On Lunar New Year’s Eve, the small, cozy Chinese Lounge at Oldenborg Center transformed into a colorful, bustling celebration. Lanterns, paper-cuttings and calligraphy pages in varying shades of red adorned the walls and entryways as people from all over the Claremont Colleges came together to share snacks, wrap dumplings and watch as the Spring Festival Gala rang in the new year.
The Lunar New Year — also known as Chinese New Year or Spring Festival – begins on the second new moon after the winter solstice, a date that lands sometime between Jan. 20 and Feb. 21 of the Gregorian calendar.
Based in Chinese mythology, each year has a corresponding animal from the zodiac and, as of Feb. 10, 2024, it’s officially the Year of the Dragon.
Although commonly considered a major Chinese holiday, many countries and diasporic groups across the world celebrate the Lunar New Year, including Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Vietnam.
To mark a new year of prosperity, billions of people in the Asian diaspora travel across the world to celebrate with their families by preparing special dishes, exchanging red envelopes (hong bao in Mandarin or lai xi in Cantonese) and wishing each other luck and prosperity in the new year.
Many Claremont clubs and organizations hosted a variety of events for students to celebrate the New Year of the Dragon.
The Claremont Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) held a Spring Festival extravaganza on Feb. 10, complete with a full Chinese buffet, student dance performances and an after-hours Mahjong event held in conjunction with the Canto Club.
Chinese Language Resident Manxi Wang centered the festivities of her monthly Study Break event around the communal activity of wrapping dumplings, an important Lunar New Year’s Eve tradition for many families in northern China, including Wang’s native city, Beijing.
Stopping to reflect as she wrapped a carrot, mushroom and noodle dumpling, Chinese Conversation class student Malena Sparano SC ’26 was bursting with energy and excitement at the room’s festivities.
“The cultural immersion, the four hours of Chinese TV specials … where else could you get that than at Oldenborg with Xixi [Wang]?” Sparano said.
To organize her event, Wang enlisted the help of her Chinese Conversation class students in creating traditional Chinese decorations to put up around the lounge, and stressed that any students from the 5Cs were invited, regardless of their mother tongue, ethnicity or culture.
“I would love to invite you all to make dumplings together and share the happiness during Chinese New Year,” Wang said.
In addition to this event, Wang led a group of students on an Oldenborg off-campus trip on Feb. 11 to Huntington Library, a nearby museum and garden compound that hosts annual Lunar New Year festivities featuring lion dancers, martial arts demonstrations, music and art.
Wang’s Oldenborg events are not only a chance for the Chinese and wider Asian communities in the 5Cs to celebrate even while away from their homes and families, but also an opportunity for any and all students to learn about the joyful celebrations of Lunar New Year.
The Oldenborg and CSSA events are only one slice of the campus-wide celebrations that took place over Lunar New Year weekend.
On Feb. 9, the Clark Humanities Museum at Scripps College hosted a reception titled “Year of the Dragon.” Featuring over thirty pieces from the gallery’s permanent collection and curated by a team of student interns, this exhibition displayed different images of the dragon in traditional East Asian art.
In the center of the warm, festive space, visitors milled about trying their hand at dumpling wrapping, chatting about the various works and laughing with one another over White Rabbit candy and Wang Wang crackers. Visitors were particularly drawn to a large, vibrant cloisonne vase standing on a platform towards the center of the room, covered in abstract, swirling images of dragons and other fantastic beasts.
The Year of the Dragon reception included presentations on different topics from students of Pomona College Professor Maddalena Poli’s Culinary History of China course.
A student in Professor Poli’s class, Isabelle Chang PO ’27 presented on the Chinese zodiac and its relationship to traditional food and art.
“I’m really interested in the course, and I thought coming to this exhibit was a great way to learn more about Asian history,” Chang said.
Lunar New Year celebrations in Claremont strive to incorporate the beauty of Asian diasporic cultural traditions in a variety of different forms. Whether centered around traditional foods, art forms or dancing, the 5C community joyously came together to celebrate the New Year of the Dragon.
恭喜發財！(Gong Xi Fa Cai (Mandarin) / Gong Hei Fat Choi (Cantonese))
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