Chinese New Year, the London version
I never knew Londoners had such a fettish for things Chink (have a look at China in London). Yesterday at Chinatown, I think I saw more gweilos than Chinese. And not only gweilos, but African Caribbeans and Sikhs, among others. When the gang of us photographers (five photogs, mostly Nikonians, three with D70s and intimidatingly monstrous lenses) went early to scout out the best shooting spot, there were hardly more than a couple of handful of people - press photographers excluded. But whatever you could see of the pavement was quickly filled up as the distant sounds of Lion Dance drums drew nearer. There were kids - so many kids (the human variety, not goat)! Kids hugging lamp posts, kids sitting on shoulders, kids waving paper dragons, kids wearing sunglasses, kids in strollers, kids wearing cute doggie hats.The main procession was led by an Englishman with a plush dog on his hat, followed by an entourage of banner-carriers and people in traditional garb. There were more folk dancers, drummers, dragons and lions. Lots of martial artists - most of them non-Chinese. Their flags read "International Joseph Lee Wing Chun Assoc." or something similar; men gave melee combat demos as they walked along, and some associations carried with them weapons of all sorts. Women were dressed in amusing costumes with an oriental theme, but their interpretation of Chinese styles are not quite what I'm used to.
Over at Trafalgar Square, they had some performances on stage, but it was impossible to see as the place was too utterly packed. There were stalls, balloons, firecrackers, and all the accompanying noise and mayhem.
It's a funny feeling. The British don't just watch you celebrate CNY... they actually celebrate it with you.
2 Comments:
Yeah but do they all understand that we're chinese too? Most of them see it as a CHINAese event and can't understand why we from SG would celebrate it. Its like when you say u're asian over here, most ppl look at you weird cos they expect you to be indian. We have yellow skin too you know. And anyone from asia is asian, india being a relatively tiny part of asia. Sigh, its stupid explaining it over and over to people. Still, it was nice meeting you again, GHFC and all that stuff......
that crossed my mind as well -
"Most of them see it as a CHINAese event" --> look at how they wave China's national flag around. i did wonder if they knew it's not just China Chinese who celebrate CNY... that there's Chinese from elsewhere too. it's a race of people, not a country, etc etc.
that, and about whether or not they actually understand why we have or do this and that and how our culture and traditions came about. about whether they are just doing it for fun or they are genuinely interested.
but i prefer to describe it the good way around - that they welcome the Chinese culture. i'd rather that, than they being all suspicious and unaccepting of our ways.
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