When Vancouver musician Van Lefan was growing up in Taiwan, Lunar New Year was a really big deal. Uncles, aunts, and cousins would visit, sometimes from farther away, because the statutory holidays last for an entire week. Lunar New Year celebrations run for 15 days from the new moon until the full moon.
“We would all come together and have all these traditions and celebrations,” Lefan tells the Toronto Spark over Zoom. “Even though my parents are living here, it’s not quite the same when you’re not with that big family.”
Canada doesn’t offer extended Lunar New Year vacations. However, Lefan and several other B.C. musicians of East Asian ancestry have recorded a new single to reinforce that holiday spirit.
Four-time JUNO Award nominee Ginalina produced “New Year Is Here”, an upbeat, multilingual song celebrating the most festive time of the year in East Asia. The lyrics focus on family, friendship, home, and the ever-present moon.
“This was a B.C.-based project and we were really trying to include as many B.C.-based musicians as well,” Ginalina says on the Zoom call.
Ginalina also co-wrote “New Year Is Here” with Lefan, Daniel Lew, and Kapa Arkieh (Sung-Tien Kao). Ginger Chen Pimental supplied the bass lines, and Shinlok and Jas Wishes joined in the harmonies. There was even a special young guest, Gabriel Lam, on group vocals.
The song includes English, Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien, and Cantonese lyrics. Lefan wrote and sang sections in Mandarin, which she speaks fluently.
Watch the Ewan Mac-directed music video (above) for “New Year Is Here”.
Rap injected into Lunar New Year song
To the songwriters, the moon connects people through time and across the world because everyone looks up to see the same sky. So, this was incorporated into the Chinese-language lyrics.
“The intention for me was to create something for diasporic people,” Lefan says. “Even if you’re far away from your family, there are the people who are present here with you, whether that’s your chosen family, your friends or community, or the immediate family that you have.”
For “New Year Is Here”, Shinlok and Wishes added Cantonese banter. Meanwhile, Lew, a third-generation Canadian, has written songs in Mandarin and Cantonese over the past year. He’s delighted to have another Chinese-language song in his repertoire.
“Every year at this time of the year, I can whip it out,” Lew says with a laugh.
The fourth songwriter, Arkieh, is a fluent Mandarin speaker. He provided some very catchy rap, injecting his own passion along with a contemporary, urban feel.
As a producer, Ginalina has been fascinated by how rap and folk come together. The blend was an intentional decision to reflect a dimension of the Jade Music Fest community that she and the other songwriters are part of. She has told Arkieh, an accomplished rapper, how much she admires the depth that goes into his artform.
“We sent him the song demo in advance, so he would get familiar with the themes and the lyrics,” Ginalina says. “Then when we were there, he was just really trying to soak up the energy and fall into the groove that the three of us had started already. It was just a really fun process of pushing those messages a little further.”
A Red Music Envelope
She adds that other B.C. musicians of Chinese ancestry—such as Alex See, Dennis Law, Tze, handwash, Michelle Kwan, and Kristin Fung—were also eager to participate. However, their schedules just didn’t work out.
Aaron Klassen was the song’s recording and mixing engineer, with Brock McFarlane serving as mastering engineer. Ewan Mac directed and filmed the video inside the recording studio.
Charlie Wu, general manager of the Society of We Are Canadians Too, devised the idea for Chinese-speaking diasporic artists to record a B.C. Lunar New Year single. Wu, co-producer of “New Year Is Here”, encouraged performers at last November’s Jade Music Fest to create a new tradition to share the joy of Lunar New Year.
The Society of We Are Canadians Too—which produces the Jade Music Fest—has released the song as part of its “Red Music Envelope” project. This term is a play on the iconic red envelope, which contains a gift of money and is given out over the Lunar New Year period.
“Not only is this made-in-Canada music delightful and mesmerizing, but it also highlights the incredible talent we have here in B.C.,” Wu says.
“New Year is Here” will be performed live on January 27 at the LunarFest Concert at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver. Tickets are available through Showpass for this event, which will also feature the Suona Gang, Harmonia, and the West Vancouver Youth Band.
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