Yesterday we celebrated the Lantern Festival, or yuan xiao, which marks the end of two weeks worth of Chinese New Year celebrations.

Chinese culture has a plethora of regulations to ensure a successful new year. Houses must be swept clean, new clothes worn, certain foods made in honor of certain days in the two-week cycle of celebrations. Each tradition has its own story, as the legend of the fireworks shows.

Ancient myths told of a chimera-like beast named Nian that feasted upon hapless villagers before the beginning of each year. This monster ignited a demand for fireworks: Nian was frightened of all the noise and light. As more villages caught on to this tip, the threat of the beast diminished. With peace restored, every New Year became a time of celebration. To pass a year has since been known as “guo nian,” or literally, “to pass a Nian.”

Such stories are a rarity in China these days. Since the rise of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over 60 Nians ago, many ancient traditions have been twisted into celebrations that glorify the Party and make no sense. The New Year holiday is now dubbed Chun Jie, or “Spring Festival” (never mind that outside temperatures are subzero on both Celsius and Fahrenheit scales). The predominant color scheme is bright red: red lanterns, red clothing, red paper envelopes to hold lucky money. Although this hue is often assumed to represent luck and good fortune, the CCP has taken it for its own purposes. Blood red is the color of China, according to the Party, and over the years it has saturated all aspects of public and private life. Even the historical columns of Tiananmen Square have been slathered in red paint that proclaims the Party’s influence all year round.  It’s a sadly fitting testament to the CCP’s own bloodstained history.

Growing up, I used to join millions of other Chinese families in watching the CCP’s annual New Year’s program on CCTV, the main Party-run television station. It was a sort of “Spring Festival Spectacular” filled with singing, dancing, and skits all praising the greatness of the Chinese Communist Party. We had two television sets in our home: one color, one black and white. The color TV was supposed to bring out the vividness of the performance, but the last time I watched the show, I didn’t notice much difference between the two sets. One showed programs in monochrome gray, the other in monotone red. I suppose they have it in HDR-display nowadays—High Definition Red.

China has always been a land of diversity. Geographically, it ranges from desert to snow-covered mountains to lush jungles and tropical beaches. Demographically, it boasts of a vast population consisting of 56 distinct ethnic groups, and those are just the ones that have been categorized. Historically, each dynasty had its own unique system of music, fashion, and even poetry styles. With such a rainbow of cultures and traditions, how is it possible for a single color to define the entire country?

(Thank you to Annie Li for her inspiration and input.)

February 16, 2011