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On 18 February 2018, during the Chinese New Year, Xiangwen invited me to Chinatown for seeing the parade and other new year series events around Chinatown. We met at Tottenham Court Road station and went to Shaftesbury Avenue to enter the pedestrian event area.
I thought Xiangwen was very interested in these events. However, when we were walking, he said this was his first time to be here seeing the event although he was also in London last year. He would not see lion dance, or dragon dance, or parade car decorated with lanterns at all in China either. I was quite surprised.
“I wouldn’t spend time seeing these in China. Most people wouldn’t either. Right?” He said.
He is not a person who favours going to busy outdoor events or parties as he described himself. Now it seemed he did something different for the Chinese New Year.
“Today is the new year. I’ve thought I would feel sorry for myself if I don’t come here today.” He said.
Xiangwen and I walked along the pedestrian route and watched Kung Fu Show, Lion Dance, and the Chinese Martial Arts Show. All of these would be of no interest to him if in China, as he said. But in Chinatown, we even followed the lion dance all the way for at least 20 minutes and he seemed still not bored.
“The dancers don’t look professional.” He complained again, while staring and following the parade.
He also took several short videos and some pictures using his iPhone and sent them to his families. He and his parents and sister have a family chatting group on WeChat (a commonly used social media like Whatsapp in China). He sent those videos and pictures of the dance and the crowd on the street to the group and told his parents that Chinese New Year was also a big event here and he was having fun.
“Mostly, I want my parents to see the celebration of new year in the UK, and I want them to know I’m good here. I don’t want them to worry about me for being too lonely during the festival.” He said. “This is Spring Festival (another saying of the new year in China), after all.”
I can get him. The Spring Festival, the Chinese New Year, is the most important day in a year and means precious family union. Last year, Xiangwen did not come to see the parade, but he had a happy dinner with a lot of friends from his school. He also sent photos of the dinner to his families through WeChat then.
“Is it a must-do for you to come to Chinatown during the Chinese New Year?” I asked him.
“Not like that. But it’s the new year. There needs to be something special. Like, some ritual.” He replied.
He intended to find a place to have dinner with me originally. But as it was too crowded everywhere, we left Chinatown soon, and his “ritual” was over.
On the way to the tube station, Xiangwen told me he had been to Chinatowns in New York and San Francisco in America. But he did not like there.
“They can’t compete with London Chinatown. They are too messy and noisy.” He said. Seeing London Chinatown can attract people of different skin colors and languages, he feels relaxed in this parade and “more connected to the city,” as he put it.
The role of London Chinatown goes beyond a market for Xiangwen. His visit during the Chinese New Year indicates Chinatown’s importance not only in providing a sense of belonging but also in affirming his identity, as coincided in the insights of Sales, D’Angelo, & Lin (2003). As a place for doing his festival “ritual,” the unique London Chinatown also provides a symbolic environment of Chinese culture and China’s growing influence around the world, which attracts him. In the photos and videos he sent to his families, Chinatown became a vital connection between him and London, a remote foreign city in his families’ eyes. This corresponds Dufoix’s (2008) insights on Chinatown as a physical manifestation of the overseas Chinese community.