Happy New Year!

Today is the first day of the New Year, from a Chinese perspective.

Sienna would show up in school in a traditional Chinese costume. We meant to bring some typical Chinese snacks for kids to share. But we changed our mind on the second thought. Kids here are venerable. Whatever harmless Chinese ingredients they put in the food, i.e., honey or peanut, could put some of her little friends in a harm's way. So we were going to do some "show and tell."

First, we have this imitation thing called "Lucky Knot." It's a piece of ornament: green jade embraced by carved wood attached with red frills tied in a knot. What does this thing mean? Beats me. It symbolizes luck as the name implies, I guess. We don't have a God, we need something else to do the trick of praying, like superstition.

Secondly, Sienna is also going to show a precious little bottle with pictures on it. What's interesting is the pictures were painted from inside. The artist would have to use a special brush to get inside the bottle. It's the craftsmanship. In a profoundly pragmatic culture, we also have efforts made for mere aesthetic purpose.

The last item and not the least important. We have a special ink brush. The brush is made of Sienna's baby hair. She was born with a full head of hair. It's a special tradition to have one's first lock made into a brush as a souvenir. I suspected though that is a play-up by modern commercialism, something like fortune cookies or Valentine's card in the West.

I almost laughed at myself for taking such an overly simplistic to show Chinese culture and values. What else could I do then? Do we need to keep the tradition through certain rituals and tangible objects? Or do we need to keep the tradition after all?

This might come as a shocker. But, I, for one, don't have a particular thing about making special effort to stick to the Chinese values and tradition per se. The dragon dance, the red/gold robe and the 20 dollar bill tucked in a red envelope, ...etc are a bit too tacky for my taste, although I don't avoid them.

At any rate, whatever Chinese is in me. I cannot shake it off, good or bad. I am an extremely proud Chinese. Maybe less so, but I am also a proud Canadian -- all because I am a fundamentally proud and mostly pleasant person. I somehow managed to get everything working quite happily and harmonously inside me and around me. I mean, so much and so far.

When I devote my heart and soul and life to my daughter, I don't see how that Chinese part of me would ever get lost anywhere. Once in a while though, I might just need to show her a piece of fake Lucky Knot as a reminder. Or better still, we will need to stroll on the crowded and polluted streets in China, as much as we can, just to get the feel.

The world is going to become more integrated. It's not only about what to keep. It's more about what to contribute as a person or a culture. to know more languages, or to have access to other cultures opens one up to more options in life. a multilingual or cross-cultural person tends to be more flexible in his outlook in life and his way of thinking is more alternative. I enjoy the privilege of being such a person.