Celebrating the Year of the Dragon with traditional motifs
Lunar New Year is a time of celebration with friends and family. For many people in the Asian diaspora, this includes eating auspicious foods and adorning homes with traditional decorations. Motifs like the fai chun, a traditional doorway poster often representing luck and prosperity, and zodiac are synonymous with the new year.
While most people might not admit it, receiving a red pocket filled with cash might be the most beloved tradition for many during Lunar New Year.
To welcome in the Year of the Dragon, Canadian telecommunications company TELUS collaborated with local Vancouver artist Paige Jung for the first time to design their annual Lunar New Year red packets.
Jung is a second-generation Chinese Canadian immigrant. While her art is often drawn in less realistic ways to achieve more stylized and conceptual designs, her commissioned piece for TELUS’ year of the Dragon packets uses brighter colours and fluid shapes to recognize the traditional motifs.
Reinterpreting traditional motifs for a more modern design requires more than skill—it requires cultural understanding and lived experience.
Cold Tea Collective had the chance to interview Jung about her process of creating the TELUS red packet experience and what it means to her to collaborate with TELUS on this national campaign.
Reimagining the traditional red pocket
In her design, Jung incorporates characteristics associated with a dragon: strength, power and confidence. The 2024 Lunar New Year TELUS red packets showcase a dragon soaring through the night sky, searching for the lantern. The Chinese fai chun also symbolizes hope, success and good fortune.
“I wanted to show a side of the dragon that most people don’t think of: its positivity in difficult times and its determination,” shares Jung. As for colour choices, she says modern colours like jade greed and deep purple symbolize…
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