Many Chinese New Year celebrations have been banned or postponed in China’s major cities as officials do everything they can to contain the ongoing coronavirus scare. This week authorities implemented travel restrictions to quarantine roughly 25 million people.
Gareth Fisher is an associate professor director of the Chinese Studies Minor program at Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences. He says the Spring Festival is the most important holiday in the country and says closing off transit and travel will most affect migrant workers who were planning to travel home to families in rural areas.
Fisher says:
“The Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year as it is more commonly known in the West, is the most important annual holiday in China, a bit like Christmas and New Year’s all rolled into one.
“Although the main celebrations for Spring Festival occur on the first day of the lunar year (this Saturday in the Western calendar), most Chinese generally take at least a week off work to celebrate the holiday. As with Christmas or Thanksgiving in the West, the Spring Festival is an important occasion for families to get together. For this reason, it is the busiest travel time of the year. Therefore, closing off transport in and out of Wuhan could not have come at a worse time.
“This will most affect migrant workers in the city who had planned to travel back to their rural homes to spend the Spring Festival with their families. However, with respect to the closing of shops and other public places, this is probably the best time, since many places would have been closed in any case for the holiday.
“With respect to celebrations for the holidays, this is also likely to have a minimal impact. While parades, performances, and fireworks are a common part of the Spring Festival, the most important thing for most Chinese is being at home with the family. However, if the crisis continues longer than the next two weeks, the closing of businesses, shops, and public venues will start to have a more significant economic impact on the people of Wuhan.”
To request interviews or get more information:
Daryl Lovell
Media Relations Manager
Division of Marketing and Communications
T 315.443.1184 M 315.380.0206
dalovell@syr.edu | @DarylLovell
news.syr.edu | syracuse.edu
Syracuse University
Childhood obesity is a serious problem in the United States, where one in five children and adolescents are affected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While obesity in mothers has been the primary focus of early life…
The Martin J. Whitman School of Management and the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics are launching two new dual degree programs to leverage both schools’ national reputations and programmatic strengths. The new programs—an undergraduate public health/business…
Travel to just about any major ethnographic and natural history museum around the world and you will encounter installations focusing on Native American and Indigenous society and culture. Exhibitions such as the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Plains…
What is your initial response when a woman accuses a man of workplace sexual harassment? A new study suggests that some people are morally biased to have sympathy toward the accuser. It even has a name: himpathy.
Taylor Hamilton G’18 has been named a 2023-24 Luce Scholar. The Luce Scholars Program is a prestigious, nationally competitive fellowship program launched by the Henry Luce Foundation in 1974 to enhance the understanding of Asia among potential leaders in American…
If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.
