Unlock Editor’s Roundup for free
Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
A few days before Chinese New Year 2004, my friend Fan Qun, her husband, and I traveled by bus, minibus, boat and, finally, on foot to her family’s remote village in the hills of Hunan Province; her two brothers, migrant workers in Guangzhou, had also returned for the festival. On New Year’s Eve, we gathered a turkey from the fields outside and her father quickly dispatched it with a knife, while the meat of a fat pig that had already been slaughtered smoked over the kitchen fire. Fan Qun’s father made offerings to his ancestors on a home altar set with a pig’s head, a whole smoked fish and a piece of tofu, as well as enamel cups of rice wine and local tea.
All day, Fan Qun’s mother and sister-in-law worked in the kitchen. A chicken stew hanging in a blackened cauldron over the fire; another pot filled with dried radishes sat on the embers. Steam rose from the woks as the two women grilled meat and vegetables on an old-fashioned, wood-fired range. In the middle of the afternoon, they brought the feast: sweet, golden sticky rice noodles, home-cooked bacon and carp, roasted Cantonese duck brought home by the brothers, a wonderful turkey soup with medicinal herbs, dried squid with jujube, smoked pork intestines, tofu and home vegetable dishes and a pot of rice with sweet potato. The young granddaughters, dressed in festive scarlet and pink, sang a song. Then we toasted with cereal and Coca-Cola and ate. At midnight, we all went outside to light fireworks that popped, sputtered and echoed up and down the valley.
New Year’s Reunion Dinner (tuan nian fan) is at the center of Lunar New Year celebrations around the world. Traditionally, family members return to their ancestral homes for a lavish feast of home-cooked dishes, followed by a week or two of idleness and visiting relatives and friends. In rural China, home-grown pork is often served, along with chicken and a whole fish, the latter because the expression “one fish every year” (nian nian you yu) sounds the same as “a surplus every year”. But while the Chinese world is on a scale to rival Christendom, local festive food customs vary as much as global Christmas dinners. In the wheat-eating north of China, people traditionally prepare jiaozi dumplings, while Sichuanese steam fatty slices of pork belly in clay bowls filled with salted vegetables. In many parts of the country, families gather around hot hearths piled high with meatballs, quail eggs, slices of pork belly, and other delicacies.
While the symbolic whole fish is almost ubiquitous on the Chinese festive table, the Cantonese are especially playful with the auspicious meanings of their New Year dishes (the Chinese language is full of homonyms and therefore ripe for play). New Year’s cake slabs, a sweet pudding made from glutinous rice, are eaten during the holidays because their name, nian gaoplays with another word with the same sound (gao): “superior” – in wealth, school grades, status or stature. Before the celebrations, people give each other coupons that can be redeemed at restaurants or shops specific to this and other seasonal sweets, also known as gaomade from radish and taro (“the future of radish cake,” jokes my Cantonese friend Roberta). Kumquats and tangerines are served because their golden color invites prosperity, along with fried red chickens – red is the traditional color of Chinese celebrations.
In Hong Kong and other centers of Cantonese society, restaurants create menus featuring lucky number eight dishes, each with a name that signifies luck, wealth, or one of life’s other rewards. “So many people have dinner during the New Year that we have to offer set menus because the kitchen can’t handle à la carte,” says Lau Kin-wai, veteran food columnist and owner of Kin’s Kitchen in Wanchai District. His restaurant is offering two set menus this year, priced per table in Hong Kong dollars that include many favorable “8s”: the more expensive Four Seasons of Prosperity menu, for example, costs HK$9,888 ($1,270/£1,030). for a table of 12. Each dish has a poetic name filled with upbeat meanings, seasonal symbolism or catchphrases, from “Make a fortune, increase wealth and honor” (a dish made of hair moss – facewhich sounds like “make a fortune” – and “gold coin” dried scallops) to “Golden Dragon Welcomes the New Year” (tiger shrimp in cheese sauce with egg noodles) and “Dancing Phoenix Augments the Joyful Occasion” (deep – fried chicken).
“When I was little,” says Lau, “people didn’t have much money and cooked more for themselves, so New Year’s dinner was usually at home. We would stock up on seasonal foods like cured pork and fresh oysters. dry (their name is a pun on ‘good business’), as well as lucky cakes and seeds to offer to visitors.On New Year’s Day we had a vegetarian meal because the markets were closed.
“These days,” he adds, “more and more Hongkongers eat their festive meal in restaurants. And in recent years, they have increasingly gone to Shenzhen on the mainland, where they can eat lavishly for half the price, or taking the opportunity to fly on a foreign holiday.”
Cantonese food habits have spread to diaspora communities. Chinese restaurants around the world offer New Year desserts and symbolic menus. In recent years, a Singaporean dish has become extremely popular in Chinese circles around the world: Yu Shengor “prosperity throw”. A colorful array of chopped ingredients, including raw fish, is bathed in a sweet sauce, then everyone around the table tosses the food together with their chopsticks while making good wishes for the coming year – and as high as the ingredients fly over the table, “higher” luck. This year, away from China, that New Year with Fan Qun’s family a distant memory, I’ll be celebrating at a home-cooked Shanghainese feast in London – and I’m looking forward to tossing the prosperity salad as I welcome the Year of the Snake.
Fuchsia Dunlop is the author of “Invitation to a Banquet: The History of Chinese Food”Fortnum & Mason Food Book of 2024
FT correspondents on Lunar New Year traditions in their cities
Hong Kong is undoubtedly one of the best places in the world for tourists to celebrate the Lunar New Year, with more than 750,000 people visiting the city for last year’s festival. The Chinese territory offers a fireworks display over Victoria Harbour, a night parade, horse racing and lion dance performances during the first three days of the New Year, starting on January 29. Many will also go to temples to seek blessings from the gods – most commonly the deities Wong Tai Sin and Che Kung – and spin the fortune wheel clockwise for good luck. Most importantly, there is no need to worry about quiet streets and closed shops everywhere – many restaurants and shops will still be open for business and there will be plenty of options.
– Chan Ho-him, Hong Kong reporter
For the Lunar New Year in SEOUL and throughout Korea, many people travel back to their hometowns to visit their parents and meet up with siblings. They usually wear traditional clothing called Hanbok and perform COUNTRY — The practice of bowing deeply to the elderly, kneeling with the head and hands on the ground, and wishing them good luck and happiness in the new year. The elders often reward them with money in an envelope.
Then they eat a special traditional dish called tteokguka bowl of thinly sliced white rice cakes in the delicious broth and can play a popular board game, Yut-norior enjoy saw dancing or darts to celebrate the occasion. One of the best ways for visitors to enjoy the festivities is to visit the traditional palaces, where special shows and performances are held.
– Song Jung-a, Korea Correspondent
of Singapore The annual Chingay Parade, which has been nominated for UNESCO protection, is the city-state’s grandest Lunar New Year spectacle. Taking place at the F1 arena, this year’s event (7–8 February) – a celebration of the country’s 60th anniversary – will feature more than 4,000 performers.
The city’s Gardens by the Bay is the setting for Singapore’s biggest event, the Hongbao River Fireworks (27 January – 5 February), as well as the quieter Spring Blossoms (until 23 February), a floral tribute to romance Chinese folklore. THE The Legend of the White Serpent with more than 1000 dahlias.
For a more traditional feel, Chinatown hosts lion dances and food stalls and is illuminated by lanterns and snake-themed displays at night.
– Owen Walker, Singapore Correspondent
A calm descends Beijing during the Lunar New Year holiday. Millions of migrant workers working in the capital’s restaurants and shops return home. Beijingers call their home the “empty city” and enjoy the traffic-free streets. But some complain that official bans on firecrackers and fireworks dampen the festive spirit that animates the village.
While most of the city is quiet, its famous Yonghe Temple is full of visitors lining up to burn incense. The surrounding streets are lined with red lanterns and carts selling sugar-coated fruit, a Beijing specialty during the winter months. No New Year’s celebration in the north of the country is complete without a steaming plate of hot noodles. A coin is hidden inside a wrapper, bringing luck to the recipient.
— Eleanor Olcott, China technology correspondent
IN SHANGHAIwhen families gather to toast Chinese New Year’s Eve, they will also set a table of offerings for their deceased relatives. Shanghai is a city of migrants, but most people are from nearby southern provinces, where fish, seafood and rice cakes are commonly eaten. On the first day of the New Year, the tradition is to eat tangyuana ball of sticky rice noodles with a sweet filling.
People in Shanghai and other parts of China also worship the God of Wealth on the fifth day of the New Year, with fireworks and food offerings. (Unlike some other major Chinese cities, Shanghai now allows fireworks in certain areas.) Although half the city will be empty as migrant workers return to their hometowns, there will be many people at Chenghuang Temple and the Garden Yu who admire the colorful lanterns. . This year, lanterns in Yu Garden will feature the zodiac snake and legends from ancient Chinese text Classic of mountains and seasalso known as Shanghai Jing.
— Wang Xueqiao, news assistant, Shanghai
Wherever you are in the world, how do you celebrate the Lunar New Year? Tell us in the comments below. And follow the FT Globetrotter on Instagram at @FTGlobetrotter
Cities with FT
FT Globetrotter, our insider guides to some of the world’s biggest cities, offers expert advice on eating and drinking, exercise, art and culture – and much more
Find us in Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York, London, Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, Singapore, Miami, Toronto, Madrid, Melbourne, Copenhagen, Zürich, Milan, Vancouver, Edinburgh and Venice
