<![CDATA[Lunar New Year: in South Korea, tradition fades for ageing Chinese community, but red envelopes will never die]>
As Chinese residents of South Korea celebrate the Lunar New Year, it's hard for some to escape the feeling that this may be a tradition that's dying out.
The population of huaqiao, as the overseas Chinese community is known, is dwindling and the younger generation appears less in tune with their cultural heritage.
Ageing huaqiao are nostalgic for the "good old days" when everyone in the Chinese community would put on new clothes and shoes, gorge on specially prepared cuisine and receive "hongbao" red envelopes containing cash. Now only the old and faithful keep such traditions alive.
"I am afraid we will be the last generation to bother with jesa [the rituals of ancestor reverence] for New Year's Day and other occasions", says Li Pao-li, the president of the Chinese Residents' Association.
Members of the Chinese Residents' Association attend a ritual of ancestor reverence on Lunar New Year in in Seoul. Photo: Handout alt=Members of the Chinese Residents' Association attend a ritual of ancestor reverence on Lunar New Year in in Seoul. Photo: Handout
On lunar New Year's Day, which falls on Saturday, Li will attend a ritual of ancestor reverence at his cousin's home, to honour his own family, before moving on to other rituals across Seoul to pay his respects to others in the community.
The rituals are to seek blessings from both ancestors and deities, including Guan Yu, the guardian deity for merchants, he says. Li, 65, is hoping for good business this year.
Kuo Yuan-yu, 73, the secretary general of Li's association, says he and other huaqiao traditionally celebrate the new year by wearing their best clothes, setting up tables weighed down by all sorts of dishes and beckoning spirits down from the heavens.
In the past, shops and restaurants operated by huaquiao and schools attended by their children would close for a whole week.
Kuo Yuan-yu, secretary general of the Chinese Residents' Association. Photo: Handout alt=Kuo Yuan-yu, secretary general of the Chinese Residents' Association. Photo: Handout
But now, says Kuo, less fuss is made.
"It was too much of a hassle. These days, we just follow the trend and do it the easy way," he says. He puts candies, soft cakes, fruits and dumplings for his dead parents on the table.
"I'm sorry to say it but our ancestors have no other choice but to follow the trend," adds Kuo, laughing.
THE OLD WAYS
A tradition among huaqiao in Seoul is to start the Chunjie (Lunar New Year) rituals by burning letters of invitation outside their homes and bowing to the south on the eve of the lunar New Year's Day.
The smoke that billows from the letters is supposed to reach the heavens, inviting ancestor spirits to come down and enjoy the food being offered to them.
Worshippers then carry home three incense sticks ignited by the flames of the burning letters, supposedly accompanied by their ancestors' spirits.
In the first minute of the lunar New Year's Day, worshippers kneel and touch the ground with their heads four times before an altar, set up with food and wooden tablets representing their ancestors' spirits.
People bow at an altar near the Demilitarised Zone in South Korea to mark the Lunar New Year. Photo: AFP alt=People bow at an altar near the Demilitarised Zone in South Korea to mark the Lunar New Year. Photo: AFP
Dishes to mark the Spring Festival differ by region but all symbolise wishes for prosperity, happiness and auspiciousness.
A whole roasted chicken with its head and claws intact represents rebirth and reunion, a suitable symbol for the Spring Festival, which offers a rare chance to bring together far-flung family members.
Eating dumplings or jiao zi " a homonym for 'exchange' in Chinese " symbolises sending away the old year and welcoming the new one.
Another tradition is to put bank notes into some of the dumplings, bringing great luck to whoever eats them.
Li's other favourite dishes include fruit, vegetables, pork, eggs, meatballs and bean curd " culinary influences that owe much to his parents, who immigrated from the eastern province of Shandong, China, to the Korean peninsula in the 1940s.
THE NEW WAYS
But Li says that young huaqiao increasingly resemble their Korean peers and tend to keep away from these rituals, preferring to spend the period travelling abroad.
"Young people want to celebrate in a simple way. I cannot insist on doing it in the traditional ways", Li says, adding he and his Korean wife have a daughter and a son, both married to Koreans.
He says he will content himself by sharing dumplings with his son and daughter-in-law early on Saturday to welcome in the Year of Rat, when the four-day Seollal (the first day of the lunar new year in Korea) holidays begin in Korea.
"After that, they will just return to their own homes without staying over at my house," he says.
The South Korean government-set Seollal is shorter than the holidays observed in China. Depending on what day of the week the new year starts, Seollal runs between three to five days.
In mainland China, the holiday lasts seven days.
"We have to follow what Koreans do. We can't close our restaurants and enjoy long holidays while all Korean competitors are open for business", says Li, who operates a Chinese restaurant with his daughter and son-in-law in Seoul.
Wang Ae-ju, in her mid-40s, says she will have no time to join a lunar new year's dinner with her relatives, as she too has to manage a chain of Chinese restaurants she owns in Seoul, Seongnam City and Incheon City.
"I'll just show my face and say hello to my relatives before getting back to work", she says.
Kuo Yuan-yu writes 'Luck' on a red envelope as he prepares to welcome the Year of the Rat. Photo: Park Chan-kyong alt=Kuo Yuan-yu writes 'Luck' on a red envelope as he prepares to welcome the Year of the Rat. Photo: Park Chan-kyong
Kuo, the secretary general of the Chinese Residents' Association in Seoul, says the number of huaqiao in South Korea has been in decline for decades as they become naturalised Korean nationals or immigrate to other countries.
In the past four years, the number has dropped from 23,000 to 19,000, he says. And as the number dwindles, the traditions die out.
Kuo says that after he shares his new year's dinner with his son and daughter-in-law he plans to idle away his holiday in front of the television screen.
Still, some traditions never die.
"But you can't get rid of hongbao under any circumstance," says Kuo. "Children wait for hongbao like Westerners wait for Christmas gifts." He says he will have to "bribe" his grandchildren with the cash-filled red envelopes.
For some, the tradition will live on.
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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