The Meaning of Chinese New Year / 春节

Chinese New Year, aka the Spring Festival, is almost upon us. As an international student studying abroad, I have not had the opportunity to celebrate for a number of years. So seeing the Chinese New Year short films make their way around social media again this year made me especially pensive.

很快的，春节又要到了。身为一名留学生，我已经很久没有回家过新年了。想起来也一阵伤感。不知大家知不知道，新加坡和马来西亚（新马）的一些企业每年都会发布关于农历新年的短片。想着新年又要到了，想和大家分享一些被较好的。

To a lot of foreigners, the Chinese New Year seems like a big and long party - full of fun, food, customs and fireworks - or an extended version of the American New Year. But the festival actually entails a lot more than that. It is the time of the year when the extended family puts work away, gather together and celebrate as a family. For me, the true meaning of Chinese New Year is reunion and family.

很多外国人想起华人的春节时都会认为是一个大派对。但对我而言，春节的含义远远超出了这些。趁此机会，也想和大家分享新马华人对春节的看法和习俗。

It's hard to explain in words, so here are a few short films or ads produced by Singaporean and Malaysian companies that captures it. These are the equivalent of the Christmas adverts of the Western world.

The Reunion Dinner ／回家過年 (2013)

This is set in Singapore. They are speaking Hokkien, a Chinese dialect, for most of the film as well as Mandarin Chinese and some Singlish (Singaporean English).

片中用上了方言 (闽南语), 中文和新加坡式英语。新加坡人说话时常把不同语言混合一起用。