![]() ![]() ![]() I could forgive my friend for his unintentional microaggression, but it makes my blood boil when I see numerous articles via reputable publications seemingly use the terms Lunar New Year and Chinese New Year interchangeably. However, he’s hardly the first and only person who didn’t make the distinction. Offended and upset, I asked him point-blank: What makes you think Vietnamese people celebrate Chinese New Year?Īt first he was taken aback by my question, but puzzlement quickly turned to embarrassment when my friend realized his mistake - well-intentioned though it was - noting that it was the media that had erroneously given him the impression that Lunar New Year was the same as Chinese New Year. Instead of letting it slide, I chose to confront the misconception. It was clear by his greeting that my friend, who was well aware that I am not Chinese, was just one of many people who was ignorant of the difference between Chinese New Year and Lunar New Year - the holiday that I, as a Vietnamese person, celebrate. I paused, feeling a familiar rush of emotions I couldn’t describe overwhelm me along with a rush of anger. Seollal usually comes around by the time the new year’s resolution fades away, and it gives you a refresher and a new start again.A few years ago, a good friend greeted me with "Happy Chinese New Year" as I was handing out invitations to a local Lunar New Year party in Maine. As a grownup, I don’t receive sebae-don, but seollal is still exciting. For kids, seollal is exciting because they do sebae (a deep bowing on the floor for elders to show respect), and get to receive money (called sebae-don) in return along with good wishes for the new year. John Schu, you should have asked me why I love seollal. It’s a common custom in Korea that siblings share one syllable in the name, so the little brother’s name became Miro. In the end, I realized that one of my friends’ name, Mina, would be a perfect match for the little girl. I had several other names I called her by throughout many rounds of drafts. It took me a long time to decide on her name. She’s also implied to be the same girl who appears at the end of my debut picture book Cat on the Bus. Mina is a little girl character who’s been showing up in my illustration works for many years and I’m so happy that I finally got to give her a proper story of her own. I had a lot of fun drawing them for this book. It is so beautiful and well-crafted, that they seem like a piece of art. For a fun comparison, I also included my older sister’s one-year birthday photo in which she’s smiling in her beautiful hanbok! Now, as a grown-up, I love hanbok. My one-year birthday photo in which I’m happy again holding a blue rubber ball in an old sweater is included in the book as an author photo. It felt itchy! I cried so much when my parents tried to dress me in hanbok for the one-year birthday photoshoot that they had to give up and put me back in a sweater. As a kid, I didn’t like wearing one like Miro, Mina’s younger brother. Simply put, it’s a lucky bag! I included a direction on how to fold a paper bokjumoni at the beginning of the book. “Bok” means luck and good fortune which includes every aspect of life, and “jumoni” means a pocket/pouch. Please finish the following sentence starters:īokjumoni i s a colorful, decorative pouch that can be tied to the hanbok to carry money or small items. I jumped on the chance, and by the fall, I had the first draft of the story inspired by the families I met who went into kids’ schools to share their Seollal cultures. Then, in 2020, Joy Peskin, the editor at FSG saw the image I created for Lunar New Year and asked if I wanted to make a story about Seollal. I thought it was a great idea, but didn’t feel that I had the right story in me. One of the readers I connected with in 2018 asked me if I could write a story about Seollal as there were not many books about it. Lunar New Year is celebrated by a lot of Asian countries but many people in western countries know it as Chinese New Year. ![]() I was especially impressed that many families went to the kids’ schools to share the traditions of Seollal. It was inspiring to talk with them and see many of them share their Korean cultures with others. Schu, it’s so wonderful to be back! Since I started making stories about Yoomi and her Korean family in the books including Sunday Funday in Koreatown, and No Kimchi for Me!, many Korean American families have reached out to me. ![]()
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