Lunar New Year started on 1st of February 2022 for 2 weeks. This week we caught up with our artist Nicole Chui to talk all things Lunar New Year and find out about how her celebrations went. Nicole is a London-based embroidery artist whose distinctive style combining freestyle embroidery with photography and digital media has been widely praised by the press and household names. In 2019, Nicole was named one of the ’25 future faces 25 and under’ by Evening Standard Magazine as part of their London Progress 1000 list. Scroll to find out how Nicole celebrates.

Can you tell us a bit more about Lunar New Year and its cultural importance?

To me it means it’s the celebration of the new year and a time to refresh. The Lunar new year date changes every year as it’s based on the moon. It’s important to me because this is the time where people actually can rest & take time off- to me it is also about wishing prosperity+good fortune on yourself and others.

How do you celebrate?

Eating! I personally love hot pot. Back in my childhood I would always be at family gatherings, drink lots, eat good food, and watch the fireworks from our friends’ place.

Favourite Lunar New Year food you’ve eaten so far?

Best food is the specific array of snacks! Every household in Hong Kong should have a snack box or tray during this time. It’s the thing I miss the most- people here don’t really do it. I personally like the snack: dan-saan.4.

We’d love to hear more about your piece ‘Double Happiness?‘ and its message?

Double happiness is a common saying wishing fortune and good luck on others, it’s a sign you usually see on everyone’s door during the new year. As much as lunar new year is about positive vibes, the ‘family/family friends anxiety’ for me is real. Particularly the judgement of appearances from elders and aunties or uncles which had caused myself a lot of anxiousness in the past, and somewhat affected my relationship with chinese culture. Normalised comments about “gaining weight” and “getting fat” within my culture have deeply impacted my relationship with beauty and how I use language surrounding it. Therefore, I wanted to make this as a way to combat all that negativity, and instead embrace double chins and big wide smiles and eating the most.

Any new artworks you have created during these celebrations? Any new creative ideas inspired by Lunar New Year?

I’ve just been making stuff in my magazine sketchbooks to be honest! I have a few ideas that are bubbling up inspired by the habits of the season 😁