York University’s Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics (DLLL) has mounted a Chinese New Year display as part of the World Cultures Celebrations initiative to appreciate and respect cultural diversities and festivals around the world.
The Chinese Studies program is exhibiting artistic calligraphy, artifacts, drawings and narratives in the DLLL office, in S580 Ross Building, to present the traditions, customs and festivities of the holiday.
Chinese New Year celebrates the beginning of the Chinese lunar calendar to honour deities and ancestors. This festival is widely rejoiced in China and in Chinese diasporic communities around the world. Traditional customs include family reunion dinners, dragon or lion dancing, firecrackers, red envelopes, paper cutting and couplets with blessings of good health and fortune.
“The Chinese program organized the Chinese New Year display to enhance Chinese cultural literacy in the York community to destabilize stereotypes and to co-construct a multicultural society in Canada,” said Professor Jessica Tsui-yan Li, co-ordinator of the program. “This exhibition offered students valuable experiential education opportunities to explore the cultural meaning and practices of the New Year of the Dragon.”
Chinese language instructors Professor Gang Pan, Anna Hui Wang, Jenny Jing Zhang and Renee Rui Wang worked together with their students to put together the display, which is free and open to the entire York University community during business hours until Feb. 16.