Gone are the days of celebrating the Lunar New Year with my family and relatives. Yet there is nothing to stop me from bringing the festive atmosphere overseas and sharing it with people from the other side of the world.
This year, I celebrated Lunar New Year here in England. The school's boarding house was decorated with red couplets. Seeing the place covered in gold and red made us feel like we had been teleported back into an old village in China!
The local boarders were undoubtedly bewildered as to why the couplets had to be placed in specific locations, not to mention the reason behind turning the character fu upside down: to symbolise the arrival of happiness and prosperity.
We Chinese boarders made a big effort to share the tales behind the traditions with our Western friends, which reminded me of my grandparents telling me the same tales when I was young. How I missed those days, being away from home during the Lunar New Year for the first time!
The highlight of the celebration came when the musicians among us formed a mini-ensemble and played Chinese folk songs. We even composed our own Lunar New Year song, resembling something from a Cantonese opera. During this improvised performance we couldn't help going off-key again and again, and we all burst into convulsive laughter every time someone lost the key.
On New Year's Eve, the boarders had dinner in a nearby Chinese restaurant called The Banquet. As soon as we crossed its threshold, we were wished good luck and happiness by the owner, a Chinese, who beamed at us.