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Lunar New Year During COVID-19

Ling Li

Lunar New Year begins on February 12, 2021. And usually, the holiday involves huge festivities with fireworks, dancing, and family reunions. But as the pandemic continues into this year, the celebration will look and feel different this new year. Wyoming Public Radio's Naina Rao reports this story.

The Lunar New Year is all about removing the old and welcoming the new for Ling Li, who is a master's student from China, studying at the University of Wyoming.

"When I was a child, my parents always prepare me the new clothes, on the New Year's Day," said Ling Li. "For the elders, people will give the children red pocket. You know, that is 'hong bao' in Chinese."

Those red pockets or envelopes filled with money called 'lucky money'. This tradition is about passing on blessings for the rest of the year.

"And also, on the New Year's Eve, everybody would be watching the TV show of the Spring Festival in China."

Because the Lunar New Year occurs during the academic year, for international students, it's often celebrated with their friends rather than families.

Facebook video of a previous year's celebration shows a line of University of Wyoming students rehearsing the traditional Lion Dance.

That celebration is usually hosted on campus by the Chinese Students Association. The group's former president, Zhe Chen, thinks it helps a lot.

"Because, although I cannot reunite with my family, I can reunite with students and professors here. We can meet a lot of Chinese people here. We share the same feeling, so that makes us less homesick," said Chen.

That homesickness was especially acute during the Trump administration.

"Since the China and U.S. relationship turned bad; it will be more difficult to get the visa traveling back to the United States," said Chen. "And this pandemic just made things worse."

Chen says this past year has also been hard in part because Trump called the Coronavirus the 'Chinese virus'.

"So yeah, those are some of the new barriers we got to do," said Anna Lin.

Anna Lin is a first-generation Chinese-American, living in Detroit, Michigan. She and her parents run a restaurant there. Because her parents are scared of the virus and growing anti-Chinese sentiment, it's Lin who now does all the tasks for the family's business that require going out — like buying ingredients and restaurant supplies like delivery cartons.

"Because I'm not that scared of people. Like if you do something to me, I can call the cops. Like, I can talk back to you," Lin said. "Whereas, it's harder for my parents, because English isn't their first language or like, they're not really comfortable with it."

That's why the Lunar New Year is really special for the family because it's a space where they can be themselves. It's also about putting bad times behind them. Anna says many people spent much of the year of the Rat, 2020in hiding.

"Moving forward for 2021, I'm hopeful and really hope people get their vaccines. I'm hoping everybody gets their turn soon."

According to the Lunar calendar, this coming year is the year of the Ox. The Chinese zodiac describes the Ox as strong, reliable, and diligent. Former Chinese student association president Zhe Chen says those attributes make him hopeful for the coming year.

"Chinese New Year is an opportunity for me to think about my new year plan. What I want to achieve next year."

And hopefully, make the year of the Ox better than the one just ending.

 

Naina Rao comes to Wyoming Public Radio from Jakarta, Indonesia. She has worked at NPR for Story Lab and the nationally syndicated show, "1A". Naina graduated from Michigan State University in 2018 with a B.A. in Journalism. Naina enjoys swimming, listening to podcasts and watching Bollywood movies.
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