Has Chinese New Year lost its spark?

“Just slap a dragon on it”

As any true local knows - once Sunday rolls around, there will be no sleeping through the incessant, clamorous fireworks. Yet, in the week before the big day, it is obvious that Shanghai's enthusiasm for this festive season is waning year-on-year.

Granted this city's celebration has always paled in comparison to Guangzhou in the south and Harbin in the north but, in recent years, the city's pre-CNY sea of red and gold has been replaced by half-hearted decorations in front of the occasional home, storefront and bank. With tangible lack of conviction, these excuses for decorations go up out of habit, or because of some half-baked commercial obligation to be seen to be doing something.

So what's at the cause?

Here are the suspects:

• Chun Yun: It's the world's biggest migration period, when most of China's population will be in transit to visit family. Since most folks living in Shanghai are not actually locals, the streets will clear out when everyone heads home to spend the Spring Festival back in their jiaxiang (their hometown). Nevertheless, this is not a new phenomenon, and has not constrained pre-CNY enthusiasm in the past.
  
• Nationwide Shutdown: China virtually shuts down. Stores are gated, restaurants closed and shopping centres deserted. Besides spending time with the family, there's little else to do. But it's always been that way for the seven day period beginning on New Year's Day (Chuyi), so it can't just be that.
  
• Family Obligations: Young couples are, these days, expected to pay their respects to both sides of the family (no matter where they are in China). So, quality family time is sacrificed for even longer periods on the road or on a train (and, for the lucky ones, at airports and in the air). However, that still does not account for the lustreless Pre-CNY period.
  
• Losing it: Quite simply, the root cause is that Shanghai's younger generations are losing touch with traditions. Chinese New Year has failed to adapt, failed to modernize. It's looked the same for decades - the same red lanterns, the same zodiac signs, the same decals, the same fonts, and the same tassels. Subsequently, Chinese New Year is at risk of becoming irrelevant to the younger generations, who have grown indifferent to the iconography.

Moreover, few brands have ventured beyond this formula. The general apathy is neatly characterised by what we like to call the "Just slap a dragon on it" approach.

Starbucks capitalises

Starbucks is developing a new expression of Chinese New Year, one that navigates through the doldrums of antiquated traditions by leveraging the brand's trendy, modern cache to create a fun reinterpretation of the holiday. It has been successful on two fronts.

First, it leverages the common CNY signifiers like zodiac signs, family, abundance of red and lanterns. However, it has cleverly appropriated the CNY visual language in its branded way - trendy, modern. Rather than just using lanterns, it turned coffee cups into lanterns. Rather than showing intensive family gatherings, it shows young couples coming together over coffee.

Secondly, it has created excitement for exotic, new products to be released in the run-up to the holidays. Rather than repackaging the same product for CNY, it has released limited-run products, and created a viral buzz through its homepage and Weibo (microblog).

Young Chinese consumers are far more likely to try new flavours such as Peach Blossom Tea Latte or Valencia Macchiato than this New Yorker. Through décor and product offering, Starbucks has created a new, and more forward thinking Chinese New Year context, one that young consumers are gravitating to. Compliments to Starbucks for showing how easy it is to wake and smell the coffee.