I've been on holiday for the last week and a half and prepping for the return to uni. I meant to write up the Chinese New Year before I left, but life sometimes gets in the way...

Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year starts on the night of the new moon, usually the new moon in Aquarius, although this is calculated through a complex set of astronomical calculations (of which I couldn't find any complete details). This year it was the 9th February.

This year is the Year of the Rooster (in chinese, you) and you can find some details about what that means here.

In the valley, on Chinatown Mall, there are dragon dances and firecrackers every year on the Chinese New Year. I can remember when we were little and our parents still together, mum and dad taking Atratus and I out one year to watch, so it's been going on for years. Last year, RFB and I went and got caught out in a massive spectacular thunderstorm which was very cool. This year for the new year, I went out with friends and saw Starsky and Hutch, not very Chinese but fun anyway. We went out on Sunday to go and see the Dragon boats.

Based on the languages spoken at home in the 1996 census data, 2.5% of Brisbane residents spoke a Chinese dialect (see Link 4). Of course that doesn't give a true picture of people with a Chinese heritage, but its an indicator. We do have a strong presence in the China town precinct of the Valley and the Chinese club.

I guess what I want to comment on is that this year, Southbank and Treasury both ran Chinese New Year events. I think this is great. I have an interest in seasonal festivals and the way that we integrate them into our culture (possible post-grad research projects!). And I'm interested in commodification.

The Dragon Boat Race was an interesting case to look at. The River is an important part of our city, in a way I think it helps to define Brisbane, so it makes sense to bring a river festival into the celebration of the Chinese New Year in Brisbane - making it relevant and authentic. The Dragon boat races bring fertility and prosperity to the city, really good things.

But. We arrived mid afternoon to watch one of the races - heat, bad, tree, pretty - and didn't stay too long. I'll admit I was a little disappointed. The boats were large kayaks, some decked out with dragons heads and they were pretty cool. The teams and races were varied, some with high school teams, some with corporate sponsored teams and some with community groups. Which is all good. It's just it felt more Australian than Chinese. All of the groups were asked to give warcries, like when we were back in school and something which seems to hark back to our celtic roots. The race was over quite quickly but was kinda fun to watch. Obake's choice won, but ours didn't. Granted we didn't see how it started or ended, but it felt more like a sports carnival at school than a sacred event. Which I guess is very Australian and should be a sign of success at integrating a particular cultures celebration into the mainstream.

I'm not sure I have a decisive opinion about the commodification of the Chinese New Year in our city, although I'm a little wary of any 'crass commercialism'. I like to see events like this because it does reflect our diversity, but I'm aware of the distinction between respecting a culture and commercialising it. I guess I'm curious about whether Chinese ex-pats (etc) retain their celebrations and traditions separate to what is provided by our local council as an effort to promote tourism.

So the questions that I have for you, dear readers, are: What did you do for the Chinese New Year? For my Chinese friends, How does the way that we celebrate the Chinese New Year match up to your experiences and how does the mild commercialisation affect your views on what it means to be an Australian/ of Chinese Heritage?

Links:
1. Year of the Rooster summary
2. History & Info - the Chinese calendar at webexhibits.org: Discussion on how the chinese calendar is calculated and some history.
3. Chinese Lunar Calendar Chinese New Year Calculation - Chinese Astrology: Discusses broad astro calculations and links to other info about the Chinese festivals.
4. The Chinese Connection - Living in Brisbane: Discussion on the history of multiculturalism, particularly Chinese in Australia and an outline of the project to map resources for Chinese speaking brisbanites.

February Events

Interesting Things happening this month (well ok, two weeks)

I'm planning to include this every month so comment and let me know if there are any kinds of events you'd like to see on here and if there's anything on that you think I'd be interested in.

Movie events

Vodafone are sponsoring free movies at Southbank on Wednesday Nights at 7:30pm this month. They have the proviso that the films may change at the last minute but we're still going along for Starsky and Hutch on the 9th. Hellboy is playing on the 16th and 50 Dates on the 23rd, unfortunately we're on holidays for the 16th :)

Bailey's Moonlight Cinema continues to run at the city botanic gardens until the 20th. Tickets are Adults $14.50 / Students $11.50 (Cheaper prepurchased online) and gates open at 6 / movies start at sundown.

Dendy are showing a bollywood festival from 17th - 23rd February. Tickets are Adult $13 / Conc $10 (with a whole pile of festival ticket offerings as well).

Music

Thurs 17th has David Byrne (ex Talking Heads) supported by Architects in Helsinki at the Brisbane convention centre - could be interesting and expensive :)

Fri 25th has the reformed The Doors - most interesting 'cause they're being helmed by Ian Astbury ex-The Cult - it amuses me

And because you might want the lead time to get tickets: Green Day supported by A Simple Plan are playing BCC on the 7th March :) Violent Femmes are at the Arena March 19th

Clubs
Go check Hellbane as a regular darkwave events listing thing.

Strange says it's on the last saturday of every month at the alliance, but it has no date up for february !?!?

Faith is every friday night at the arena - we had a lot of fun, they play a broad range of music and the venue rocks. As soon as I'm not working and therefore not exhausted on a Friday, will be going again. And would love it if they'd get a website *grins*.

Morticias is 5th March at Jubilee.

Chinese New Year, Wednesday 9th February, Year of the Rooster

The Chinatown Mall in the valley is having dragon dances and fireworks every night from Tues - Sun at 7:00pm . Saturday is just packed with things going on.

Sunday at Southbank dragon boats are going to be racing up and down the river - I'm looking forward to that!

The Livewire bar(Elizabeth St side) in the Treasury Casino is showing free movies for the Chinese Year on Tuesdays from 7pm : 8/2 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - 15/2 Shanghai Noon - 22/2 Accidental Spy

Random

How to Make a Monster - QLD Museum - Now until April 25 - see how special effects are done. Adults $8/Conc $6
could be interesting but have been told that its nothing spectacular...

Heat

So it's been hot. Saturday was 34degC plus. I don't like the heat but it's one of the side effects of living in Brisbane. It really wears me down. I get a little easier to anger, less hungry and desperate for that point in the afternoon when the temperature suddenly drops about 5 degrees (or at least it feels like it). I hate the work thing, but at least it's air conditioned.

What I particularly love is living in a city with the largest output of climate-change-contributing emissions in the world and a government who thinks that development and the doubling of Brisbanes population is a good idea. It's actually the coal based electricity and land clearing that contribute to the emissions, but air conditioners don't help (part of the way they work is to shift the hot air out of the cooled space, and all refrigeration uses some heat to cool - i'm not sure on the exact science). We've got climate change, it's going to get hotter in my lifetime up to 5degC on average across the world by 2100), and we need to be able to live. We need air-con. I hate it. I think it's partially responsible - catch 22.

So long term I'm looking at strategies - communal air conditioning (see Malls/Libraries/Work places and one dedicated summer air con living space in our house), moving south for the summer (but it's getting warmer there too) or switching hemispheres so we always live in winter. Nocturnal is good too, except it's sometimes really hard to sleep in the heat. I think I get so angsty because I just can't do anything from about 10am - 5pm on hot days, and unfortunately I haven't been able to slip into a completely nocturnal lifestyle with this whole summer-work malarkey.

The following links are to the bureau of meteorology (always a fun site) looking at the weather in Queensland - go and check the radar images next time there's a storm.
Queensland Bureau of Meteorology

And just to prove my angst about the temperatures - it doesn't end!
Queensland Seasonal temperature outlook

"There is a moderate to strong shift in the odds towards above average maximum temperatures for the late summer to mid-autumn quarter (Feb-Apr) across most of Queensland, the Bureau of Meteorology announced today."

The EPA has some links to further information on Greenhouse emmissions including links to the Greenhouse emmission inventory.
Here's some info on what you can do about reducing emmissions
What you can do EPA/QPWS

A report (pdf) commissioned by ACF in 1999 showing details of the impact of land clearing on the rate of emmissions.

Details about the Kyoto agreement which goes into effect on 16 Feb 2005, even though we haven't signed onto it are here.