Culture can counter the spin of animosity

Many Chinese living in Washington and most other US cities have long complained that they don't feel any festive mood at the Lunar New Year, which this year arrives on Monday, Feb 8. That would surely not have been the case if they visited the American Art Museum in downtown Washington on Jan 30.

The 28,000-square-feet Kogod Courtyard with its glass canopy was filled with mostly American parents and children enjoying everything from a lion dance, paper cutting, red lantern making, mask coloring, monkey figurine making and music performances with Chinese instruments such as suona (a double-reeded horn) and erhu (the Chinese two-string fiddle). It was a traditional street scene in China to greet the Lunar New Year. In just three and half hours that day, an estimated 7,300 people participated in the Family Day event to greet the Year of the Monkey.

Fast rewind to about two weeks ago when Washington was hit hard by one of the worst snowstorms in its history, the video going viral that weekend was about 18-year-old giant panda Tian Tian rolling down the slope, clearly excited, in his snow-covered yard in the Smithsonian's National Zoo.