On the Chinese New Year – Part One

“There are two lasting things we can hope to bequeath to our children: the roots and the wings.”
(Chinese proverb)

Chinese New Year. 
“Year of the Goat”. Eur. Rome – 6 March 2015

This Friday 12th marks the beginning of the new year for Chinese: The Year of the Ox, under the female metal element.

The Ox is the embodiment of strength, reliability, fairness, and conscientiousness.

This year, like any other event, it cannot be celebrated as usual, so it seemed like a good way to go back in time, year after year, with my best photographs of the various Chinese New Years.

The first was in 2012.

 

I also thought that I have never told you – here in the Blog – how I came into contact with the Chinese community in Rome. It was not easy at all, for two years, from 2010, I tried to be able to photograph this community, without success. Yet for two years, I had already been involved in some migrant communities, such as the Filipino or Bangladeshi ones.

Then the Chinese community is among the largest of the Asian ones in Rome, just as that of the Philippines.

But they are quite closed and wary of photographers. Therefore, I began to give up. My visits to Piazza Vittorio, the China Town of Rome, led to nothing.

But on January 4th, 2012 there was an event that changed things.

Perhaps some of you, who live in the same city as me, remember the tragic event that happened that night in Torpignattara, when to protect his family from a robbery, Zhou Zen was killed, with his little daughter Joy in his arms, by a robber who he shot point-blank, in front of his wife, after they closed their “Money Transfer” shop.

It was a drama that shocked the whole city.

For days there was a continuous procession of people who went to bring flowers to the place where they were killed and to their home.

I went also one evening and took a picture of an elderly woman from the neighborhood who was putting down a candle.

For the first time, everyone's closeness to the Chinese community was tangible.

That same evening, I wrote a long post online that talked about the pain and solidarity that had arisen.

Many people read and shared it, including Lucia King. The President of the Soong Ching Ling Foundation, the largest Chinese charitable foundation in Italy, wrote to me in private saying that she was grateful to me for my words. She invited me to the public and private funeral in the cemetery with relatives of the Zen family.

I felt very honored. Not only that, with the pragmatism that everyone recognizes, she told me that from that moment I would become the official photographer of the Foundation, which meant all the doors open in the Chinese community. Incredible.

It was January 4th. On January 14th, the historic appointment of the great Chinese New Year was celebrated in Piazza del Popolo, one of the largest multicultural events in Rome.

And I had a Pass that made me allowed go to the backstage and onstage.

Since that day my friendship with Lucia King lasts, with whom we shared many events, and all the Chinese New Years in Rome.

I don't know if this story can teach anything, but I like to tell it when I can.

 

This is my tribute to the Chinese people with a millenary culture.

A journey through colors, art, religion, from Rome to Malaysia.

With a thought always to Zhou and Joy.

祝新年快乐，并致以良好的祝福。

Zhù xīnnián kuàilè, bìng zhì yǐ liánghǎo de zhùfú.

My best wishes for a happy new year!

 

“According to the legend, the Buddha in the presentiment of his earthly end, called all the animals of the earth together, but of these only 12 went to offer their greeting. As a reward, therefore, for their fidelity, the Buddha decided to call each year of the lunar cycle with the name of each of the 12 animals that came. The mouse, smart and fast by nature, arrived first. The diligent ox came second, followed by the intrepid tiger and the peaceful rabbit. The dragon came fifth, immediately followed by his younger brother, the snake. The athletic horse was seventh and the elegant sheep eighth, soon after came the cunning monkey, and then again the colorful rooster, the faithful dog and then ending with the lucky pig who arrived just in time to greet the Buddha too.”

(Taken from Kensan.it)

 

“Year of the Dragon”. Piazza del Popolo. Rome – 14 January 2012

“Year of the Snake”. Orione Theater. Rome – 10 February 2013

“Year of the Horse”. Piazza del Popolo. Rome – 25 January 2014

“Year of the Goat”. Auditorium. Rome – 12 February 2015

“Year of the Goat”. Eur. Rome – 6 March 2015

Lucia King also joins the wishes, with a personal message:

• A Parallel World: Opera China 
• Three Compared Artists: China, Bangladesh, Indonesia 

Italian version