Essay about Celebrating Chinese New Year in America

`The Hmong New Year is a cultural celebration that occurs annually, in the months of November and December, in areas where large Hmong population exists. In this speech, I am going to share the three main components that make up the celebration of Hmong New Year, such as the culture of the food, tradition clothes, and the activities that are involved.

It doesn’t matter what kind of ethnicity you are, or how you were brought up. Everyone is deeply rooted in their own culture. “Culture” has a different meaning to everyone. Comparing American culture to Chinese culture we will find many different meanings to the word “culture”. For example, we Americans are always looking for something bigger and better for our future, and the Chinese are content with a small reserved lifestyle with no intentions of changing it for something bigger. A culture is a way of life of a group of people-the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and are passed along by communication and imitation from

They wouldn’t get to eat as much food. They wouldn’t be enjoying their precious time with their family. Instead they would be working hard in the fields to earn a sufficient living wage. But Chinese New Year was a time when they felt they were on top. They thought that they were living the high life. They “all looked forward to, the one time when we would be guaranteed wonderful food, was the Chinese New Year.” It was one joyous occasion that helped them to endure their destitute lives.

The tale “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luch Wang depicts the story of three characters, Monkey, Jin, and Danny. They all have the problem of fitting into their new environments. Jin Wang has to deal with Asian stereotypes. Danny has to deal with embarrassment of his cousin. Lastly, Monkey has to deal with the fact that there is no position for him in the heavenly ranks. However, over time, these characters have to come together to fit in. Yet the question remains: what exactly about fitting in is the problem? Although Jin Wang takes the form of Danny to reject his Chinese roots, the embarrassment of Chin-Knee shows he cannot hide behind a false American identity, thereby delineating that race is the source of his problem.

Every time I come home from college, my family and I would go out to yumcha or, as directly translated from Cantonese, to “drink tea. However, drinking tea is only one component of yumcha. To yumcha is to converse with company over a meal of many small dishes and hot tea. Going yumcha is social activity brought to the United States by the people from the Guangdong region of China, also known as Cantonese people. When they immigrated to the United States, yumcha became an important tradition because it also enabled Cantonese parents to socialize their children into the Chinese culture through the language and social practices involved in the meal and the ritual and meaning surrounding the tea. However, to Chinese-Americans such as myself, going yumcha with native Chinese people also emphasized my American identity due to my food choices. Yet when I go yumcha with non-Chinese people, I become distinctly aware of my Chinese identity when they fail the language or rituals of this tradition. The only time when I do not feel alienated during yumcha is when I go with my other

After the first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States in the early 1840s during the California Gold Rush, many Chinese people continued to travel across the Pacific, escaping poor conditions in China with hopes and ambitions for a better life in America. Many more Chinese immigrants began arriving into the 1860s on the Pacific coast for work in other areas such as the railroad industry. The immigrants noticed an increasing demand for their labor because of their readiness to work for low wages. Many of those who arrived did not plan to stay long, and therefore there was no push for their naturalization. The immigrants left a country with thousands of years of a “decaying feudal system,” corruption, a growing

First, Chinese Americans preserve their ethnic identities through holidays. One of the biggest holidays is the Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year is different from the regular New Years in that it relies on the moon cycles instead of the western calendar, so it falls on different days each year. There is a lot of preparation that goes into the Chinese New Year. People start cleaning their houses and decorating them with spring couplets on the twentieth day of the twelfth moon. Spring couplets are short poems written on red scrolls of paper in black. A popular New Years tradition in the United States is the exchanging of red envelopes containing money, which are called hong-bao. Most families spend this holiday celebrating together because this holiday, above others, emphasizes family and family ties.

In what concerns cultural practices, Yang, Kou studied the 30th annual Hmong New Year event celebrated in the United States, defined as a unique Hmong festival, which turns to be the occasion of displaying the Hmong culture. However, the researcher noted that this New Year event was also dominated by other activities and concepts, largely influenced by the American culture. Therefore, the research aimed at presented the Hmong New Year in the USA as a festival that combines two cultures. However, the paper missed to present the influence of said Festival on the Hmong international community.

New Years is an exciting holiday in many countries. It marks a new period of time with the pure and pristine beginning for individuals. Every country has a unique cultural celebration and specific traditions depending on where you live. However, there is a big difference between how Asian people and Western people celebrate New Year. The three most noticeable differences are in the preparation, travel and length of the holiday will be last.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been researching the Chinese New Year and I am here today to share what I have found.

I was born in Hong Kong and moved alone to Taiwan to live with my grandmother when I was 12. I struggled to learn the language, Mandarin, and to live and learn alongside children from a very different culture. I was like some alien from outer space in Taiwan – generating stares but not acceptance. However, by being open minded about both my potential and the potential of this little island, I succeeded in adapting. I spoke back to the television set to practice Mandarin; I read books and watched videos to learn Taiwan's culture, history, and literature; and I helped my fellow classmates in our

China has about five thousand years history which is a very long period of time. Also, the Chinese civilization was growing with these periods of time and it will continues greater than ever. Many wars and unhappinesses were happening during this period. Although, the time has passed, the histories and the civilizations have not passed. These family virtues, serious, working attitudes, sense of justice and the great Confucian tradition have been deeply assimilated into the Chinese people. Some Chinese traditions are different from North American’s. The Chinese culture has many special characteristics which are very interesting for people to learn.

In the celebration of the local holidays and traditions of our country, we get to experiences new things that we don’t know about and it provides memories that will last a lifetime. We also have more time with our family and friends. It contributes a sense of comfort and happiness. I know more things during the time I spend with my family on holidays. For instance, when I was six years old, there was a day that my parent takes the whole family visiting my relatives’ houses. My parent told me to say “Happy New Years and wish you have the best luck this year.” to that person and then they give me a red envelope. I don’t know the reason why. When I got home, I open it and see twenty dollars, I am so happy. I did it every year and I come to realize the reason, it’s because what I say makes them happy and they give me money so that throughout the year I will get lucky too. But that don’t last long because my family moves to America and they don’t do that here, it’s sad. Nevertheless, I still thankful that I got to know those things before I

As I had mentioned, Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the chinese Lunisolar Calendar. Ancient Chinese New Year is a reflection on how the people behaved and what they believed in the most. In the celebration of the Chinese New Year, people

Looking back at ancient civilization, fireworks, elaborate performances, or decorations had not been invented or developed. These rituals that are associated with the tradition today were added throughout the years. It was because of time that people started incorporating ideas that were added on along with the festival. Therefore you were lucky and fortunate to spend Chinese New Year with