Tuesday, Feb. 17 marked the Chinese New Year, ushering in the year of the fire horse. To celebrate and share good wishes for the coming year, University of New Mexico students gathered to make red paper crafts in the Language Learning Center.
Peng Yu, a professor of Chinese at UNM, led the workshop. Chinese Lunar New Year is a celebration of the new year as well as the coming of spring, and in many Asian nations, one of their biggest celebrations, he said.
“It’s like Christmas in the Western world. People get together with their family; a lot of people travel thousands of miles to be back home and get together with their elders and their family members to celebrate this cultural event,” Peng said. “It’s very, very important for them. The spring festival is not only celebrated in mainland China. Taiwan also celebrates, and in Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and many East Asian countries.”
Peng said red paper crafts are a Chinese New Year tradition.
“Red paper cutting is an art, and typically people cut red papers with a pair of scissors or sometimes they carve with a knife on the red paper,” Peng said. “Experienced artists, they do this type of art during Lunar New Year and decorate the house so that people know it’s New Year’s time.”
Traditional red paper craft designs include animals, lanterns and Chinese characters, particularly the fú character, which symbolizes good fortune. Peng said expert artists often do the designs from memory without patterns. For UNM students, craft kits were provided for participants, with guidelines to follow at the event.
Krishna Hooker, an attendee of the decorating workshop who made crafts in the shape of a lantern and a dragon, said he attended the event in part because he received extra credit in his Chinese class and out of a desire to participate in the culture he is studying.
“I’ve gained more aspects into looking at the culture around the specific holiday as I haven’t really paid attention to it before, and what people in China typically do and just some of the hobbies in events that happen around this time over there,” Hooker said.
In addition to language, Peng strives to teach cultural aspects such as calligraphy and red paper crafts, he said. Peng said events such as the decoration workshop are important opportunities for students of language to experience culture.
“In class, we study the language, we study how to speak the language, how to communicate and we study the culture, but we rarely have such a type of opportunity to really get hands on, so celebrating languages and cultures in ‘Language Learning Center’ really gives students the first hand experience,” Peng said.
The event provided attendees with Chinese snack foods and a stream of the “CMG Spring Festival Gala,” a roughly five-hour long variety show that airs on the eve of Chinese New Year.
Attendee Claire Johnston, the Chinese Language Culture Club president, said it was nice to enjoy good company and see recognition and celebration of Chinese culture on campus.
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“I mean, it’s not new to me, but I like that other people are enjoying it,” Johnston said.
Addison Fulton is the culture editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
