In Chinatown, London, for Chinese New Year
Yesterday, 1st of February, was the start of Chinese New Year, the year of the tiger. So where better to celebrate it than Chinatown in central London. That’s where I headed yesterday. By coincidence, I had been here three days earlier. After a theatre visit to see Mamma Mia the musical, to celebrate a friend’s birthday, we headed to Chinatown for a meal. On that Saturday night, the last weekend before Chinese New Year, the streets and the restaurants were crowded. I had hoped that on Monday afternoon, the actual first day of New Year, it would be less busy but I was wrong. The crowds had turned up in droves and were in a happy mood, buying souvenirs, posing for photos, eating outdoors and in the restaurants and following the dancing dragons.
Wandering through the streets, I came around a corner to see a densely packed crowd and a huge weight of police and security guards. A small area had been barriered and in the middle was a dancing dragon, surrounded by an excited crowd taking photos. I was surprised by the need for so much security for one performance. When I had last been in Chinatown for New Year, maybe 25 years ago, the streets were busy but not packed and the dragons had been free to dance up the street, visiting the different shops and businesses. This time was totally different. It was only when I got home and looked at my photos, some of which had been taken with the camera held above my head that I saw that the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Charles and Camilla, were visiting a community centre in that location. That explained the massive security presence then!
I took some photos there, trying as best I could to reach above everyone’s heads and to work slowly nearer the front. I was a bit worried about pickpockets though in such a noisy and crowded patch (if you read my Paris blog you’ll have seen that I was ‘relieved’ of my cash and bank card wallet on the Metro in December) so I secured my cards and keys in my pockets and didn’t hang around too long.
Having just been in that dense throng, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I turned around a corner and came face to face with a dancing dragon. I was trying to react as fast as I could to take photos when a huge policeman came through right next to me shouting ‘Get Back! Get Back!’ It seemed a bit excessive for the situation but in the next seconds as I did scramble to move back, a vast wave of people came storming through like a river in torrent, all following the dragon; cameras, phones and even heavy video camera rigs all held high and focussed on the dragon’s bouncing behind. I decided to stay out of that pressure cooker situation. Having escaped from two crowds now, I meandered along the street which was briefly looking a lot clearer and calmer in the wake of the surging people river.
I thought I would try to capture some photos which represented Chinatown as a whole. It was a little bit disappointing that the sky was a uniform grey/white and the light was nothing special. I’ve been spoiled recently with so much night photography which is really my main passion at the moment. Also, I was a little bit frustrated with my own ability to capture the type of shots that I admire. I follow some people on Instagram who have an exceptional eye for bringing out an image from everyday situations with just the right colours and shapes. Still I’m happy that I’ve done my best and all of my images contain red which is considered to bring luck and success for the year ahead.
It’s funny, because not too long ago I thought that I was doing too much aimless wandering, reacting to what was in front of me and taking pot luck. But I realised yesterday that recently I’ve been planning a lot more, going to specific locations for specific shots and even working out in advance where I should stand. So, I realise I’ve made progress in that direction and now I maybe need to get back to some spontaneous shooting to redress the balance. I also realised that I shoot far too much in manual. If you’ve read my other blogs or seen my YouTube videos you’ll know that I learned photography by putting my camera in manual, gritting my teeth through all the bad shots (I still do) and working on it until I got the results I wanted. With hindsight, yesterday I should have stuck the camera into auto mode and hoped for the best. I would have been able to react much more quickly. I have an excellent camera (Canon 5D MKIV) so I should trust it in fast moving situations where the action, light and angles are changing rapidly.
This is exactly why I like to push myself into very different types of situations and locations because I just learn so much every time.
There are two other striking things about Chinatown. One is the set of imposing entrance gateways. Two of these are pictured below.
The other is how you can see the old and the new merged together and the mix of cultures where they’ve blended. This building on the corner of Macclesfield Street looks like a typical London brick building on top but the ground floor has been transformed into the exotic.
I hope that this has given you a little flavour of Chinese New Year in Chinatown. I would say that I never fully got into the flow for photography but I hope I’ve captured some snippets to show what a rich experience this was. It was lovely to be part of a group of people all feeling the excitement of this special time in the Chinese calendar.
By the way, do you know your Chinese zodiac sign? Mine is the Monkey. I like to have a bit of fun by checking out my forecast for the year. According to Melbourne based Feng Shui expert, Edgar Lok Tin Yung, mine is “Monkeys will experience a lot of change in 2022 with plenty of travel opportunities”. That sounds good to me!
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I’ll wish you a Happy New Year if you’re celebrating it and I’ll leave you with two more photos showing the beautiful blend between east and west.
Loren x
