【推荐1】Chinese New Year, an international celebration, perhaps the most widely celebrated holiday in the world, typically takes place in January or February. Although the first few days are the most observed, Chinese New Year actually runs for 15 days and ends with the Lantern Festival. Preparations take place for weeks in advance to ensure that this period is filled with luck and prosperity (繁荣).

With people around the globe observing Chinese New Year, you’re sure to find fireworks, parades, and street fairs in nearly every major city. This is also a time for family reunions and lots of food. People will be feasting and spending time together to celebrate the most important Chinese festival. Firecrackers are thrown in abundance (大量) to frighten away unlucky spirits. Red is worn, and children receive money in red envelopes because of its symbolic meaning, seen as a lucky color that represents success and good fortune.

With vibrant (充满活力的) celebrations taking place from Sydney to San Francisco, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to pay your respect and good wishes to the Chinese, especially if you know the customary greetings. Whether you’ll be spending it in China or in a Chinatown in your own city, knowing how to wish people a happy new year in the local tongue is a nice touch. With such diversity in Chinese culture and ethnic groups around the world, there are many ways to say “happy new year” in Chinese, among which “gong xi fa cai” and “xin nian kuai le” are the most popular phrases.

Gong xi fa cai : Pronounced “gong zee fah tsai”, gong xi means “congratulations and is also a way to wish one joy. Fa cai is to become rich or make money, so you are wishing one joy and prosperity in the new year. Business owners and workmates use gong xi fa cai as the usual way to say “happy new year” in Chinese.

Xin nian kuai le: Pronounced “sheen neean kwai luh”, xin nian means new year and kuai le means “happy” or “joyous”. Xin nian kuai le is a great way to say happy new year in Chinese to friends without referencing money.

【推荐2】Fourteen dancers wearing jumpsuits filled with sponge (海绵) and with special cotton in their mouths recreate the slightly fat figures of Tang Dynasty females. They line on stage with amusing facial expressions and humorous motions. Suddenly, they are surrounded by antiques and the next second, they are hanging around in the ancient masterpieces of Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains.

Like in a dream, audiences travelled back with the dancers to the wealthy Tang Dynasty. The magic—like dance program, namely Tang Gong Ye Yan (Night Banquet in Tang Dynasty Palace), was released in the Spring Festival gala of 2021 by Henan TV. The video has been watched 48.62 million times on Sina Weibo, and the view counts of related topics have passed 200 million on Tiktok by Feb 19. It has enlightened people’s passion toward the beauty of traditional culture, and consequently also spread overseas, appreciated by culture lovers around the world.

The dance has become a representation of guochao, which expresses the rise of China’s native fashion trends. A group of young artists have begun to try to demonstrate traditional Chinese culture in different ways. One of the pioneers is Chen Lei, director of the gala. In his opinion, the dance, in which modern technologies such as 3D and AR are used, is a combination of rich treasures of China’s traditional culture and modern technologies, fashions and aesthetic (美学).

Chen told the Global Times that with the development of China, Chinese young people feel more confident to promote Chinese trends to the international stage. He believes traditions shouldn’t be sealed in glass boxes at museums or merely taught in the classroom, but combined with the digital world. Otherwise, the inheritance (传承) of traditions would be artificial and empty.