Chinese Up For Celebration

　　---Arun Ranjit

　　ASIA is home to diverse cultures wheren various ethnic groups with different languages, cultures and lifestyles mingle in harmony. These diverse cultures have been sources of creation while being a guardian of a priceless legacy of historical and traditional assets.

　　Variety

　　As so, every country has vivid culture and observes them in their own way. The traditional festive-activities and the way a country observes them form the culture of a country. A country's rich and ancient cultural heritage will not be recognised unless it is made known to the world at large through publicity. Ethnic castes, festivals, social activities, traditional values are the lenses through which the culture of a country is brought into focus.

　　As part of cultural activities, the Chinese people and some other East Asian nations including Japan, Korea are celebrating their New Year, which is also popularly known as Spring Festival, which falls on January 22 --today-- this year. Similar to the Nepalese Lunar New Year determined by a lunar calendar, meaning its date varies each year that falls in mid-April, Chinese Lunar New is also determined by a lunar calendar for which the date varies each year between late January and mid-February.

　　In China and other East Asian nations, where their New Year starts according to Lunar calendar, for millions of people who work hundreds of miles far from their hometowns, the holiday is the only time of the year in which many get to see their families.

　　New Chinese temples are gearing up for huge crowds, fortune tellers are preparing to work overtime and anything red is selling like hotcakes for Chinese New Year.

　　As a symbol of cleverness and vitality monkey have found favour with the Chinese weeks before they see the goat off on the lunar new year's day- todqy.

　　The year of the Monkey ranks ninth in the 12-year rotation of the Chinese birth sign system that starts with Rat followed by Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake. Horse, Goat,

　　Despite decades of atheist Communist education, Chinese people are reverting to superstition and traditional practices like never before.

　　-The holiday, previously involving mainly family reunions, is increasingly about doing everything to drive away bad luck and generate good. As this writer was told by Han Xiuzhen, director of the Beijing Folk Afts Museum during the visit to China recently, traditionally, in Beijing's White Cloud Temple visitors will rub a tiny stone monkey for three seconds to bring good luck for the Year of the Monkey.

　　Chinese believe in "Hair cut, sweep the floor or talk about death in the New Year period is not good". New Year's practices reflect a wider cultural shift with many new buildings missing floors four, l4 or 24, because four rhymes with "death" in Chinese. Even the l3th floor has been renamed, as Chinese adopt Western superstition.

　　Big developers vie for lucky addresses for their property ones ending with eighf, which rhymes with "getting rich." On Beijing's major thoroughfare, the addresses for the buildings despite being next to each other are eight and l8.

　　As the world's most populous nation, China celebrates the start of the Year of the Monkey today, Chinese have a special relationship with the intelligent, unruly primate. Thus, people who were born in a Monkey Year are considered more intelligent.

　　The monkey is part of the country's millennia-old heritage, whethe as a member of the country's wildlife, as a character in myth and fiction, or -- reputedly -- as an expensive culinary delicacy.

　　"Clever and intelligent Chinese people love monkeys. Reflecting this attitude, China has chosen Monkey King -- a mythical creature -- as the official mascot of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

　　Golden monkeys, which actually have blue faces, are indigenous to parts of China and often live in close contact with humans. In early 2002, when a baby monkey was found abandoned in the wild in central part of China more than 30 youngster Chinese women volunieered to donate their breast milk to help the emaciated youngster's survival.

　　But the most famous monkey of them all is Monkey King, a legendary character who entered world literature via the l6th-century novel "Journey to the West", often simply translated as "Monkey" in English which describes Monkey King as a trickster, mischievous and subversive.

　　Those were characteristics that appealed to late Mao Zedong, who even used the figure to build up enthusiasm for the Cultural Revolution at its start in l966. Throughout the Cultural Revolution, Monkey King was one of the most revered mythical character, appearing in cartoons and movies.

　　Despite the association with the dark decade of the Cultural Revolution, Monkey King still has a devout following in China, and is one of the most popular figures in traditional Beijing Opera.

　　There is some debate about the degree to Which China's love of the monkey also extends to the culinary field.

　　Tales describe how people gather in restaurants in parts of China to saw open the heads of live monkeys and eat their brains raw.

　　While some dismiss this as urban legend,monkey brain seems to have figured on a now-lost menu prepared for the imperial court in Beijing during the Qing Dynasty.There also seems to be fairly clear evidence that ground bones of the monkey have been an important part of traditional Chinese medicine.

　　A selective reading of Chinese history bears out that monkey year is the risk-reward year. Last time, in l992, the Year of the Monkey was ushered in by Deng Xiaoping, who defied the frailty of old age to go to south China in a bid to reinvigorate the stalled economic reforms.

　　China's future was hanging in the balance, and some observers have credited Deng's trip, and his praise of the southern boom cities, with bringing it back to the path of reform and opening to the outside world.

　　A cultural feast, colourful street parades, acrobatics, Beijing Opera and fireworks will be laid on this day.

　　Importance

　　The advent of the globalization era heightens the importance to preserve, develop and 1earn from the uniqlleness and diversity of various cultures as well as to enhance the cultural symbiosis. Cross-cultural activities in the 21st century should not be limited to history or tradition but also be broadened to identify, respect, learn and incubate new trends of culture emerging from changes.