In most Chinese-majority places, Chinese New Year is like Christmas/New Year for the west, the time when everything closes for up to two weeks and people have their (usually only) annual holiday. In normal times Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore with mixed populations get a lot of business from China, Taiwan and Hongkong over Chinese New Year because they're still open. If you want to go out in a group over Chinese New Year, eat Indian food...I much prefer Indian vegetarian to Chinese vegetarian, myself.