The traditional Chinese Lunar New Year (
Spring Festival) celebrations are gaining international
popularity, so much so that some experts are calling for a cultural
branding of the festival.
On the Lunar New Year's Day, tens of thousands in London joined
in the Spring Festival celebrations in China Town and Trafalgar
Square. Many wore Chinese traditional dress and exchanged greetings
in the traditional way, with hands clasped in front.
This year's Chinese culture celebrations are the biggest held in
London, according to the city's mayor Ken Livingstone. It began
with the switching on of specially designed Chinese lanterns at
Oxford Circus on January 26 and the event will run until the end of
March, featuring more than 100 activities across the British
capital.
The Spring Festival is so widely celebrated nowadays that it has
even been declared a national holiday in New York City. In 2004 the
metropolis lifted the ban on firecrackers. On January 29, 500,000
crackers were set off and all 1,327 lights on the top of the Empire
State Building lit up in red and gold, the traditional festival
colors.
Experts say that it is not only the custom, but the cultural
meaning, spiritual values and psychological effects of the Spring
Festival that are attractive to foreigners.
According to Professor Gao Tianxing from Zhengzhou University,
Spring Festival customs embody kindness, love and care -- all
elements that can help ease the pressures of a fast-paced world and
lifestyle.
Liu Kuili, vice chairman of the executive council of China
Folklore Society, adds that specific practices including visiting
the elders, ancestor worship and presenting gifts of money to
children show the Chinese people's respect for nature, tradition,
harmony and order.
?
At the heart of the Spring Festival is the "he" culture,
the Chinese word for harmony. In a speech delivered at the école
Polytechnique in Paris on December 6, 2005, Premier Wen
Jiabao explained the he?culture as follows: "The
Chinese word 'he' means peace among states, good
neighborliness among individuals, and harmony between humanity and
nature."
Because of its significance and growing popularity, experts have
suggested that the Spring Festival has the potential to be named a
world festival.
But the cultural branding exercise will require much effort.
In November 2005, the UNESCO accepted South Korea's application
to list the Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival as a masterpiece of the
oral and intangible heritage of humanity.
The Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival has its roots in the Chinese
Duanwu Festival or
Dragon Boat Festival that came about almost 2,500 years ago.
The tradition made its way to neighboring countries and was
localized over the years. South Korea's successful UNESCO bid has
prompted China to devise ways of protecting its various traditional
cultural festivals.?
If the Spring Festival, in particular, is to be developed into a
cultural brand, its folk customs need to be rediscovered,
identified and protected.
On December 31, 2005, the Ministry of Culture made public its
first list of nominees for intangible cultural heritage status
including the Spring Festival,
Qingming Festival (paying homage to the dead), Duanwu Festival,
Double Seventh Festival (China's equivalent of St. Valentine's
Day),
Mid-Autumn Festival, and
Double Ninth Festival (Senior Citizens' Festival).
(Xinhua Daily Telegraph, translated by Li Shen for
China.org.cn, February 9, 2006)