"In the 1960s and 70s, Ruby Lee's parents ran the Pagoda Cafe in Burleigh Heads, a surf town in Queensland. They worked 14-hour days and opened the restaurant year-round, even Christmas. When they did eventually close for one day a year, it was for lunar new year. It was the only day that I can recall ever eating out with the family while growing up, says Lee."
"They chose to work through 23 lunar new years and created a sense of festivity by offering a New Year banquet menu with specials such as pineapple fried rice topped with pork floss, served in a pineapple. Lion dancing at Hervey Bay. Photograph: Gary Bong When Gary was growing up in Kuching, Malaysia, lunar new year meant firecrackers and lion dancers."
"Kam and Francis Chen, who ran Rathmines Chinese Restaurant in New South Wales's Lake Macquarie area for 30 years, also worked through the holidays. Kam would decorate the restaurant's pot plants with red envelopes containing cash. One year, she sewed red fabric in a scallop design and hung it from the ceiling. At the end of the month when it was time to take it down, customers protested but Kam says, it would have no meaning if I kept it"
Chinese restaurants in Australian country towns commonly keep long opening hours and serve familiar dishes such as lemon chicken. Many family-run businesses operate year-round and often work through major holidays, closing rarely and sometimes only for lunar new year. Owners adapt traditions for practical realities by creating in-restaurant celebrations, special banquet menus, decorative customs like red envelopes and fabric displays, and hiring lion-dance troupes to give children cultural experiences. Those adaptations maintain cultural continuity and community connection despite geographic isolation. Festivities are shaped by owners’ resourcefulness and customer responses, balancing cultural meaning with business demands.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]