株式会社ジャニーズ事務所 and the Commodification of Pop Music

Posted on 4 April, 2013 by cindy

If you listen to NPR, you probably heard the above Planet Money podcast a few months ago about why K-Pop’s instant worldwide success was not a fluke of nature and, instead, was a deliberate manufacturing decision viewed in very stone-cold corporate profit margins.  Psy just happened to have the right combination of cross-over appeal, humor, and talent to bring K-Pop to the forefront.  In sum, the Korean (and Japanese) music industries do not view “music” as a form of art:  they view it as a standardized formula to be replicated over and over again, always changing the formula based upon reviews from past performance to make a greater product.  In this sense (and anyone who has ever seen many K-Pop or J-Pop videos knows), originality and artistry are much less important factors in contemporary J-Pop than are producing musicians with generic, recognizable appeal and lyrics and beats that are well-understood.  Think about it:  if you’ve been to China, Thailand, Indonesia, or even small towns in highland Laos, K-Pop songs are everywhere!  In the small, isolated town of Luang Prabang, Laos, there is a Super Junior restaurant!  Really, in Laos!

It’s not that talent does not count for anything–we’ve profiled types of Japanese music that are not part of the modern pop industry, and therefore, cannot rely on a “factory model” of production.  But what it does mean is that J-Pop is an industry, with standards of success.  This concept is also very familiar in the American music scene, where talent agencies and talent managers streamline and highlight performers with the primary hopes of profit gain.  The most prolific Japanese music talent agency is 株式会社ジャニーズ事務所 (Kabushikigaisha Janīzu Jimusho), or, Johnny & Associates, Inc. whose signed pop singers are collectively known as “ジャニーズ Janīzu,” or “Johnny’s.”  A combination “star-training academy” and “talent management service,” Johnny & Associates, Inc. works to groom young male pop stars into stardom.  Founded in the 1960s, the group is so powerful that it has been able to change copyright laws in Japan to gain more money for celebrity images as well as change the organizational structure of Japanese music awards.  The founder of Johnny & Associates, Johnny Kitagawa, won two Guinness World Records in 2011:  the first for producing the most No. 1 singles–232 over four decades–as well as the most concerts produced by an individual.  Within the last decade alone, Kitagawa produced 8,419 concerts, with an estimated attendance of 48,234,550 fans!

Johnny Katagawa receiving his two Guinness World Records surrounded by his Johnny’s. Source: Guiness Book of World Records

 

While there are many talent agencies throughout Japan, Korea, and China, Johnny’s & Associates is the benchmark for success.  We wanted to highlight how J-Pop works as an “industry” and how Japanese art has been commodified for public consumption.  As you could tell across our Japanese blog music series, adopting and standardizing music styles from other countries has been a mainstay in Japanese music, from both ska, reggae, rock ‘n roll, and folk music.  While we hope you go above and beyond this “model of standardization” for your Japanese SuperStar videos, hopefully you can also understand why so many contemporary Japanese music videos and pop stars are almost indistinguishable!  Until next time, when we will talk about “the Britney Spears of Japan,” who recently cut her hair and violated the “bushido” code and everything in this article is inverted!

Until then, here are two videos from popular J-Pop idols Tomohisa Yamashita and Hey! Say! JUMP!, both who are currently represented by Johnny’s & Associates:

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Jamaican-Japanese Music: Japanese Ska and Reggae

Posted on 22 March, 2013 by cindy

Ticket stub to Bob Marley & The Wailers performance in Japan. Source: http://voiceofthesufferers.free.fr/japantickets.html

Welcome, to what is probably only the second article about Jamaican-Japanese music on the Internet.  If you find any other one, let us know!  This was by far one of our staff’s most interesting topics to research.  If you’ve noticed a consistent theme across blog posts, it is that music trends in Japan tend to closely follow music trends in the United States.  Because the countries of Japan and the United States have always been emotionally close (think about it–other than Latin American countries, Japan is the only other country in the world where the American sport of baseball is commonly played), Japanese musicians have often formed longtime relationships with American musicians, often mirroring the current moment in American music.

This tradition isn’t just confined to folk revivals, pop music, and rock ‘n roll!  During the 1980s when Bob Marley was all the rage, Japan had the #3 highest number of ska and reggae musicians after Jamaica and the United States.  Ska, or スカ (suka) or j-ska in Japanese, is a combination of Jamaican calypso music with American rhythm and blues tunes–quite the world away from J-Pop!  Ska has had three waves, and the third wave–the punk wave often associated with ska–became the most popular J-Ska version.  Despite that, some J-Ska songs have distinctly pop elements, making the genre a cross-over hit.  Japanese ska also includes electronica and heavy rock presences (called ska-core), making it a little harsh to listen to for us with sensitive ears, but for those of you who enjoy head-banging, it’s definitely a genre you should look into–we won’t, however, be promising you any success for those SuperStar videos!  However, if you are interested in J-Ska, you should definitely check out TSPO, or Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra 東京スカパラダイスオーケストラ (Tōkyō Suka Paradaisu Ōkesutora), widely considered to be the most successful J-Ska band of all time.

Ska is often regarded as the predecessor to the most popular Jamaican music genre, reggae.  Japanese reggae has almost the same origin story as Group Sounds:  in 1979, famous Jamaican reggae music arrived when Bob Marley (by this time an international superstar) arrived in Tokyo on the Babylon by Bus Tour in Japan to promote reggae in the Pacific Rim.  Once in Japan, Marley and his music became instantly popular with Japanese audiences, and Japanese artists began imitating traditional reggae beats with Japanese music and language.  In Japan, Marley was impressed by the seriousness and depth of Japanese reporters questions about both his Rastafarian religious beliefs and music philosophy, a marked difference from the jocose questions he fielded in Europe and the Americas.  Over the course of a week, Marley played eight concerts in five different venues in both Osaka and Japan.  Marley’s trip has become iconic to Rastafaris and reggae lovers in terms of the universal appeal of their “one love” philosophy; if interested, more can be read here http://www.oneplanetoneworld.info/assets/Jamming-in-Japan_0.pdf about Marley’s visit to Japan and how it influenced the development of Japanese reggae.

While Japanese consumerist markets identified reggae as the “most up to date” music trend and attempted to standardize reggae into the music industry, Japanese reggae artists began collaborating with Jamaican reggae artists.   In coverwork, Rastafari philosophy was overlayed with popular Japanese mythological, religious, and literary symbols, themes, and designs.  The first Japanese reggae music festival (Japansplash) was hosted in 1985.  Japanese reggae artists, such as ジョー山中, Pecker, and Mute Beat.  Furthermore, during the 1980s, many Japanese bands incorporated reggae beats within their music and cover artwork.  As the Japanese music industry corporatized and adopted a “superstar factory production” model, a topic we will cover in the next blog, reggae was squeezed out of mainstream music industry.  However, it continues to survive in Japan’s underground music scene.  If you decide to do a Japanese reggae song for Japanese SuperStar, trust us, you will stand out!  We’ll see you again soon!

If you are looking to do more research on Japanese reggae, consider looking through this playlist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLN8CGv4uZY&playnext=1&list=PL47AD1C05E2B7A7AF&feature=results_main

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日本語ロック論争: Should Rock Music Be Sung in Japanese? and the Beginning of Japanese Folk Music

Posted on 13 March, 2013 by cindy

日本語ロック論争, or the Japanese-language rock controversy, infused the post-Beatles G.S. world of Japan.  内田 裕也 (Yuya Uchida) felt that Group Sounds should not be sung in traditional Japanese, while the Japanese band はっぴいえんど (Happy End), felt that Japanese language had a place in contemporary Japanese music without using English.   In the end, it was はっぴいえんど that won out through their success in performing rock music only in Japanese.  Subsequentally, Happy End was ranked the 3rd most important band in Japanese history and Rolling Stone Japan considered their album 風街ろまん the most important piece of contemporary Japanese rock music of all time.  Like many G.S. and early rock songs, 風街ろまん was unique in its capacity for social critique: throughout the album, Happy End’s songs lament the radical transformations and destructive growth that shook Tokyo during the 1964 Olympic Games.

Cover of Wind City Romance

Although English language became less prominent in subsequent Japanese music genres, the rapid globalization of the 1960s, close friendships between Japanese and American rock stars, and close cultural and political bonds between Japan and America led to parallel music scenes in both countries.  After the 日本語ロック論争 debates subsided, フォークル (fokuru, or folk) and ニューミュージック (nyū myūjikku) emerged from underground venues to become the most mainstream contemporary Japanese music genre.  Unlike traditional Japanese folk music, which was based on social satire, フォークル and ニューミュージック-both focused on personal sentiments, including commemorating romance, tragedy, nostalgia, and hometown  nostalgia.

Japanese folk musician from 1904. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Like the American folk revival, the Japanese folk revival blended elements of Group Sounds with traditional Japanese folk music.  Because of its extensive cultural history, Japan possessed many folk music traditions, but the one that most heavily influenced the 1970s folk revival was termed 民謡.  民謡 is a recent term introduced by Japanese ethnomusicologists to describe any song sung by traditional or rural people, including the ”inaka bushi” (“country song”) “inaka buri” (“country tune”), and “hina uta” (“rural song”).  Each region of Japan spanning from Hokkaido to Okinawa has its own folk songs, often tied to the traditional local industry or geography.

Japanese folk instruments on display at a parade. Source: I Love Kanji Blog

Because Japanese folk music is so localized, the defining characteristics are lyrics and instruments.  Folk music was often sung unaccompanied, but when instruments were used, the most common were the 琵琶, 太鼓,  ほっちく, ふえ, or 拍子木.  Traditional folk musicians often wandered around, performing their songs in bars, in village squares, local meetings, or other traditional agricultural events.  Most of the topics of 民謡 were deeply connected with traditional agricultural work and were meant to speed up the time as one was in the fields or as playful melodies to be enjoyed while on break.

The best example of a Japanese folk revival song is 女のみち, or, the Way of a Woman, by Shiro Miya and the Pinkara Trio.  女のみち was an instant mega-hit when it was released and for three years was considered the best Japanese music song, selling over 3.25 million copies, and quickly becoming the 2nd most purchased Japanese album of all time.  If you are trying to learn Japanese, this is a good song as the lyrics are quite simple, although the story they tell (of a Japanese woman who totally devoted herself to a man that ended up deserting her) is nothing but simple!

If you are looking for some Japanese folk music inspiration for your Japanese SuperStar Karaoke Contest video, check out this YouTube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/HCZNloQ4GzlH4.  We suspect some of you are reviving some 民謡 for your submissions, so we look forward to hearing them!

がんばっ!

 

 

 

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All J-Pop Comes from the ビートルズ

Posted on 5 March, 2013 by cindy

Okay, okay, not all J-Pop comes from ビートルマニア, or, Beatlemania, but, without the Beatles, it is likely that the modern Japanese music scene would be radically different.  Similar to 1950s and 1960s American rock, Group Sounds formed the baseline for the modern music industry.  While some of these songs are a little old, who knows?  Doing something original will make you stand out during Japanese SuperStar!

At the height of their popularity in 1966, the Beatles traveled to Japan and a wave of youthful energy and Beatlemania shaked the landscape of ultra-conservative Japan, thereby introducing Japan to American music.  Japanese nationalists and elders protested the Beatles’ presence, citing similar reasons to those found in America:  that rock music was too sexual, turned youth into rebels, and promoted slackerism.  Japanese nationalists were also upset that the Beatles were performing at the 日本武道館 (Nippon Bukodan), a stadium that was created for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games for the explicit purpose of the Japanese martial art じゅうどう (judo) competitions.

Advertisement for the Beatles in Tokyo. 1966.

From June 30 to July 2, the Beatles performed 5 concerts that attracted 25,000 fans and posted an astounding 60% television rating.  The weeks after the concert, music stores in Japan sold out of Beatles memorabilia, drum sets, and guitars.  Because the Beatles’ arrival in Japan was delayed a few days due to a hurricane, the Japanese press labeled this upswell in music interest the “Beatles’ Hurricane.”  From 1966 to the early 1970s, there were hundreds of new Japanese rock bands inspired by the Beatles (and with similar sounding names!), including the Tempters, the Mops, the Spiders, Blue Comets, and the most famous, the Tigers.

The Blue Comets, who coined the term “Group Sounds.”

Each of these groups were part of the music genre that Japanese and Western music experts dubbed G.S., Group Sounds, or グループ・サウンズ.  The term “group sounds” was coined when the Blue Comets were guests on a popular TV show hosted by Yuzo Kayama; during the show, Kayama started teasing a member of the Blue Comets about his inability to say “Rock ‘n Roll” correctly.  Yoshikawa, a member of the Blue Comets, stressed how difficult it was for a language without an “r” sound to say a phrase with a double “r” sound, challenging Kayama to come up with an alternative.  Kayama thought for a moment and openly mused “Why not call it Group Sounds?,” and within a day or so, the phrase had stuck.

Group Sounds blended the rock sensibilities of the Beatles with Japanese 歌謡曲 (kayōkyoku) music. 歌謡曲, which literally means “Lyric Singing Music,” was a derivation of traditional Japanese pop music that already had significant American influences, due to the music being played on the American military bases in Japan set up after World War II and the Korean War.  Defining 歌謡曲’s characteristics has been said to be ‘impossible’ to do (I mean, it’s referred to as “Japanese Standard Pop Music”) since it essentially described a moment of time in Japanese pop music.  If you would like to read more about kayokyoku, Japanese music expert Saori Yuki presented his analyses here:  http://bit.ly/14kZThM.  The four defining features of 歌謡曲 are that (1) the presentation of music does not depend on emotions (2) Japanese translations are heavily used over stylized English pronunciation, (3) slightly dissonant melodies and (4) occasional transitions from pop music strands to a screaming psychadelic rave-up.

If you are interested in performing a グループ・サウンズ song for Japanese SuperStar Karaoke, you might want to visit this YouTube page:

1.   http://www.youtube.com/channel/HCt7U-joI7YFg for 歌謡曲 music

2.  http://www.youtube.com/user/gsiloveyou2011 for グループ・サウンズ music.

We look forward to those videos!

がんばって

 

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Feliz Año Nuevo Chino from Lima!

Posted on 28 February, 2013 by cindy

Lima’s Center Square

Lima, Peru is the last stop on our whirlwind tour of Chinese New Year celebrations around the globe.  When most Americans think of Peru, they think of Machu Picchu, llamas in the Alps, and the flute music heard in almost any suburban mall–the fact that Peru is one of the most dynamically diverse countries in the world rarely comes up!  As a matter of fact, around 5% of Peruvians are Asian-Peruvians and nearly 25% of all of Peru’s population has some Asian-Peruvian blood in their ancestry!  As a matter of fact, between 1990-2000, the President of Peru was the controversial Alberto Fujimori, a prominent Japanese-Peruvian.  Of the Asian-Peruvian population, about half, or around 1.5 million, are Chinese-Peruvian.

Chinese migrated to Peru shortly after the abolition of slavery in South America to work on sugar plantations and coastal guano plantations.  Through coolie labor, the Chinese-Peruvians were informally reduced to the status of slaves and had some of the worst living conditions throughout Latin America.  Most Peruvians were from Macau and Guangdong, so among Chinese-Peruvians, Cantonese or (surprisingly!) Portuguese are the most common lingua franca.  Of early Chinese migrants to Peru, almost 95% of them were male.  After either completing five-year contracts or escaping coolie labor, many Chinese immigrants to Peru adopted the last name of their employer, moved to centralized locations, and established small service businesses.  Furthermore, Peru was a popular migration point for Chinese who settled elsewhere in America–for instance, after the mines of Montana and California shut down, Lima was one of the second most important ports of call after the East and West coast of America.  Established in the 1850s (before the American Civil War!), Lima’s Chinatown (known in Spanish as barrio chino) is actually one of the oldest Chinatowns anywhere in the world!

Chinese New Year Celebration at a Chinese Charity Hall in Lima. Courtesy of Buzzfeed.

Chinese cultural influence has permeated Peruvian culture in many ways.  For instance, Peruvians have borrowed many loan words from Cantonese, such as “kion” for ginger.  The Peruvian-Chinese food is often referred to as “chifa,” which is a loan-word from the Cantonese “chi-fan,” to eat.  The Chinese-Peruvians themselves are referred to in Spanish as tusán, which is a loan-word from the word 土生, or locally born.  Small restaurants throughout the country serve dishes known as roz chaufa, tallarin saltado, and chi jau kay that have both Latin American and Chinese influences.

 

Unlike in many of the locations we have profiled, the Chinese-Peruvian community is quite strong and vibrant in preserving its Chinese traditions.  For instance, nearly all member of the diasporic community in Peru are fluent in either Cantonese, Mandarin, or Hakka!  The strong presence of Chinese philanthropic organizations, business lobbies, and temples has resulted in a thriving Chinese community that has multiple newspapers, schools, and traditions.  With such a large population, Chinese New Year is an important celebration for Chinese-Peruvians, and most either return to their home in Peru or visit family in China.  Because there is often a large return to China for these two weeks, the Chinese New Years celebrations in Peru is substantial, but not reflective of the immensity of the diasporic Chinese population in the country!  One of the most prominent places to view the celebrations is in Peru’s Chinatown, which was revitalized in the late 1990s with donations from both Peruvian-Chinese and mainland Chinese hoping to preserve one of the most historic landmarks of Chinese influence around the globe.

Chinese dragon dance in downtown Lima’s Chinatown.

Cheng & Tsui hopes that all of our readers–students, teachers, or casual fans–enjoyed our series highlighting Chinese New Year’s celebrations around the world.  From the island of Mauritius, to the hustle and bustle of Bangkok, to the Land Down Under in Sydney, to the barren high plains of Montana, and the magical city of Lima, we have had fun showing how Chinese influence has contributed to local society, national culture, and historical developments.  Please write us on our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or company website what you thought about this series, and be sure to tune in for our next series on the K-Pop and J-Pop industries!

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Chinese New Year’s in Montana’s Gold Country: The Mai Wah Society’s Chinese New Year Parade

Posted on 21 February, 2013 by cindy

Butte, Montana: Almost nothing in sight!

While Sydney hosts the largest Chinese New Years celebration outside of China, the city of Butte, Montana hosts what they call the smallest, coldest, and loudest Chinese New Years celebration in the United States!  When students think of “Chinese New Years” in the United States, Montana is probably the last place that comes to mind.  However, to many people’s surprise, Montana has one of the oldest historical communities in the Chinese diaspora, dating back to the gold rush days!  Archaeological evidence from Colorado, Montana, and California show that Chinese immigrants probably established businesses in mining communities within 1 year of the discovery of gold; once the gold, silver, or iron ores were exhausted, the Chinese communities would, like miners, pick up and move to the next boom-town.  Almost all of the original Chinese migrants to America were men, although there was a rare case when a Chinese migrant brought his family with him.

Wah Chong Tai Mercantile in Butte, Montana circa 1905. Source: The Mai Wah Historic Society

Similar to Mauritius, Chinese males were attracted to gold rush towns in the American West not as miners, but for the lucrative business of establishing service industries.  However, unlike in Mauritius, there was significant anti-Chinese sentiment throughout mine towns.  Fearful of cheap labor costs, miners formed unions that prohibited Chinese from working in the mines, thereby conscripting them to service work outside mines.  In 1870, a census was taken in German Gulch (the name of the gold mining camp that would later become Butte), and recorded only “two Chinamen” (verbatim) lived in Butte.  While many Chinese who illegally migrated to Montana could have been hiding, the “two Chinamen” quip reflects government officials’ unease with Chinese migrant labor. However, archaeological evidence suggests that more than 200 Chinese migrants lived in German Gulch during the 1870s.  Later records listed Chinese migrants only as “Ah” or “Ng.”

Mai Wah family; one of the earliest Chinese migrants to Butte.

Despite anti-Chinese sentiment and racism, the service industries that Chinese migrants established were indispensible and almost unimaginable to live without.  For instance, miners used to actually ship their laundry to China as the cheapest way to wash clothes because no laundromats existed in the Western United States.  If you were lucky, it would take 6 months to get freshly-washed and pressed clothes (if you got them back!).  Needless to say, when Chinese migrants set up sundry shops, laundromats, and craft works, they were able to charge a premium because the only competition was (literally!) more than an ocean away.  Almost every major and mid-sized mining community had at least one Chinatown where service industries and restaurants served as the economic backbone.

In 1882, the United States Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act and Chinese migration virtually stopped.  The Chinese Exclusion Act also prohibited Chinese persons from becoming naturalized American citizens.  The Chinese Exclusion Act would not be repealed until 1942.   As the gold rush ended, most of the 2,000 Chinese persons living in Butte either returned to China or sought new riches in cities along the West Coast.  By 1940, only 92 Chinese persons were left in Butte.  In the 1990s, most of the old areas of Chinatown were zoned to be destroyed but, due to the vigorous efforts of the Montana Historical Society and local citizens groups in Butte, most of the largest buildings were saved from demolition.  The Mai Wah Society, named after one of the sundry shops in Butte, has become a heritage preservation organization intent on uncovering, protecting, and promoting Butte’s Chinese legacy.  They have done great work, and you should check out their website at Mai Wah Historic Society.

Since 1993, the Mai Wah Society has been hosting a Chinese New Year’s parade to celebrate Butte’s Chinese heritage and–it is probably the only Chinese New Year’s parade where there are virtually no Chinese-Americans!  Despite that, heritage groups from Taiwan and China have contributed significant donations to the Mai Wah Society’s research, archaeology, and heritage preservation projects.  In 1998, a Taiwanese philanthropic organization even donated a dragon that remains the mainstay of Butte’s Chinese New Year parade.

We have one more stop–and it’s still in the Americas!  Although it’s a country with the eighth largest overseas Chinese population in the world, it’s more well associated with llamas and the Incans.  We’ll see you in Peru on Thursday!

Butte Chinese New Year

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Happy Chinese New Years from Sydney!

Posted on 18 February, 2013 by cindy

If you are looking for “family friendly fun on a grand scale,” Sydney’s two week-long Chinese New Year celebration is your go-to location.  Sydney features the largest Chinese New Yearcelebration anywhere in the world outside of China–the city’s annual festivities contain about 80 smaller events over 2 weeks of celebration, capped off by a flurry of fireworks over the iconic Harbor Bridge and Sydney Opera House.  More than 100,000 people come just to the Chinese New Year Parade and hotel rooms are fully booked six months in advance.

Sydney is one of the world’s most culturally diverse cities, and, because of its proximity to Asia, has always been home to a large Chinese diaspora. Because Australia and China were both influenced by British colonialism, there has always been long-standing Chinese community dating from the mid-1800s.  Australia has been conscientious of celebrating its diverse population, and does not hold back for Chinese New Years–as you can see in this promotional video, almost all ethnic groups in Australia, including Aborigines, South Asian-Australians, and Japanese-Australians have a place in the Chinese New Year Parade!

It is just as common for non-Chinese to celebrate Chinese New Year in Sydney as it is for Chinese-Australians families of all sorts visit Circular Quay for the annual parade.  Almost every institution in Sydney–the Sydney Airport, Madame Tussaud’s, government buildings, aquariums–have special promotions for the holiday.  Similar to Chicago dying the city’s river green for St. Patrick’s Day, this year the iconic Sydney Opera House was decked out in red for Chinese New Year.  As the festivities grow larger and more extravagant every year, Sydney has become the second most popular location behind Dubai for upper class Chinese from the mainland to vacation during the two-week holiday.

To conclude this post, we want to share some more pictures and videos with you.  Our next stop on Wednesday will probably be one of our most … unique … stops.  It’s an area better known for cowboys and gold mining and the nickname “Big Sky Country.”  Yes, there’s even Chinese New Year Celebrations in the most remote corners of America!  Check back with us then.

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สวัสดีปีใหม่จีน: Happy New Years from Bangkok!

Posted on 14 February, 2013 by cindy

Bangkok’s Chinatown, with the city’s ubiquitous dtuk-dtuks!

Yes, we know!  Cheng & Tsui doesn’t have many Thai customers, but because we know our customers love learning languages, we decided to teach you a few new words in another Asian language!  Sawatdii (สวัสดี) bpii-mai jiin(ปีใหม่จีน) is how you saw “Happy Chinese New Year” in Thai.  Like many countries in Southeast Asia, Thailand has a large Chinese population that has become influential political and economic power players in Thai society.  While the Chinese-Thai population is only around 15%, other estimates suggest that almost 50% of Thai citizens have Chinese ancestry.  Most Chinese lineages in Thailand date back six generations, but some date as far back as the 15th century (before the time Columbus discovered America)!  Like Sino-Mauritians, Sino-Thais have always been successful entrepreneurs and politicians in Thailand; an informal estimate in the early 2000s suggested suggests that 50% of Thailand’s GDP comes from Chinese families.

วัดมังกรกมลาวาส, or, Wat Mangkon Kamalawat, or 龍蓮寺, hosts one of Bangkok’s largest Chinese New Year celebrations. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Despite this prominence, Chinese Thais place more emphasis on celebrating traditional Thai holidays (such as the traditional Thai New Year, Songkran) over Chinese holidays.  Furthermore, most Sino-Thais speak Thai fluently, and while they may be able to speak Cantonese or Mandarin with their elders, little emphasis is placed on developing reading, writing, and speaking fluency.  Although Chinese-Thais have a strong cultural identity within Thailand, tensions between Thailand and China during the Cold War as well as the strength of Thailand’s national identity have limited Chinese Thai’s cultural links with mainland China.  While Sino-Thai identity preserves many cultural aspects of mainland Chinese society, these elements are always prioritized below preserving elements of Thai culture and society.  For instance, at the end of the 19th century, in a modernizing campaign to establish a Thai nationalist identity, King Chulalongklorn mandated that all Chinese-Thai families adopt Thai surnames–although the decree met with some resistance, most Chinese-Thai families formally adopted a Thai surname within one generation.

Songkran, the preferred New Year’s Celebration in Thailand.

One of the largest elements of Chinese culture to be preserved among Thai-Chinese is the Chinese New Year!  I am a little suspicious that the reason why Chinese New Year is still celebrated throughout Thailand (even by non-Chinese Thais!) is the Thai’s national motto of “สนุก (sanuk),” or fun!  Thais are so lucky they get to celebrate Three New Years: first, the Western New Year on January 1st, Songkran (featured above, most well-known as the “water-fighting” festival where water is meant to cleanse you of your wrongdoings in the past year), and Chinese New Year in February.  For Thais in Bangkok who want to celebrate Chinese New Year, they often travel to the Yaorawat area of Bangkok (the city’s historic Chinese core).  Some Chinese Thais take the weekend to travel to their families around the country (much less congested than in China!) and those in Bangkok typically have a small Reunion Feast with families and friends.  Almost all Thai houses are swept and cleaned in preparation for Chinese New Year and most Chinese-Thais decorate their houses with red signs and light up firecrackers for a few nights.  Wealthy Chinese Thais often vacation at this time of the year.

The one problem with celebrating Chinese New Years in Thailand: do you eat Chinese or Thai food? Thank goodness for food stands!

In our next post, we will be going to the world’s largest overseas Chinese New Year celebration.  Do you know where it is?  Here’s a guess:  it’s in the land down under!  See you then!

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Banané!: Happy Chinese New Year’s from Mauritius!

Posted on 11 February, 2013 by cindy

Banane!, or “Happy Chinese New Year’s!” in Mauritian Creole!  Mauritius is as far away from China–or, anywhere for that matter–as you can get.  Nestled in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the island nation of Mauritius is more well-known for its crystal clear waters, immaculate beaches, and ethereal landscape.  However, did you know that Mauritius is also the only non-Asian country to celebrate Chinese New Year as a national holiday?  Why does this tiny island nation in the Indian Ocean celebrate Chinese New Year?

Early Sino-Mauritian businessowners. Souce: Chinese Heritage Museum in Mauritius.

Although geographically isolated, Mauritius has always been in the crosswinds of shipping channels between China, Europe, and East Africa.  Chinese populations began arriving in Mauritius almost simultaneously with maritime trade:  early Chinese populations set up profitable service industry businesses (restaurants, laundromats, money exchange, etc.) on the island, and also acted as brokers between Chinese and East African traders. When Britian created de facto colonies in China, the United Kingdom was simultaneously colonizing Mauritius; throughout China, the British colonizers marketed working lucrative labor jobs overseas in Mauritius to young, adventurous men and their families.  Between 1840-1843, over 3,000 Chinese had re-settled from the mainland into Mauritius!  This number continued to expand into the 20th century.  By the 1850s, the largest population in Mauritius’ capital of Port-Louis were Sino-Mauritians and they soon became the island’s most successful entrepreneurs, virtually monopolizing the island’s   metalworking, jewelry, and service sector industries.  Even today, around 80% of the Sino-Mauritian population are successful and wealthy business owners.

Port-Louis, home of Mauritius’ largest Chinese population. Source: Wikimedia commons

For numerous reasons, Chinese migration began to trickle out during the 19th century.  Today, Sino-Mauritians only comprise 3% of Mauritius’ population, but about 40% of the island has some Chinese ancestry.  The Chinese influence in Mauritius is so profound that, according to locals, there is little difference between traditional Mauritian food and Chinese food!  Despite this cultural influence, Sino-Mauritians today more closely identify with a syncretic Mauritian culture than with Chinese mainland culture.  One of the most important reasons for this is the success of Mauritian society in positioning a “Mauritian ethos” that celebrates the population’s blend of indigenous Polynesian, Indian, Chinese, African, and European cultures.  This multi-ethnic identity has resulted in the entire nation of Mauritius celebrating many elements of Chinese culture–like Chinese New Year–as they would for any other prominent ethnic minority group on the island.

While Sino-Mauritians love celebrating Chinese New Year, most other aspects of Chinese culture are downplayed or almost forgotten.  Sadly, one lost cultural element is Chinese language–less than 25% of the Sino-Mauritian population speaks Mandarin or Cantonese, although the island’s Chinese Hakkah minority has been more successful at protecting their dialect.  While there were many Chinese schools and Chinese-language newspapers, almost all of these have disappeared by 2012, with only 200 students at the island’s last remaining Chinese school.  Lastly, many Sino-Mauritians have also converted to the main religion in Mauritius–Roman Catholicism–thereby adding another layer of culture difference between Sino-Mauritians and mainland Chinese.

In recent years, the Chinese government has sought to improve relations with the local Sino-Mauritian population for trade purposes and has even considered setting up a Confucian institute on the island.  For more information about the Chinese population in Mauritius, and, to see some Chinese New Year Celebrations in Mauritius, you might want to check out the following videos:

We’re going to return to the Asian mainland next for a visit to Chinese New Year’s in Bangkok!  See you then!

We’re a Boston-based company, so you cannot imagine how painful it was to write this blog entry in the middle of February! But we’re glad we did.

 

 

 

 

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Chinese New Year Celebrations From Around the World!

Posted on 9 February, 2013 by cindy

Sunday marks the beginning of the most important holiday in China and Chinese-speaking communities around the world: 年节, known in English as Chinese New Years or the Spring Festival.  There is no equivalent American holiday in terms of magnitude or cultural importance.  Consider these numbers published at CNN International:

  • The average time spent traveling to and visiting families in China is 40 days!  This, in fact, is actually the largest period of human migration in the history of the world!
  • Out of the 3.4 billion trips taken, 3.1 billion of them will be by cars and buses—if you thought traffic in America was bad, you have not been in China during 年节!
  • On January 15th, the National Chinese Rail Service opened up ticket sales for train tickets to major cities.  All of the train tickets were sold out in 20 seconds.  An additional 2.65 million tickets were also sold on that day.

Train “queue” in Wuhan, China. And we thought Boston rush hour on the T was bad!

Although Chinese New Years originated around the 14th century BC, the contemporary holiday has its roots in the Han Dynasty (around 100 BC).  While there are innumerable legends that explain the origin of Chinese New Years, the most commonly accepted one revolves around the monster 年兽 and little child.  As our Chinese-learning readers and customers probably have figured out, 年兽 is a Chinese homophone that means both the word “year” and the name of the monster itself!  Anyways, as the story goes, 年兽, a monster who ate everything from vegetables to children and everything in between, used to terrorize villages until he one day saw a little child dressed in red and was frightened away.  Some other versions of the story indicate that 年兽 was scared away by a loud noise caused by a firecracker or firework.  The many red lanterns, scrolls, envelopes, paper cut outs, foods, dao-fu signs, and firecrackers associated with Chinese New Years are, for obvious reasons, meant to scare the monster 年兽 away.

A 年兽 statue in the Northern Style from the Ming Dynasty Tombs outside of Beijing.

There are countless traditions associated with the Chinese New Year that you probably already know or will learn about in class.  They range from the upside-down 福 character sign, the giving of red envelopes, and certain flower arrangements.  Here at Cheng & Tsui, we hope you will take some time to learn about the Chinese New Year by checking out our Pinterest page  to get a good sense of how Chinese-speaking communities celebrate Chinese New Years.  While doing this research, we were impressed not only with the depth of traditions found in Chinese New Years, but the diversity of Chinese New Year celebrations around the world!  For instance, did you know that the African island nation of Mauritius is the only country outside of East Asia that considers Chinese New Year an official government holiday?  Or did you know that the state of Montana—yes, the one famous for its open skies, sparse populations, and cowboys!—has some of the most historic Chinese New Years parades anywhere in the world outside China?

Chinese New Year Market in Singapore. Source: Wikimedia Commons

This Chinese New Year, Cheng & Tsui would like to celebrate Chinese New Year’s with you by taking you on a whirlwind trip of Chinese New Year celebrations around the globe.  UNESCO declared 2012 the year of “Mother Language Instruction in Foreign Countries” and, before International Mother Language Day ends on February 21st, we would like to commemorate and bring attention to the overseas Chinese communities around the world that have maintained their cultural traditions.  Every other day during the next two weeks, we’ll be profiling a Chinese New Year celebration from every continent and letting you know why they got started and what makes them so unique!

And lastly, if you’re looking to catch up on some Asian language-learning goals (or are looking for a second chance to start your New Year’s resolutions—I know I am!), we have a 15% discount on all individuals orders from Cheng & Tsui!  Enjoy this series, and let us know what you think!

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