Traditions: Chinese New Year in Newcastle

A little tradition every year I normally delve into is to gather a group of friends together to go celebration Chinese New Year down Stowell street in Newcastle. I’ve really only missed one over the last 5 years and that’s because I was busy working as a kitchen porter making Sunday dinners at a pub.  

This year was a little different, because I actually I had a lot more than the usual number of people coming this time. Leading upto the day we already ran into a few issues trying to get to Newcastle. Nexus metro who provide a large network of transports through the South and North Tyneside decided to choose that same day of the celebrations, to do maintenance work between pleas and Gateshead on the daytime until 6pm. This really messed up the scheduling and the main transport we were going to take upto Newcastle. After a few days of deliberations through the facebook event I created, me and my friends finally decided to book a large taxi bug to take us up on the morning. It sorta worked out cheaper with the more people we had so everyone agreed.

On the morning we split into two groups, first group being picked up in Shields town center, and the second group being picked up not for further up the road. Timing was on point that morning, apart from missing a few people we still had a total of nine heading up (usually its only 3-4 people every year). We arrived at 12pm at Central station, paid the taxi driver and made our way over to Chinatown. It was definitely a little more busier in Newcastle for a Sunday most likely because of the celebrations. We took our pace and arrived promptly at Chinatown with the parade not starting for another 15mins (Well according to the security guard that was shouting that the parade was starting soon). Turns out the parade was a little later than expected so we ended standing still in the middle of Stowell street for over a ½ hour.

Finally we started hearing the firecrackers getting set off at the more populated area of the street where the Chinese Arch was. After a few moments we could hear the drumming of the performers slowly making their way towards us. At this point, we noticed more and more gather around us. This is when it can get a bit crazy, so I warned all my friends to stay close, because at this point people can get lost around the crowds and that’s the last thing we wanted. It took another 15 or so mins for the lion dance to finally go pass us. The traditional is normal every year, where the lion dances from entrance to entrance of each restaurant or business and the premises will hang a cabbage to feed the lion to have the lion perform a special dance bless good fortune for the business for the following year. Also following the lion dance, you had the local martial arts school performing and leading with the lion. You had a few pupils on top of a large float behind the lion playing drums to keep the rhyme going for the lion to dance, while there was other pupils who held flags and was opening pathways between the crowds to lead the lion to the next business.

At this point everyone had their phones or cameras out to take photos. All my friends had their phones, while I had my little mirrorless camera out with a zoom, while holding a selfie stick with my 360 camera on top. Not the first time I had to shoot with two different cameras, but safe to say trying to keep the 360 camera steady and trying to zoom in/out proved to be a little challenging. Fortunately had a shoulder strap on, so whenever I wanted to zoom in/out I just let the camera hang off me for a second while I changed the zoom on the lens and went back straight to shooting.

One thing I found about shooting during the celebrations over the last few years, is that it can be a night to shoot in because of the a round of people surrounding you. People can get your way, accidentally walk into your shot and even ending pushing into with out realising. Fortunately I was able to get a few photos even with amongst my large groups of friends. Because the lion is dancing away and it can be hard to capture and freeze the motion of the lion, but with enough practice I managed to nail the settings down on my camera. The only other issue was the sun was shining at a weird onto the street so half my photos were looking sunny, while the other half were turning out shady.

As the lion and float finally went past us, we decided to stop by this pub at the end of the street and have a quick drink. After a while people wanted to get food, so I suggested to head over to the other end of the street to try out the Chinese food stalls. Fortunately while on the way we ran into the Chinese Unicorns as they were heading back to the starting point. When we finally arrived at the stalls, it turns out there was only one molar stalls, so it really put a damper for my friends who wanted to try some chinese food. The strange thing was that  there was a lot of food vans, which wasn’t Chinese like hotdogs and fish&chips. We coded to have a look at the other stalls anyways, where they were selling little trinkets like paper lion puppets or minion hand drums.

So next option was to head over the big Chinese supermarket called Hiyou near Grainger town to see if we could pick up some Chinese snacks instead. Knowing my friends they ended picking a lot of random snacks, but it wasn’t substantial enough of a meal to keep us happy. So the finally decisions landed on actually going to a local wetherspoons. After some major food and drinks, it was finally time to head home. We decided to take a chance and get the metro back even through the main service was off, there was a bus replacement service in between Gateshead and Pelaw, It definitely took a lot longer than usual to get back in South Shields, but we finally made it.

Overall it was a good day, and my friends had a blast of time. Chances we’ll try doing this again next year, I think I might plan things a little differently next years because of the issues of food etc.

Thanks again for reading :-)

Kevin Ho