Celebrate Chinese New Year at Kyiv’s many Chinese establishments.
The Chinese Lunar New Year – marking the arrival of the Year of the Pig – is happening this Feb. 18. It sounds not only like a great time to partake in festive celebrations, but also to learn more about Chinese culture and traditions. You may be surprised to learn that Kyiv has many options for those looking to learn more about Chinese culture. You could learn to serve a traditional tea ceremony, try delicious Chinese cuisine, check out a Chinese market, or even take a language course. First, you should learn what Chinese New Year is all about.
New Year Chinese-style
Chinese New Year is also known as Spring Festival and Lunar New Year and is the most important Chinese holiday. The celebrations last for 14 days, ending with a lantern festival.
There’s an interesting myth about the origins of Chinese New Year. According to a legend, there was a man-eating beast – “nian,” from the mountains, who would silently break into houses and prey on humans. Later, however, people learned its weaknesses – it was sensitive to loud noises and the color red. So, the people scared it away with firecrackers and displays of red. These customs inspired the first New Year celebrations.
The firecrackers and the color red remain important to modern New Year celebrations, as are family dinners. Prior to New Year, Chinese families clean out their houses – sweeping away the bad luck of the preceding year. Homes are decorated with paper cutouts of well-known Chinese proverbs.
A traditional New Year’s meal includes chicken and fish dishes, the latter being the most significant element of the meal. It symbolizes a surplus and is not eaten up completely – the rest is stored overnight. In fact, in pronunciation the words “surplus” and “fish” sound almost the same. So wishing each other “surpluses in the upcoming year,” is basically wishing each other to have a bounty of fish. In the Northern part of China, dumplings are the main dish to be served during the festive season. While preparing dumplings you are symbolically packaging luck inside them. There is also a dish called Buddha’s Delight – a vegetarian dish using 18 ingredients – to be served on the first day of the New Year. Finally, to ensure the upcoming year will be “sweet,” you need to eat sweets – such as sweet rice balls and candy.
Equally important at the Lunar New Year are gifts, especially for kids and young ones. The gifts are presented in red packages and may contain toys or, more traditionally, money in even numbers (odd numbers are given at funerals). The packages are usually slipped under children’s pillows, where they find them in the morning.
While quite a few New Year traditions focus on dispersing good luck, you also need to make sure you don’t do anything which is considered “bad luck.” You shouldn’t buy shoes, pants, or books. You shouldn’t cut your hair, which symbolizes cutting away your prosperity. Neither should you sweep the floor or take a bath. On the contrary, opening windows and doors is good luck, as is turning on the light at night to scare away ghosts and spirits of misfortune.
Kyiv’s little “China”
The are two venues in Kyiv putting on Lunar New Year celebrations. But even a dinner at one of the Chinese eateries in the city may be a nice way to celebrate the holiday.
Lun Van restaurant, whose name translates as “Water Dragon,” is a top notch eatery offering Chinese cuisine for those who are ready to spend on their favorite Chinese dishes. It has a stylish, elegant interior, immaculately prepared food and traditional ethnic music. The specialty of the house is Peking Duck, which is considered by many to be the best in town. The chef and all the kitchen personnel are Chinese nationals. On holidays, including the Chinese New Year, guests are often treated to pastries with surprises inside.
Jackie Chan, named after the popular Chinese actor of the same name, offers only eight tables, several of which are likely to be filled with Chinese locals. The eatery’s walls are decorated with small Chinese fans and a few Eastern-style paintings. The menu is extensive and heartwarmingly traditional – exotic dishes like pig’s tongue and chicken stomachs share the same page with less intrepid selections like fried rice and egg foo young.
Most importantly, however, the restaurant masters its use of spice. “Fried pork with piquancy” is aptly named: little strips of tender pig laced with numerous chilies that, in both shape and flavor, provide livid red daggers of heat. After such a spicy experience, refresh yourself with the loose-leaf freshly brewed green tea.
Tucked into a courtyard off Taras Shevchenko Boulevard, just a few blocks from Universytet metro station, Du Long is a comfortable, beautifully decorated restaurant in every regard: Red and gold predominate in the decor, with accenting vases, etched glass, and black lacquered furniture. Big, round tables are available for families and large parties wishing to share their food in the traditional way. It offers excellent food, great service, luxurious decor and good prices compared to the other high-end Chinese establishments in Kyiv. They even have a karaoke room.
Victory restaurant holds sentimental meaning for Post staff members. Once placed near the Post’s former offices on Lesi Ukrayinky, it used to be our favorite place for lunch. We were all very upset when the eatery was forced to close and move away. However, it finally reopened last spring, offering the same tasty, authentic dishes in a modest interior, for very low prices. A great meal for two here should cost you around Hr 50. For the same reason, it’s a highly popular place for holding banquets, and during the Lunar New Year festivities you’re very likely to encounter Chinese family gatherings at Victory enjoying their holiday dinners.
The chic Chinese eatery Mandarin, located on the water, right by Poshtova Ploshcha metro, has a stylish, authentic design, decorated with Chinese lanterns and canaries in cages. Rich red and emerald green colors prevail in the interior and wooden panels divide the room, creating a more intimate atmosphere. The eatery’s Chinese chefs serve dishes originating from four Chinese provinces: Guandong Province – refined and sour-sweet; Sichuan – aromatic and spicy; Peking – a mix of all Chinese culinary schools, and Shanghai – light and appetizing. You can experience a real tea ceremony in their special room, decorated with comfortable sofas.
The restaurant has a New Year celebration program. Guests will be entertained with a Chinese martial arts show, folk singing and a ritual dragon parade. All guests will be offered Chinese plum wines and three sorts of traditional New Year dumplings made with beef, seafood and Chinese mushrooms.
If you fancy cooking up Chinese cuisine yourself, you’ll probably need some exotic ingredients not easily found at a local supermarket. You should check out Kyiv’s own Chinese Market (official name is Asian Spices) near Lybidska metro, which offers a wide selection of products like noodles, water chestnuts, Chinese wood mushrooms, roasted seaweed and fresh ginger, as well as some other root vegetables not typically found in the city supermarkets. On the whole there are 400 different items there, mainly Chinese and Japanese products. Food suppliers of some of Kyiv’s Chinese and Japanese restaurants shop at the market, where prices are pretty low. Real soy sauce goes for Hr 25, black rice for Hr 20 per kilo, coconut milk for Hr 15 per can, and sesame oil for Hr 24. Just keep in mind that the dishes to be eaten on New Year should be spicy and contain red pepper – the symbolic color.
Lun Van (26 Bohdana Khmelnytsoho, 279-8191)
Jackie Chan (16 Dymytrova, 289-8611)
Du Long (46V Shevchenko, 235-7350)
Victory (58 Hlybochytska, 332-9959)
Mandarin (Naberezhno-Khreshatytska, berth #6, 599-0877)
Asian Spices market (Lybidska metro, Volodymyrskiy market, 8 (050) 969-5540)
In the club
Wise men in ancient China used to say that when you drink tea it gives you strength and wisdom, and brings serenity. You can verify the truth of these words by visiting a tea ceremony at Tea Club.
At the club you can choose from a wide selection of teas, among which are very rare kinds, picked in special places during a certain season, month, or even day of the week. The prices vary accordingly. You should note that certain behavior is expected at a tea ceremony: you should always take off your shoes and switch off your mobile phone. You shouldn’t drink alcohol or smoke before the ceremony. Taking part in a tea ceremony will cost approximately Hr 56 to 60 per person.
Apart from just taking part in the ceremony, you can also learn how to organize one yourself. You can take a seven-day tea ceremony course for Hr 540. The course includes five days of lectures and two days of hands-on practice.
Tea Club also has its own store where you can buy tea ware like teapots (from Hr 97), cups, strainers, and porcelain and hand-made vessels for storing tea. Using teapots made from Ising clay is highly recommended if you want to make tea taste and smell more exquisite.
The store also sells traditional garments. If you want to dress in Chinese-style accoutrements while you celebrate the Lunar New Year, you can choose from long dresses (around Hr 390), cotton tunics (Hr 324), blouses (Hr 140), and summer dresses (Hr 279) for women, or linen shirts (Hr 190), silk costumes (Hr 432), and cotton costumes (Hr 270) for men.
For those inspired by Chinese movies like “Hero,” in which people are seen passionately drawing Chinese characters with red ink on a huge canvas, or those willing to decorate their house in Eastern-style decor, Tea Club is offering calligraphy classes. Lessons are held each Sunday. One lesson will cost you Hr 50, a month ticket – Hr 160.
Tea Club is known to hold the most original and interesting Chinese New Year celebration in town – and this year will be no exception. On New Year’s Eve – Feb. 16 – the Club will hold a ritual dragon parade, astrological readings for the coming year, cobra dance improvisations, fan dancing and fireworks. And of course, the party wouldn’t be complete without tea. The celebration will be held to the tunes of electronic folk music and drum beats.
The celebration will be held from 4 p.m. till 11.30 p.m. Tickets Hr 160, till Feb. 16 – Hr 150.
Tea Club (7 Druzhby Narodiv, room #60, 451-4283). www.cha.com.ua
Learning Chinese
If you want to challenge yourself intellectually, you could try taking a Chinese language course. The Chinese language uses tones to distinguish different words or meanings –the same word, said differently, completely changes its meaning. Chinese written language differs immensely from languages which use Latin or Greek letters. If you would like to find out more about the Chinese language check out one of these language centers:
Sir Gi Linguocenter (45A Volodymyrska, 517-8342, 510-7287). e-mail: [email protected]
www.mova.com.ua/company/5/Sir_Gee_Lingvotsentr
One hour and a half in a group of four to six people: Hr 20 to 25
One hour and a half individually:Hr 30 to 60.
UspeKh Language School (37 Shota Rustaveli, office #101, 223-4767, 237-7211). [email protected], www.uspeh.net.ua
One hour and a half in a group (up to six people): Hr 450 per month (two to three classes per week)
One hour and a half individually: $16 per class
Epoch TrAining Center (17B Lva Tolstoho, office #16, 284-3459). [email protected]
www.mova.com.ua/company/5/Epoha_Internatsionalnogo_Obrazovaniya
Courses last three to four months
One hour and a half – from Hr 25. (depends on the terms of studying)
Osvita Bez Kordoniv (14 Bulvar Shevchenka (Institute of Philology building), 239-3119). [email protected]
www.mova.com.ua/company/5/Osvita_bez_kordoniv
One hour and a half in group: Hr 35.1 hour and a half individually – 65hr.
