Chinese New Year - January 28th

The biggest holiday of the year for Chinese families will soon be upon us: Chinese New Year (also known as Spring Festival) is happening this Saturday January 28th (New Year's Eve is the 27th). To compare the significance of this holiday for the American context, it would be like combining Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year's all in one. Click here to learn more about Chinese New Year. 

There are many different foods that are typically eaten on this occasion, and they are often symbolic of  increasing your chances of long life or wealth. One favorite is dumplings (like the ones pictured below), eating them on New Year's is supposed to bring increased wealth.

Dumplings (shui jiao 水餃) - Joshua Wallace, photographer and copyright holder, 2015.

Chinese New Year is based on a lunar calendar, and therefore doesn't happen on the same day every year on the solar calendar that we use. It fluctuates between mid-January to mid-February. According to the Chinese zodiac the new year will be the year of the chicken, and we are leaving the year of the monkey.  The Chinese zodiac consists of twelve animals, so the same animal reoccurs every twelve years. Click here to learn more about the Chinese zodiac. 

A common part of the Chinese New Year holiday is for the adults of the family to give red envelopes full of money to the children of the family. 

A Red Envelope (hong bao 紅包) - Joshua Wallace, photographer and copyright holder, 2017.
Roughly translated the words on the envelope mean "wish you prosperity, money is coming your way" (gong xi fa cai, gun gun er lai). 

A legend associated with the Chinese New Year is that of the Nian monster (nian shou 年獸). This creature comes out of hiding on New Year's Eve to eat people. Luckily, this monster is afraid of firecrackers and the color red, and that's why you see plenty of both this time of year. Typically, families will stay up late into the night to guard against the nian shou. According to some, this monster can eat a whole village in one bite. 

Some Chinese phrases for New Year's: 

• Xin nian kuai le (新年快樂) - "Happy New Year"
• Gong xi fa cai (恭禧發財) - A common expression heard during Chinese New Year, roughly translates to "Wishing you increased prosperity." A comical reply to this phrase is hong bao na lai (紅包拿來) which means "hand over the red envelope." 

If you want to learn Chinese or another language, then you should check out the Mango Languages database. It's available on the library website's A-Z database page. 

The library has several books about Chinese New Year in the Curriculum Collection, which is located on the lower level at our Stephenville location: 

• Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin
• Celebrating Chinese New Year by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith
• The Dragon Year: A Chinese Legend by Dave Bouchard 
• Happy New Year!: Kung-hsi fa ts'ai! by Demi 
• Long-Long's New Year: A Story About the Chinese Spring Festival by Catherine Gower
• Moonbeams, Dumplings, & Dragon Boats: A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities, and Recipes by Nina Simonds 
• The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin

Click here to listen to some Chinese New Year's music. That link takes you to the library's catalog, from there click on the "Online Access Click Here" link. 

Click here to watch a documentary about how modern Beijing families celebrate New Year's. 

International Programs will be hosting a Chinese New Year celebration on Friday January 27th from 6PM - 8PM at the Thompson Student Center. There will be food and activities. Click here for more details. 

New Database: CQ Researcher

Are you looking for quality information on a current events topic? If so, then the library has just the thing for you: CQ Researcher. This is an excellent resource for in-depth reports on a wide variety of subjects such as: health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy. You can find it on the A-Z Database List.

As with most databases, you can use keywords to search for reports or you can browse for reports by topic.

Each report is broken down into several sections such as: background, pro/con, chronology, bibliography, etc. The pro/con section provides perspectives from opposing sides of the issue, which can be helpful if you're writing an augmentative paper. The bibliography section is a useful tool for locating additional sources on the topic.

CQ Researcher is a great place to start research on any current events topics. Check it out and let us know what you think. If you need assistance with this or any other library resource then contact us at 254 968-9249 or reference@tarleton.edu.

Scottish Independence?- Library resources on Scottish nationalism and history

Last night, Scotland voted to remain a part of the United Kingdom, of which it has been a part for over 300 years. I've been following the lead up to the vote pretty closely for the last couple of weeks, and there are many great news articles out there that lay out the issues surrounding independence for Scotland at this particular juncture.

The recent developments have made me want to brush up on my Scottish history, though, and so I'm going to share a few of the books we have here in the library on Scottish independence, and Scottish history more generally, in case anyone else might be interested in doing the same. Trust me- there's more to Scotland and Scottish nationalism than Braveheart!

Bannockburns: Scottish Independence and Literary Imagination, 1314-2014, by Robert Crawford

Bannockburns explores the ways that Scottish authors have thought and written about the idea of Scottish independence since the 1300's.

Scottish history : the power of the past, eds. Edward J. Cowan and Richard J. Finlay.

Each chapter in Scottish History: the Power of the Past, is an essay written by a Scottish history scholar on a particular time period or issue. Topics include the early Pictish tribes, the Scottish Reformation, women in Scottish history and modern nationalism.

The British Isles : a history of four nations, by Hugh Kearney.

Finally, The British Isles: a history of four nations, gives some larger context to the debate. In this history of the UK as a whole, Kearney tackles both the disparate histories of the the four nations that make up the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland), and their histories as one country.

Hopefully these will get you started on your quest to understand more about Scotland, its culture and its history. Don't forget, if you need help with your research, ask a librarian!