As families across the world and Southwest Virginia prepare to welcome the Year of the Horse, one local international market is helping both Asian and non-Asian customers embrace Lunar New Year traditions.

China returned to work Monday after a weeklong Lunar New Year holiday muted by the pandemic — and even more so for the thousands of people inside a Winter Olympics bubble.

China is showing no signs of slowing its demand for American lobster this year despite disruption to the supply chain and international trade caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)PORTLAND, Maine – America's lobster exporters recovered from the Trump-era trade war with China to have a good 2020. Trump then brokered a new deal with China in 2020 that included renewed lobster exports. Lobster is especially popular around Chinese New Year in China because a cooked lobster is red, a color that represents prosperity. Chinese New Year is typically a time of heavy travel in China, but that could also be different this year. China buys the same species of lobster from the U.S. and Canada, which has a large lobster industry in its Maritime provinces.