Paul Stultz

Professor Philip Anosike

Communications 2150
July 16, 2014

Cultural Event Experience
For my cultural event, I will be pulling from my recent experience in attending a Chinese
New Year concert and family celebration. While I have been married to my wife, who is
Chinese, for several years, it was only more recently that I was able to participate in a
celebration of the event. My experience is in two parts first, I attended a performance of a
traditional Chinese performing troupe, and second, I participated in the preparation and of a
traditional meal and then my immediate family and I celebrated and shared the meal with my
wifes immediate family.
The Chinese New Year Festival, also called the Spring Festival, is based on the lunar
cycle. This calendar has roots in the yearly agricultural cycle and, contrary to our western
Gregorian Calendar, was not intended to accurately keep track of the linear passage of time,
but rather to manage and schedule the yearly cyclic considerations of practical life and social
ritual the planting and harvesting of crops, the proper times for marriages, funerals, making
business deals, and so on. In fact, the Chinese calendar does not traditionally number the
passage of years at all.
In my own experience and research, Chinese celebrations all are focused around the
concepts of wealth and health typically translated to the English terms of long life and
fortune, which will lead to a happy life. The concept of luck is often encountered as well,
but seems limited to the direction of long life and fortune, and was influenced by good and evil
spirits. The tradition of firecrackers and the cymbals and drums of the Lion Dance were thought
to scare away the evil spirts, thereby ensuring good luck for the year. Symbolism is
everywhere, whether based on homophones (words that sound similar), physical appearance (a
plant with a leaf that looks like an ear is thought to be good for curing ear aches), or numeric.
For example, even numbers are lucky and odd numbers are unlucky, so events such as
weddings and business deals will only be scheduled on days corresponding to even-number
dates on the calendar.
Having a personal love of attending symphony orchestra concerts, I was expecting a
similar experience for the performance of the Chinese troupe. That is, I was expecting an
atmosphere of quiet attentiveness and appreciation. However, that was not what happened at
all. The audience, almost completely composed of Chinese immigrants, considered the event
an excuse for socialization rather than artistic appreciation. People were constantly talking and
moving around such that it was difficult for me to see and hear the performance. Despite
hundreds in attendance, most people there seemed to be familiar with most everybody else.
When I commented on this to my wife, she explained that social networks are more important
for success in China than they are here, and you never know where the next opportunity, for a
step up the socio-economic ladder, will come from. Because social status and financial success
is highly related to face, this social interaction becomes elevated to supreme importance. In
other words, its not what you know, its who you know. This was the biggest impression I
took away from the concert. I actually learned much more by observing the audience than the
performers. Proxemic theory was on display, too. I did not observe a single example of the
invasion of personal space: no hugging, pecks on the cheek or anything along those lines. They
were very reserved and polite despite the high gregariousness of social interaction.
The preparation of the meal and setting at home was another lesson in symbolism. The
decorations were Chinese words, typically for happiness, luck, or fortune in double form, and
always in red. Red was thought to bring good luck, by scaring away evil spirits. The foods being
prepared were also inspired by symbolism. The main example of this was dumplings, which are
hand-chopped meat and vegetables in a thin round dough wrapper, which is boiled. They are
similar in shape to historic gold ingots; the idea was that you are literally eating good fortune in
hope that it would bring you a good monetary return in the coming year.
Another custom was the exchange of gifts. The gifts were money which was supposed
to be newly minted, in consideration of the new year, and only in amounts adding up to even
numbers and inserted into a small paper packet, which was red of course. The value of the
exchange is considered important. It is not considered impolite to inquire over the value of gifts
that are not cash, which is directly opposite from the custom I was taught, succinctly stated in
the phrase, dont look a gift horse in the mouth.
Overall, this experience helped me understand where my wife and her family were
coming from. Their society is governed by a completely different set of traditions, dating back
thousands of years, and still part of their cultural identity. It also helped me understand, more
than I had before, that these differences are just another path in search of the pursuit of
happiness, and it is possible to bridge the gaps in culture by keeping in mind this common goal.
Sources
"The History of Chinese New Year" About.com. Web. 16 July 2014.
http://chineseculture.about.com/od/chinesefestivals/a/ChineseNewYear.htm
"Origin of the Spring Festival" China.org.cn. Web. 16 July 2014.
http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/SpringFestival/200005.htm
"Chinese New Year" Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 16 July 2014.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year