Celebrating Lunar New Year and the Year of the Snake

By Jack Kiyonaga, Editor

Last Friday, Molokai residents celebrated the Lunar New Year at the Molokai Public Library, where they took part in traditions like Chinese paper cutting and lantern crafting. Dr. Sun Hui Hung from the University of Hawaii’s outreach college was scheduled to perform at the library but was unable to make the event due to the inclement weather.

Hung, who practices a musical synthesis of Chinese and Hawaiian styles, often plays Hawaiian songs accompanied by slack-key, steel guitar and her own Chinese instrument: the erhu.

In Hung’s own description, she creates “Hawaiian music with a Chinese spirit.”

“It makes for a really interesting combination,” she said. “In Hawaii, there are so many things that have been fused with Chinese culture.”

As part of the University of Hawaii’s outreach college, Hung has had the opportunity to travel across the state and share her unique cultural musical pairings.

“I was so excited to share my knowledge of this instrument and Chinese culture with Molokai residents,” said Hung.

Hung, who grew up in Taiwan, explained some of the expectations for the new year, which is the year of the snake. For Hung, the year of the snake is about bringing to fruition projects and desires that you planted during the preceding year, which was the year of the dragon.

“Whatever you started last year, it will turn out really good this year,” said Hung. “Chinese people, they really believe the year of the snake is going to be some kind of turning point.”

For Hung, the year of the snake has a special resonance. Her instrument, the erhu, is covered in snakeskin.

“I always respect the snake a lot,” she said. “This particular snake suffered for me so I can have this beautiful instrument to play…The music I play is some kind of singing from this snake.”

Living in Hawaii, Hung explained that she’s delighted by the emphasis on Chinese traditions like new year’s, but that sometimes these traditions can become a little confused over time. For example, the common refrain in Hawaii of “Kung Hee Fat Choy,” is actually a Cantonese phrase meaning “I wish you make a lot of money,” explained Hung.

“When people said that to me, I just felt so weird,” laughed Hung.

Hung hopes to re-schedule her trip to Molokai, potentially for another Chinese holiday like the moon festival in September.