Lunar Festival at Northcote

The Lunar Festival at Northcote, Auckland (Feb 8-9) is a celebration of the Chinese and Korean New Year.

It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. The brochures said there was going to be a lot of food. I’ve been to Asian food restaurants, man, I know what they mean by lots – and what they had there, it wasn’t the usual ‘a lot’. It almost felt like I was being served left overs. I also imagined it to stretch along the alley all the way to the back stores but when I got there it was confined in a tiny area that I didn’t even know where the festival was. This is false advertising! (Or just having too much expectation?) I knew this wasn’t going to be like the Chinese Lantern Festival – now that’s the real deal. But I also didn’t expect it to be so microscopic in comparison. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed myself :)


My timely arrival coincided with a group of Chinese elderly quietly performing Tai Chi. That disorientated me a bit because I didn’t know where the festival was and the music playing was very calm and quiet. Like normal people, I follow the direction of the music not read signs. At least I had strange company with me who actually do read signs.

I could afford to look around for a bit because Tai Chi was nothing new. I watch elderly Chinese do Tai Chi every day at Albert Park on the way to school. You can even join them for a session! Inspecting the area - that is, standing in one place and looking around - there wan't much to see. The visit may only be made worthwhile by the performances, so I went to grab an awesome seat.

The following performance was by a Korean woman playing the Korean traditional instrument, gayageum. It wasn't my first time hearing the instrument although I clearly remember my first time it felt like listening to random strings getting plucked. I didn't understand it then, I still don't understand it now. The only different is that these days I appreciate it more. I think she would have been better off without using the mic. The stage audio was just horrible and the festival itself was small enough for her to be heard in all directions without it. The audio ruined it for  me - it felt like she was tuning an instrument. Are you reading this Auckland City Council?

Next up is the Korean Fan Dance. I looked forward to this the most because it's one of my favourite performances. But what I got instead was this:

That's not a fan dance - THIS is a fan dance:

The dance performed at the festival was actually called Jinju Geommu - sword dance. But instead of swords, they performed its variant of using long sleeves. It was still such a beautiful graceful dance. I loved it, but you shouldn't be cheating me like this, Host!

The host is a nutcase and I mean that in an endearing way. He was this Caucasian man - probably part of the council, or just someone very involved with the community. He tries to blurt out random words in Chinese and Korean but he doesn't even bother getting the accent right. He just says it in his very English accent, which gets  my bestfriend, who's Korean, a little embarrassed for him. Auckland has so many Chinese and Korean bilingual speakers, why didn't we use one? Are you still reading this Auckland City Council?

Following this is Sistahood, a hiphop dance crew. Despite just being high school students, as a dancer myself, I have to admire how they’re exploring all the different dances of hiphop. They’ve got a little bit of house, whacking and locking going on alongside the contemporary LA style dance. Doing the dougie is always enjoyable and I loved watching them enjoy themselves. I had to give them props. Especially when two of their friends, I’m not sure whether to believe they’re part of Dziah – a famous New Zealand dance crew – or just sporting their clothing, but they were in a league of their own. Props all over da haus!

Next up is a Korean dance academy consisting of dancers from as young as 5 years to teenagers. I was a little concerned watching kids dance because I have seen the effects of the Korean media to children. It makes them dance sexy and unchild-like. Sure enough the girls and boys were revealed caked with make-up. On a side note though, I do love skin care products from Korea - it's so gentle on my skin. With products that promote natural beauty, I don't understand why caking make-up happen to also be a huge part of the culture.

Ignoring their unflattering masks, their dance is relatively alright. I enjoyed watching the cute little girl dance. She owned both the stage and the older kids. A group of girls danced to some Girl's Generation songs, and they performed some more - I think was a total of 8 songs - before getting everyone to do the Gangnam style. Heh. Always a hit anywhere. Also, oh em gee, one of the little boys had eyes similar to T.O.P. So cute. I'm a fan.  

One of the highlights for the Lunar festival was the Lion Dance. Because of the host's totally English accent, I kept thinking he was saying line dance. After watching some hip hop and Gangname style, I was pretty much open minded about everything else offered by the Chinese and Korean culture, even line dancing. The Lion Dance is always impressive; it is basically bred to create a spectacle with its loud rhythmic percussions and the extraordinary way the two dancers co-ordinated within the Lion costume while portraying a story through their acrobatic performances. As if carrying a huge lion head and being bent over wasn't difficult enough.

After this was a series of Chinese traditional dances: 

And finally, before abruptly leaving because of mosquitoes, we watched a group of remarkable Japanese Taiko Drummers. Their ability to keep rhythm while jumping about like ninjas made it an impressive show, and a good closing performance for me who had to escape them blood suckers. 

That was just a  little taste of how the Chinese celebrate their New Year. On a bigger scale at the end of February will be the all too famour Chinese Lantern Festival. Now that's a big one to catch! I can't wait for the food, the souvenirs and performances. I'm not looking forward for that little Asian experience of rubbing shoulders with everyone though.