] we have to wear new clothes, new shoes, and [got] red envelopes, [lit] firecrackers, and [ate] candies, and all the goodies. We also have an ‘8-treasure box’… so you would have eight candies, etc. in a box and when you have visitors, you invite them to have those sweets. Eight is a good number for the Chinese,” added Julie. Julie Yeh moved from Taiwan to San Francisco for college in the 70s and was totally lost. “But I enjoyed it and I learned pretty fast. It was fun,” she said. Now, Julie still celebrates the family dinner every New Year’s Eve and still hands out the red envelopes to the unmarried children in the family. I learned if you are unmarried, you are a ‘kid’ and entitled to red envelopes. Today, Julie and her family make ‘reservations’ instead of cooking and preparing for days, but the long-established ritual of getting together with family is strong and Julie and her sister, and their families, make it a point of carrying on the traditions of celebrating Chinese New Year. “In the old days, we celebrated for fifteen days,” Julie added. Next, I spoke with Peter Yang, who was born and raised in Taiwan, immigrating to the United States in 1982 when he was 31 years old. “I immigrated because my family was here. They all immigrated earlier. I waited for the visa – otherwise I would’ve come earlier,” explained Peter. “Everybody celebrated Chinese New Year in Taiwan. It was important. We had 5 days off. In China, up until a few years ago, they had 10 days off. The whole country stopped for 10 days. In China, the country is so big, – it takes days to travel. They go back to their hometown to see parents, wives, and the kids. They get off work and want to get together in the New Year. Travel is terrible there [in China] – millions and millions of people travel. It is special because the New Year is almost springtime when they are traveling,” said Peter. Peter told me that he also remembers receiving red envelopes filled with money. About now, I was wishing I had this ‘red envelope’ tradition. It would have been fun looking forward to receiving envelopes filled with money whenever visiting relatives on New Year’s. “All cash, no checks or credit cards. This is a tradition people like. If the kids have a lot of relatives, he can get rich. When we grow up – we hate it because we have to pass the envelope back,” Peter said, laughing. “My nephew, he is 30 years old, but he is still not married, so I still treat him like the kids, and give him a red envelope. It is for good luck. In our country, on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day, you bought a lot of firecrackers. They are not like here - they are not fancy and just for fun. The kids play with them – they are not dangerous – they scare the monsters away,” Peter said. I learned that Chinese New Year is more like Thanksgiving than anything else because people are with their families. In fact, some people only see their extended families at New Year’s. Well, all the talk about Chinese food made me so hungry, the next day I drove to the Gardena bakery recommended by Nora and Chris Shih. There were so many yummy treats to choose from, I had a hard time restraining myself. And the next night I hit one of my local Chinese take-away restaurants. My parents attended a Chinese New Year’s dinner last week and they had a great time. Mom told me the table was decorated with 2 monkeys, for the ‘year of the monkey’ and the buffet dinner had over a dozen courses. However you celebrate Chinese New Year, either with pudding, candy, lots of food, or with those special red envelopes, enjoy it with family and friends. After all, a holiday like Thanks- giving is one we should all celebrate. Happy New Year to all our Chinese brothers and sisters! • Chinese Firecrackers. Chinese Family Celebrating. Chinese Child with her Red Envelopes TerriAnn in Torrance Chinese New Year in Torrance
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