Welcoming in the
Year of the Dog

By Jeannie O’Sullivan
Times Staff Writer

Absent the usual banging pots, noisemakers and piggies-in-blankets, students at First Philadelphia Charter School for Literacy, 4300 Tacony St., celebrated the New Year as the Chinese do — with plenty of dancing, color and history.
Dance China NY, a Manhattan-based dance troupe affiliated with the New York Chinese Cultural Center, rang in the "Year of the Dog" with flashing swords, fluttering fans and soaring silk scarves on the school’s stage. The elaborately costumed performers gave the audience a sampling of the classical, folk and mystical dances that symbolize the new year in China.
The students were getting a head start on the holiday, which follows the lunar cycle. The new moon, on Jan. 29, heralds the first day of the New Year, with festivities beginning on New Year’s Eve, Jan. 28, and commencing until the full moon, on Feb. 13.
The Chinese zodiac stems from a legend about a dying Asian emperor who’d summoned the land’s animals to say goodbye. The rat came first, followed by the ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and boar.
Each of the 12 animals represents a portion of the lunar cycle and, according to legend, determines traits of anyone born under its corresponding year. This means that those born in 2006, as well as 12 years before and after, are likely to encompass the canine facets of honesty and loyalty.
Literacy, the focus of First Philadelphia, comes in many forms besides books, according to assistant principal Jennifer Donahue. The event dovetailed perfectly with the charter school’s standards of history and arts, she said.
"We are a multicultural school," said Donahue. "All the reading skills in the world aren’t going to make a difference unless a subject is close to them."
Chinese dancing reflects the ceremonial, martial and agricultural perspectives drawn from 5,000 years of Chinese history. During the Tang Dynasty (618-906), amid the flourishing silk trade and growing sect of Buddhism, dancers served as court amusement for royalty and nobles. Their poses and movements emulated symbols of the era — like the Flying Aspara, a deity frequently depicted in period murals.
Asian classical and folk dances theatrically represent the region’s nationalities, so Philadelphians who take in any of the numerous local Chinese New Year celebrations will get a glimpse of life in China’s farming villages, Mongolia’s open prairies, and the ancient imperial palaces.
The troupe’s Red Ribbon dance tied in with money, a central theme of Chinese New Year, according to Tingting Jin, an assistant bilingual counselor at Chinatown’s McCall School, where 40 percent of the kindergarten-through-eighth-grade student body is Asian.
China’s most important festival of the year starts out with a thorough housecleaning, meant to usher out the bad spirits and welcome the good — and whatever monetary gifts they bear, said Jin, a Shanghai, China, native who has lectured frequently about Asian culture.
"We decorate the house with a lot of different pictures and good luck symbols," she explained.
Red symbolizes prosperity, as do tangerines and oranges, for their close-to-gold hues, said Jin. Fish is another good-luck sign for its representation of surplus, but only if the head and tail are consumed.
A typical New Year’s Eve feast, a Thanksgivinglike event for most Chinese families, features seafood, citrus fruits and dumplings that are shaped similarly to Asian coins. Oddly enough, burning fake paper money — found at most Chinese groceries — is another way to lure riches.
Jin began teaching English to students in Beijing, an ironic vocation given the Russian degree she earned at Shanghai University. In 1984, she moved to the United States to enrich her knowledge of the English language and American culture in general.
She joined McCall in 1997, and, wanting to "accommodate the school’s multicultural mix," invited Chinese dancers, musicians, acrobats, bands, martial artists and Peking opera singers to perform at the annual Chinese New Year celebrations she initiated.
Over the years, an increasing number of American students have joined the activities, Jin said.
"They’ve seen a lot of Chinese culture," she said. And they’re fascinated." ••
Reporter Jeannie O’Sullivan can be reached at 215-354-3038 or osullivanj@phillynews.com