China Seminar | 15 February 2007

Chinese New Year Nowadays

WANG Lei

YANG Haiyun

ZHAO Ying

Chinese New Year, falling on February 18 this year, excites memories among young and old. The persistent importance of this event stems from the agrarian imagination of the traditional Chinese civilization. Yet, how is it observed nowadays in China? Three journalists from Xinhua News Agency, here this year as Parvin Fellows at the University of Hawaii, will talk on three aspects–changing cultural traditions, transportation, and food–of this festival that touches the life of every Chinese.

Wang Lei is an editor and translator with the Reference News Department. Yang Haiyun is an editor in the International News Department and once worked for two years in Xinhua’s Mideast bureau in Cairo. Zhao Ying has been working as a reporter and editor for about seven years, five with the Domestic News Department and two years with Xinhua’s Moscow bureau.