Thursday, January 15, 2004

By Suzanne Martinson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Chinese New Year feast -- Year 4701 starts next Thursday -- is a time when Chinese Americans invite their friends to celebrate their culture.

	Making plans The Chinese New Year banquet costs $50 person. For reservations, call Phoenix Chang, 412-531-5921. Tables for 10 can be requested. Tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Mandarin Gourmet, Downtown, will prepare a 12-course meal Jan. 24 at the new Syria Mosque, Cheswick, to mark the Year of the Monkey. The event begins at 5 p.m. with a cash bar and six complimentary appetizers, including barbecue sliced pork, squid with garlic sauce, vegetarian chicken and braised beef.

A program, including the Lion Dance and other traditional dances with exotic Chinese costumes, begins at 6 p.m. The 7 p.m. dinner will be followed by dancing from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m.

Among the dinner offerings are spring vegetable roll, shrimp tofu cake, pineapple walnut shrimp, General Tso's chicken, beef bean curd roll, stewed duck, ramen noodle with Mandarin sauce, crispy whole fish, eight treasures taro cake and red bean soup with rice ball.

Everyone is invited, but if you were born in 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980 or 1992, the Chinese Year of the Monkey is your year.

Of all the animals in the lunar cycle -- Chinese New Year starts the second new moon after the winter solstice -- the Monkey bears the closest resemblance to the Naked Ape himself, man. At least, according to the Feng Shui Consultancy, which writes online:

"No wonder it should be [the Monkey] who will inherit most of man's intelligence, as well as his capacity for deceit."

If you or a friend is expecting a child this year, the prognosis sounds good: "The Monkey child is captivating. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, he [or she] won't keep still for a moment. Mischievous, jovial and very competitive, he will steal his way into your heart ... the incorrigible Monkey will always get what he is after."

For the rest of us, look for Year 4701 to be "workable." According to the Web site, "There will be success even in impossible ventures. ... Politics, diplomacy, high finance and business will be engaged in one big poker game with everyone trying to out-bluff each other. ... The Monkey is one who can laugh off his mistakes and improve his bargaining prowess in the next round."

America, after all, was born in the Year of the Fire Monkey, 1776. Supposedly, the Chinese New Year prognosticators claim, the motto of this year should be: "Don't take no for an answer!"

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