For Chinese Students, a U.S.-Style Barbecue Eases Pang for Family

It goes by many names--Tet, Xin Nian, Se’ul Nal--but for all the Asian cultures that celebrate it, the start of the lunar new year is a period of renewal, a time when family members gather to draw strength from each other for the coming year.

As the New Year arrived Saturday, celebrations were underway across Orange County, where Asians make up about 10% of the population.

“The New Year celebration is traditionally the time when the family comes together,” said Dr. Bin Wong, a professor of history at UC Irvine. “Nothing else in the year can match its importance.”

During this time when families traditionally reunite, 50 Chinese students and scholars at Cal State Fullerton who could not return to China to celebrate the New Year decided to seek strength in familiar faces--friends from the same province, classmates from China--and celebrate in uniquely Southern Californian fashion: They had a barbecue.

The barbecue, held Saturday afternoon at Fullerton’s Hillcrest park, was a unique melange of East and West: American favorites such as barbecued chicken cooked right alongside Chinese shish-kebabs frying in two oil-filled woks.

But for many of the students, the barbecue only served to remind them of how far away from home they really were.

“I miss my family very much,” said Steve Cao, 21, an undergraduate student at Cal State Fullerton. Cao, who came to the United States from Shanghai, said he had not seen his family since his arrival in this country three years ago.

“I become very lonely at this time of year,” Cao continued. “I lived with 40 of my relatives in one house when I was in China and during New Year’s we would spend the entire day going from room to room eating all the food that my relatives had prepared.”

In China, where until fairly recently most family members spent their entire lives within walking distance of one another, the New Year has taken on even more importance as modernization efforts and political upheaval have scattered families across vast distances.

For many Chinese, the celebration of the lunar new year, known as Chun Jie, or Spring Festival, is often the only opportunity they have each year to visit their families.

Frank Chen, 26, a Chinese graduate student at Cal State Fullerton, recalled how each new year he would leave his university in Shanghai for a grueling 22-hour train ride to his hometown of Fuzhou.

“It was very tiring. The seats were hard and it was always very hot and smoky inside the train,” said Chen, “But at least I had a seat. For those who got on in between Shanghai and Fuzhou, there were no seats and they would stand in the aisles for hours.”

Chen said he could do without the train ride, but wished he could be with his family, whom he has not seen six years. Jim Wang, 29, a Cal State Fullerton undergraduate who once worked as an English-speaking tour guide in China, says it’s the noise he misses most about Chinese New Year.

“During New Year’s in China, everyone is talking, laughing and fireworks are going off constantly. There’s nothing like it in the U.S. Compared to Chun Jie, Christmas and New Year’s are very quiet.” Wang said.

Tong Cheng, 27, a junior at UC Riverside, who came to the barbecue to spend the holiday with fellow Fuzhou resident Frank Chen, was optimistic about the future.

“I miss celebrating Chun Jie with my family, but I live in America now and must get used to it,” Cheng explained with a smile. “I must be more like an American.”