In Depth
Chinese New Year
Chinese food at New Year's
Eating is a central part of the cultural tradition
Last Updated February 15, 2007
by Jessica Wong, CBC News
Cheuk Kwan, director of the award-winning Chinese Restaurants documentary series, has visited Chinese eateries in a dozen countries while exploring the importance of celebratory Chinese meals.
Chinese culture is a foodie culture: one where everyone from the farmer to the CEO pays attention to what he or she eats — not just for basic sustenance but also to maintain spiritual health and balance.
When it comes to Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, this devotion to food is magnified even further with ethnic Chinese around the world sitting down to specific dishes often served as part of elaborate and symbolic dinners, especially on New Year's Eve.
"That's a very important meal. That's the meal for bringing a family together. It's almost like Christmas Day turkey for the Chinese," explains Toronto-based filmmaker Cheuk Kwan, the man behind the globe-trotting documentary series Chinese Restaurants, which explores the Chinese diaspora through the lens of the iconic eating establishment.
A plate of "Potstickers," a specialty at Hon's Wun-Tun House in Vancouver.
"You bring your family together, you wash away your old sins, you pay off your debts, you wash your clothes and you clean your house to get ready for the New Year."
As with other Chinese celebrations, Chinese New Year dinners typically serve food imbued with tradition and symbolism, with some items eaten simply because they are homonyms for terms like prosperity or luck.
"There are certain foods associated with Chinese New Year. Most of them are kind of a superstitious way of eating food that has a good name, like fish in Cantonese is 'yu,' which also means plentiful," Kwan says.
Kwong Cheung, the owner of Calgary's Silver Inn restaurant, serves up a plate of his signature-style ginger beef.
While some families may still manage to serve multi-course Chinese New Year dinners filled with dishes such as oysters with black moss or gold ingot-shaped jiaozi (dumplings), more Chinese-Canadians are celebrating their holiday meals outside the home.
"It's just a matter of going to a restaurant these days. A lot of people don't have the time, nor the energy, to cook," Kwan says.
Whether celebrating at home or at a favourite local Chinese restaurant, the important part is to savour the communal aspect of sharing the meal.
For Kwan, who visited Chinese restaurants in more than a dozen countries for his documentary series, one consideration inevitably rises above all else.
"A lot of the time, I don't associate the food that much with the meaning. I mostly associate it with the taste," he said.
To celebrate Chinese New Year, CBC.ca is profiling eight notable Chinese restaurants across the country. Check out our featured restaurants in the menu at the top of the page.
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- Chinese food at New Year's
- Hon's Wun-Tun House
- Vancouver
- Silver Inn
- Calgary
- Lotus Café
- Prince Albert, Sask.
- Tidbit Restaurant
- Carman, Man.
- Danforth Dragon
- Toronto
- Shanghai Restaurant
- Ottawa
- Manchuria Dumpling King
- Montreal
- Interlude Café
- Charlottetown
