Sara Liu’s family has its own unique New Year customs. “On Lunar New Year’s Eve, the older people in my family don’t wash their hair,” the singer tells Apple Music. “And we had to bathe in water with orange peels for good luck.” Those lucky orange peel baths seem to have worked. Since she found fame on the reality talent show Super Girl in 2009, her career has been built on emotional ballads that soothe broken hearts. In 2019, she veered into darker territory on her EP The Beauty of Indie, for which she collaborated with indie rock producer and P.K. 14 frontman Yang Haisong. For her New Year playlist, Sara chose songs typical of the festive period, alongside some of her own recent tracks and older music that evokes personal memories of home, as the season always makes her feel closer to her family. “It’s always okay to take a vacation over Lunar New Year,” she says. “It’s okay to go back home, see your family and older relatives. This is really important. It takes about four hours for me to drive back home, and that’s a really happy time for me.” Sara’s message for the new year is about taking the chance to start again. “If I had to pick a phrase, it would be ‘Out with the old and in with the new.’” She says. “It’s about cleaning up and clearing everything out. Some things may not have gone smoothly over the last year, or maybe you want to change bad habits, or you’ve done some not-so-good things. With the new year comes a new start.”