The usually bustling Chinatown was described as “quiet and empty" during what should have been the busiest time of the year as families prepared to welcome the New Year at home. The normally vibrant lion dances were missing as festivities moved online.
The Lunar New Year, which begins on Friday, is the biggest festival in the lunar calendar and it is when many extended families from east and South East Asian communities will come together. But this year, they stayed indoors, relying on video calls to meet loved ones.
Birmingham’s Chinatown businesses hope the year of the ox will bring back some kind of normality and prosperity, but many are not expecting much of an uplift in business during the start of the new year. Restaurateur James Wong says: “There’s nobody in Chinatown.”
The owner of Chung Ying, the oldest Chinese restaurant in the city’s Southside district, believes his business is at just 30 percent of what it used to be before the pandemic, despite continuing as a takeaway.
He said: “A lot of the Chinese aren’t coming out. For them, coming out to eat is a social experience. A lot of Chinese people who come over here, they already know how to cook.
“Last Chinese New Year, it was bad already. Because the pandemic just started, it caused a lot of panic within the Chinese community so not many people came out. It was a slow decline until lockdown, and we were left in a bit of a predicament.
“There was a lot of uncertainty. I’ve closed one of my restaurants in the financial district. It was just the fact that I could not see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
The New Year festival chair for Birmingham Southside planned a lion dance, singing and dancing videos from previous years, and newer videos from experts teaching calligraphy, painting and Chinese greetings.
Mr Wong added: “We all knew it’s what it is. People understood the risk of the virus. We all want to make sure we can fight it.”
