By: Izzy Cheung, Staff Writer and Kelly Chia, Editor-in-Chief
Content warning: mentions of racism.
With all the Christmas hype leaving our local malls, storefronts are now being swamped with limited-edition Lunar New Year promotions. Anything from red-and-gold advertisement schemes to special collections based on the upcoming Year of the Dragon are prevalent in big-name chain stores, restaurants, and more. However, we should also consider what exactly these products do. Are they truly helpful to our cultures and communities, or are they just another way for companies to make profit?
Izzy: These promotions have positives, of course — they provide visibility to different cultures and foster more inclusive environments. Integrating celebrations like Lunar New Year and Diwali into our festivities brings awareness and makes society more diverse. This element of visibility can help individuals who may be looking to reconnect with their culture. Having these collections in stores can make one feel seen or included while growing up in predominantly western cultures.
Kelly: Visibility can feel good, but cheap diversity can also disguise corporate greed. This has been so prevalent with the queer community and larger corporations that it’s been dubbed “pinkwashing.” Like any campaign set to target cultural groups, we have to consider what these companies are actually doing for our communities. I roll my eyes at Lululemon’s new Lunar New Year collection. After their founder’s comments about naming the brand Lululemon to make fun of Japanese people, and his icky views on diversity? No thanks. These large industrial companies only see us as a financial asset, and don’t care for our holidays — what have they done to invest in Lunar New Year that we can’t already manage on our own to celebrate?
Izzy: Let’s face it, every holiday has been commodified at this point, regardless of cultural or community relevance. Not everyone who celebrates Christmas is Christian, which isn’t a bad thing. A study done by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada revealed that Canadian consumers were expected to spend an average of $645 on gifts in 2023 compared to the $589 that was tallied from 2022. This copious amount of spending during the Christmas season can also extend into Lunar New Year.
Like other holidays, Lunar New Year is a celebration of culture. While the prospect of gift-giving isn’t as prevalent during Lunar New Year, money is still exchanged. Families gather to exchange red envelopes, which are typically given by elders to younger members of the family. In other words, if you’re a kid, you’re getting a lot of money for new toys. Even those in their mid-to-late twenties, depending on specific circumstances, are bound to get a good chunk of red envelopes filled with small dollar bills. What better way to spend that than on a limited-edition Year of the Dragon makeup set? I’m not saying it’s necessarily bad to buy these things — in fact, I’m a sucker for holiday promotions. If we didn’t have “Year of the Dragon” or “Year of the Tiger” limited merchandise, I wonder whether the Chinese zodiac would gain as much visibility.
Kelly: As you say, it’s inevitable that holidays become commodified under capitalism, but I think that it also gives us reason to be more discerning about where we spend our money and time. While it’s nice to see our holidays celebrated at a larger scale than we were used to growing up — especially after such a large rise in anti-Asian hate crimes over the last few years — it’s also a reminder for us to be skeptical about a company’s intentions. Our interest in them can stop at the window storefront, because, frankly, their interest in serving our communities are as deep as our pockets.
Sure, I can’t help that my heart swells when I see round, red paper lanterns and balloons around this time of the year. I want Lunar New Year joy to be shared with everyone, and seeing more about the holiday in children’s books and storefronts makes me feel like there’s more interest in getting to celebrate our diasporic holidays.
These days, I spend Lunar New Year, like you, eating dim sum with my family. I delight in walking around Aberdeen centre, seeing all of the children in their qipaos, as we watch the Lunar New Year celebration. Bigger companies that don’t understand the heart of our holiday don’t deserve our money — it’s not about printing a new zodiac design onto luxury items, it’s about spending time with the people you love.
Izzy: Families gather to appreciate each others’ presence while eating traditional dishes such as har gow. It’s a holiday that, at its core, can be executed with a shared space and a favourite dish. In other words, it doesn’t need the extra flair that comes with the themed collections put on by big-name retail chains.
It’s true that having a brand sell limited-edition holiday collections acts as a way of generating profit. Special collections are labelled that way for only one reason: because they’re unique, different, and their stock is limited. The more scarce a product is, the more likely you’ll want to get it. Of course, because of spikes in spending during Christmas, January and February end up being slower shopping months. But they can be fun to indulge in and bring a new addition to the fun of celebrating Lunar New Year.
Kelly: Admittedly, whenever the games I play release a new Lunar New Year skin, I love looking at them. But then, sometimes I feel uncertain about how they’ve portrayed a character too sexually in my cultural clothing, and East Asian women don’t need more help being hypersexualized. Corporations that don’t do their research on nuances like this are so common that even writing this feels a bit too pedestrian to complain about. Of course, that can be said about every business and every holiday, but companies with torrid histories and relationships with their marginalized communities shouldn’t get to just call these promotions a diversity win.
Ultimately, I don’t want my holiday to be dialed down to a promotional sale either, especially when there are better places to spend our money: toward people who look at my community with care and love. Donna Seto, for example, created a lovely set of Chinatown storefronts. Her paintings show the beautiful buildings and restaurants that made Chinatown feel like home. These are the artists and businesses I’d love for people to pay more attention to, with rich histories behind each craft. If you’re making purchases to learn more about Lunar New Year, or because you care about the holiday, be more conscientious of who that money goes to!
Izzy: It can be heartwarming to see culturally-diverse holidays being represented within windows of storefronts, even if their purpose is to continue bringing money in for themselves. We can improve visibility by supporting local businesses and artists who celebrate Lunar New Year and epitomize the meaning of culture. Original, handmade products can help imbue the holidays with feelings of love and community that a mass-produced product wouldn’t be able to encapsulate — most of the time these products aren’t made with the same amount of care. If you’re going to purchase Lunar New Year themed collections, consider buying from predominantly East and Southeast Asian artists and businesses instead of a big-name brand.
