When I was in Melbourne last year, I was amazed by the fact that Asian population in Australia had remarkably increased since I was there in 2002. Indeed, there were hardly no areas in the city where we didn't see any Asians, and majority of them were Chinese or overseas Chinese mainly from Malaysia or Singapore.
I too had a chance to get to know them very well last year, and became pretty close with some of them. One time I asked my Malaysian-Chinese boyfriend whether he thinks themselves as different from those Chinese who were born in China. He told me that they may have slightly different mentality, and he indeed felt a little foreign to them. Contrarily, I also found it very interesting how Chinese people retain their own cultures, and are proud of their ethnicity no matter where they live or have grown up. That's probably something which we Japanese need to reconsider about ourselves.
Anyway, today is Chinese New Year, and as you know I'm not Chinese. But I still send a greeting to all my Chinese friends/readers if it's okay to share a little sense of their festivity as a same Asian fellow:).
By the way, I've just known that our otoshidama ( a Japanese New Year custom of giving monetary gift from parents/relatives to children) had an origin in Chinese red packet which is also given during Chinese New Year. I truly appreciate our ancestors who took over this awesome tradition from China:p.
Happy CNY guys!
Greeting from Japan,
I too had a chance to get to know them very well last year, and became pretty close with some of them. One time I asked my Malaysian-Chinese boyfriend whether he thinks themselves as different from those Chinese who were born in China. He told me that they may have slightly different mentality, and he indeed felt a little foreign to them. Contrarily, I also found it very interesting how Chinese people retain their own cultures, and are proud of their ethnicity no matter where they live or have grown up. That's probably something which we Japanese need to reconsider about ourselves.
Anyway, today is Chinese New Year, and as you know I'm not Chinese. But I still send a greeting to all my Chinese friends/readers if it's okay to share a little sense of their festivity as a same Asian fellow:).
By the way, I've just known that our otoshidama ( a Japanese New Year custom of giving monetary gift from parents/relatives to children) had an origin in Chinese red packet which is also given during Chinese New Year. I truly appreciate our ancestors who took over this awesome tradition from China:p.
Happy CNY guys!
Greeting from Japan,
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2 comments:
Hey, Happy Chinese New Year, i just got back from visiting my grandparents for the festive season. I didnt expect that you would know of the chinese new year haha. Appreciate ur wishes!
btw..when is ur japanese new year?
i just learned it from you guys:). hope you had a great one and enjoyed seeing all your relatives!looking forward to seeing your CNY story on your blog:).
we japanese celebrate our new year on Jan 1, which is same to standard new year. you guys are so lucky to have it twice in a year:P
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