LifestyleCELEBRATING THE CHINESE NEW YEAR WITH CLARICE CHIAN

WITH CLARICE CHIAN

INTRO

Even though I am of Chinese heritage I have yet to set foot in China, and am afraid I cannot speak or understand the Chinese language. I was born in London and moved to Brazil before I was one year of age, where I grew up.  I then moved moving to the UK where I studied my A-levels, and then moved again to Australia, where I have lived ever since.  It is here that I met my husband, who moved to Australia from Malaysia when he was 12 years old (Chinese-Malaysian), so he has lived in Australia for longer than I have.  We share a passion for family, food and travel…

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! HOW WILL YOU BE CELEBRATING THIS YEAR?

Happy Chinese New Year to you too! My mother is one of 9 brothers and sisters, all of whom live in Australia (7 out of 9 live in the same city), and on Chinese New Year we usually gather together for a huge family feast where everyone brings a dish to share.  In addition to all the aunts and uncles there are many cousins, and my mother’s cousins and their children (and grandchildren) too, so it can be a very big (yet informal) affair, that revolves around delicious food and family.

Chinese New Year for me is a time of gathering with my extended family and friends, catching up, feasting and celebrating.

WHAT’S YOUR FONDEST CHINESE NEW YEAR MEMORY?

I must admit I don’t recall celebrating Chinese New Year that much until I moved to Australia.  The Chinese community in Brazil (at least in the city I lived in, and at the time) was quite small, nothing like what it is like here.  One year, when I was still living in Brazil as a teenager, I travelled to Australia to visit my cousins for Christmas and celebrated Chinese New Year here as well.  I thought receiving ‘Ang Pow’ (red packets) from adults was the coolest thing ever. There was one year I recall celebrating Chinese New Year in Brazil, and it was towards the end of my time there, when I had Chinese lessons for a year or so on Saturdays.  On Chinese New Year we had a big celebration and poetry recital competition.  I practised my poem so hard with my dad, and won! Please don’t ask me to recite it, as it’s all forgotten now, haha!

IS THERE A QUINTESSENTIAL CHINESE NEW YEAR DISH YOU LIKE TO HAVE TO CELEBRATE THIS JOYOUS OCCASION?

There is one dish that is the equivalent of the Christmas ‘turkey’ for Chinese New Year, which has increased in popularity in the last few years. It is called Yee Sang (or Lo Hei in Cantonese), and is a raw fish salad containing raw fish, shredded daikon, jicama, carrots, pickled ginger, and is popular in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia (and therefore here in Australia).  It is a symbol of prosperity and abundance, and is normally served as an appetizer during a Chinese New Year Feast.  All the ingredients are piled up on a large platter, and everyone picks up a pair of chopsticks to mix the ingredients up by the lifting them high, the higher you lift the ingredients, the more ‘abundance’ you receive during the year.  Yee Sang literally means “raw fish” but since the word for fish is a homophone for the word ‘abundance’ in Chinese, Yusheng is considered a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor.

One thing I do recall my mother making almost every year at Chinese New Year, even in Brazil (although I didn’t quite realise it then, growing up), is Nian Gao, or Chinese New Year’s cake.  It is a food prepared from glutinous rice and while it can be eaten all year round, traditionally it is most popular during Chinese New Year.  My mom would either batter it and fry it (the glutinous rice inside becomes soft and chewy) or steam it and roll it in coconut (which was my favourite way of eating it).