Lunar New Year is not a Single Story

Beyond the red envelopes with money for the new year, my memories of the Lunar New Year are spending time with family. For me, this celebration is about honouring your family history, connecting with your family and looking to the future with hope and renewal. My family is from Vietnam and I have many memories of Banh Tet (Rice Cakes) that my Mom and Grandma would carefully construct. Layering rice, beans and fillings on banana leaves and meticulously  rolling and tying them to be boiled for hours.

I remember the artificial bright yellow apricot-flower tree my Dad constructed to greet Uncles and Aunties who came to visit. I remember the taste of the sweets and all the laughter when playing games of chance with my cousins. All of this culminating as a large family dinner with left overs that would last for days. This year will be different, I hope to get a bouquet of the brightest yellow chrysanthemums to remind me of my family as the food will be lacking. I do not have the talent of my Mom in the kitchen.

When scrolling through my Twitter feed, I see activities about dragons dances and red lanterns which doesn't capture my experience with this cultural celebration. These are good intentions trying to bring in the lived experiences of students, but these references may not be the reality of Asian students in your class. Asians are often thought as a monolith, but there is depth and breath and this is evident in how Lunar New Year is celebrated (if at all).  

There are many Asian cultural celebrations that relate to the lunar calendar that take place in China, Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Laos, Vietnam and South Korea to name a few. With the shift of being inclusive and saying "Happy Lunar New Year" instead of "Happy Chinese New Year", we cannot forget that there are distinct traditions within each culture. Reading a book about Chinese New Year doesn't make sense if your class composition has students from Korean and Vietnamese descent.  Representation is important, but when it isn't responsive to the students in front of you, it feels like erasure.

This Lunar New Year, please get to know who your students are, without making them the spokesperson for their culture. Do your research. Reflect on your practice. Are your classroom activities performative or are they intentional and purposeful?