The Year of the Ox will dawn at a strange time for China. Two
thousand eight’s Year of the Rat was characterized by a concatenation
of horribles: A devastating earthquake that left nearly 70,000 people
dead; international recalls on Chinese-made toys, food, and toiletries;
and a global economic slump that wrought havoc on the country’s
manufacturing sector. Stateside, Asian supermarkets that usually see a
spike in business around this time of year also are underperforming,
due in part to prohibitions on Chinese dairy products. And yet, the
worse things get on the economic front, the greater our need for a
celebration. The Lunar New Year, celebrated on the second new moon
after the winter solstice, originated in China and became a global
pan-Asian holiday that’s now celebrated in many parts of the world,
including Japan, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam (since it roughly
coincides with Tet, the Vietnamese New Year). Lunar New Year has also
become an entrenched tradition in parts of the US, particularly cities
with large Asian-American populations, like the Bay Area.
A spate of Lunar New Year-related events will happen around the East
Bay during the last week of January, including readings by local
children’s book author Oliver Chin, who launched his own series based
on the Chinese Zodiac in 2006. (Chin hopes he can keep it going at the
rate of one book a year until 2020.) One of the most exciting goings-on
in the East Bay is the Oakland Museum of California‘s Lunar
New Year celebration, an annual festival featuring Thai cooking,
Korean drumming, mochi pounding, ping-pong, Balinese dance, Red Panda
acrobats, a Kimono exhibition, “Girligami” projects with Cindy Ng,
Japanese doll-making, paper cutting, Lao textiles, Korean kites,
Vietnamese dragon mobiles, fortune telling, tea tasting, acupuncture
demonstrations, Chin reading his new book The Year of the Ox,
and a dragon dance by Leung’s White Crane Dragon Dance Team to close
out the day.
More hard times loom, but communities in Oakland will still
celebrate Lunar New Year in style. It is, after all, the Year of the
Ox, which signifies prosperity gleaned from hard work and ambition.
Traditional ox attributes include pragmatism, industriousness, and
stubbornness — perfect qualities for weathering a recession.
Oakland Museum of California’s Lunar New Year happens Sunday, Jan. 25,
at 1000 Oak St. Noon-5 p.m., $5-$8. MuseumCA.org
