For my collage about a cultural encounter, I want to do a collage on my first traditional celebration of Chinese New Year. I realize I am Chinese and that at first it seems like it is not much of an encounter, however I learned a lot from this experience. I always thought of myself as very American growing up so my first real experience learning about the New Year and its customs was an eye-opening experience. In my collage I want to use many aspects of celebrating the New Year from the food, the customs and the zodiac. The food obviously plays a significant role in Chinese New Year since each dish represents something like luck or good fortune for the next year. The customs involve the parade in Chinatown, the dragon dances, and the red envelopes. The zodiac represents which animal the following year will be whether its dog, dragon, rabbit, snake, etc.
For my collage I plan to do it by hand. Finding pictures and doing it digitally may be easier but I feel that one loses out on a lot. If done by hand, I can incorporate more texture such as the ruffles on fans or the embroidery on red envelopes. Obviously I can’t paste cooked foods onto the page but I can put dried foods on the collage such as the ones placed in the traditional candy dish around the New Year. This helps bring the culture to life by having it pop off the page towards the viewer. I also think that by hand, the viewer can vividly see the colors and brightness of the decorations and dragons that are used to celebrate the holiday. The personal effect of a handmade collage also appeals more to me than one done digitally. The disadvantages to a handmade collage are that it is harder to transport, stuff may fall off, and that it may get messy. However I think it is worth it because it will give a better story of my cultural encounter to the viewer.
