New Years with the Shens

As a kid growing up, Chinese New Year brought me joy, love, and bread. Although my grandma does whip up some fire mantou, that’s not exactly the bread I’m referring to. As greedy as it sounds, family members and friends handing me beautifully decorated red envelopes was always the highlight of my night. Looking back at all the dough I wasted on ugly League of Legends skins and overpriced sneakers, I realized that money will eventually go, but the memories won’t.

Every Chinese New Year looks different for my family and me. Sometimes, we would stay home and celebrate by ourselves and other times we would go out and turn up with friends. My brother and I would always prefer the latter, which brings me to one of my favorite traditions. One of my family friends would always host a party at their crib and all of my childhood friends would show up. For dinner, they would make a ton of dumplings, which a few of them would have peanuts stuffed inside. When dinner time rolled around, all the kids would line up and pick one dumpling from the bowl. The kids who ended up with peanuts in their dumplings would be blessed with good fortune and receive a fat red envelope. Not sure if my mother gave birth to a nut magnet or if I just have really good luck, but I would always pick the right one.

Another tradition I want to talk about isn’t really a tradition but more of a funny memory. So, whenever my family decides to celebrate amongst ourselves, we would usually go up to my uncle’s house. My cousin, who is roughly ten years older than me, used to be obsessed with this stuffed animal soccer ball with googly eyes that he would call “qiu qiu.” As 6 year old boys, my brother and I would make fun of him for carrying that thing around. That year, we snuck into his room while he was playing Halo and stole qiu qiu. I don’t exactly remember how it happened, but by the end of the night, qiu qiu turned from a beautiful ball of fluff into a beat up Wilson from Cast Away. Safe to say, the night ended with my brother and me getting our bums beaten (Yin, if you somehow stumble across this article, I sincerely apologize for my actions and hope we can laugh it off like men. Anyway, I hope the family is doing well!).

I never know how to start off my conclusions other than saying “in conclusion,” but I hope this will do. Instead of associating the Chinese New Year with tangible luxuries, I’ve learned to associate it with all the beautiful memories I’ve created from this unique holiday. Sure the League skin I purchased with my red envelope money probably made me the happiest kid on earth for a whole 5 minutes, but it doesn’t compare to all the special moments I’ve shared with the people I love the most.