Red is the new black

A large crowd turns up to watch a lion dance performance in London'¿s Chinatown.

FOR a city-sized snapshot of how China’s international image has changed, try this. At the beginning of this century, in London and New York, Chinese New Year was something that happened in Chinatown. To the non-Chinese, it meant paper dragons and fortune cookies. Ancient culture, tasty food. Fast forward to 2014, and Chinese New Year is a major event on the international society map, a retail red-letter day from central London’s Bond Street to New York’s Fifth Avenue – a major driver of income.

If the global reach of a culture’s high days and holidays reflects both cultural and economic dominance, the worldwide devotion to Halloween could soon be superceded by Chinese New Year, which falls handily in the fallow retail period between Christmas and Valentine’s Day.