Happy New Year!

Chinese New Year Traditions (most of the information from this blog is taken from an article written by Jingbo Wu in Shanghai Family, Jan/Feb 2009 issue). We are so very excited to be in China to welcome in the New Year. The Spring Festival or Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday here in China. Imagine rolling together Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July into one holiday and that's how big this holiday is for the Chinese and it all starts tonight--New Year's Eve, January 25th. Unlike the West, Chinese New Year celebrations will last for 15 days, and preparing can begin up to a month before. The actual date of New Year's day changes from year to year because the Chinese calendar is based on the lunar calendar. It is divided into 12 months of 29 or 30 days; it is synchronized with the solar year by adding extra months at certain intervals. We just know that New Year's Day corresponds with the first day of the lunar calendar and this year it lands on Jan. 26th. The week preceding New Year's Day is called “Spring Welcome Week" or “Spring Cleaning Week”. Families will use this time to clean the home inside and out. Kitchenware is scrubbed, linens are washed or aired, and EVERYTHING is dusted. Once the New Year starts, no brooms can be used until the fifth day because it is believed that cleaning during the holiday will sweep the luck out of the family. I was told that if a family needs to sweep they will sweep into the house rather than sweeping outside of the house. Decorations are a huge part of the celebration which leads back to a legend regarding the New Year's eve monster or "Nian"--meaning "year". There are many legends about this monster but one which I have heard is that each year the monster would come to villages and eat all of the crops and villagers, especially the children. The villagers would put food outside their doors to appease the monster. One year they saw that the monster was afraid of a child wearing red. So, from then on the villagers would hang red banners with spring poems around their doors and they would light firecrackers off to scare away the monster. They also hang red lanterns EVERYWHERE. You can see a picture of our door which is decorated. In the middle is what is called a "fa", meaning luck. This symbol is hung upside down showing that luck has arrived. There are so many things which are symbolic of good fortune and prosperity here in China and you will see these hanging everywhere on stores, restaurants, and homes. Some of them are red peppers and fish. Much of this relates back to the large rural farming villages outside of the cities. But, these traditions are brought with those who move out of the smaller villages and seek work and a "better life" here in the cities. On New Year's Eve, celebrations begin around dinnertime. Families share big plates of food with each food symbolizing a quality or wish for the New Year. In particular, fish and hotpots are traditional "must-haves". Apparently, fish sounds like "extra" in Chinese so it symbolizes that the family will have sufficient money in the coming year. Other special foods are noodles, symbolizing long life, sticky rice cake symbolizing that the family's bread winners will be promoted, and dessert which represents sweetness and love. There are many toasts which are made by all of the family members throughout the evening. After dinner the family makes enough dumplings for the next 5 days. Having many dumplings symbolizes that the family will make a fortune. People stay up all night to guard against the eve monster. Over the night the family plays games and eats lots of snacks. (All but one of the Smiths made it to midnight, none of us ate any dumplings, but we had enough movies to keep us going for a few hours). This night is special and fun for the kids because the adults aren't allowed to yell at them even if they have too much chocolate or break something expensive--this will be the difficult part. Only lucky and auspicious words should be used and anything unpleasant should be avoided or it is thought that this can bring bad luck in the New Year. Phrases such as “Boy, you were lucky to not blow off your hand with those fireworks”, or “You were fortunate to not catch on fire!” are probably very commonplace. From our apartment (31st floor) we could see fireworks as far as the eye could see, and everywhere. They have been going off for the past few weeks. At 12AM the explosions start everywhere across the country at the same time—some where right outside of our window [be sure to check out the photos we’ve posted here]. These are believed to fend off the eve monster—and any helicopter pilots…fireworks everywhere!!! The first day of New Year's is spent visiting the father's side of the family, the second is for the mother's side, and the third is for other family and friends…well not for us. The older generation will give the younger generation "hong bao" or red envelopes with money to buy candy. Kendall and Veronica found these under their pillows in the morning. We've had so much fun learning about this amazing holiday with its amazing traditions. It's really about family and being together and good fortune in the coming year--whatever that may look like for each person, but at the heart is the family. This is just such a limited description of the richness of the traditions, we really hope you will look into this holiday more on your own. Of course, there is so much on the internet to explore, but you can also find the closest Chinese friend and sit down over a cup of coffee or tea and just ask them about it. I am sure they will be thrilled to tell you all about it. Blessings and prosperity in the coming year. "Gong xi fa cai" [roughly sounding, gong-she-fa-tsai]. Love, The Smith's Other Sites to read up on Chinese New Year (sites in English):

Wikipedia University of Canada

Chinese New Year...The Prequel

Holli has a good write-up on Chinese New Year and what it is all about, so I'll leave that to her. I got to experience the first bit of "Chunyun" (春運), the time period around the Chinese New Year. According to Wikipedia, this is the largest annual human migration with over 2.25 billion passengers travelling in this two week period--approximately 1.75 trips per every Chinese person in China or 7.5 trips for every American citizen. Talk about traffic!

Unfortunately, on Thursday night when I came up out of the railway station into the plaza in front of the Shanghai Railway Station, I did not have my camera. Of course, I would have stood out even more snapping photos in what I can only describe as a sea of people. In any direction, all I could see was people, nearly shoulder to shoulder. I would guess it was probably what Times Square is like on New Years Eve...not that I would want to be there.

So, in preparing for our first holiday here, we've been given some advice from others around on what to expect, and how to prepare. First, get plenty of cash out. China is still mostly a cash society with people often carrying around significant amounts of money. Few smaller shops accept credit cards, some accept only local credit cards, while large stores, major chains and shopping malls will accept Visa, Mastercard, Amex, etc. So, as we found, everyone else got the same advice, and many ATM's were empty...it reminds me of the run on milk and bread at the grocery store when the weatherman is calling for snow.

Second, don't go to the train station, and stay out of the city... For the holiday, public services are limited, and as we've found, it is common to wait in a taxi stands for 30-45 minutes.

Despite the warnings, we may throw caution to the wind and go for it. What's the worst that could happen? In the words of the famous Alfred E. Neuman, "What, me worry?"

Look what's for dinner tonight honey!

Just one of those funny photos you have to take. Sounds good.

Oh yeah, and you can't help but think these eggs were fresh. Couldn't they wait until the egg was out to take this one?

liăng zhī xiăo zhū

Veronica has been practicing her Mandarin, and doing very well (as far as we can tell).

The song is about a couple of fat pigs. She learned it at school, and we can only hope that it's a nice song, and not something she learned on the playground. Now, if she could only read the labels on the dish soap, washing machine, dryer, microwave, stove, and Holli's mobile phone.

"Man vs. Machine"

There seemed to be a lot of you that enjoyed our episode with the dishwasher. Well, in the epic battle of man-vs-machine, machine leads by 2, with a score of 2-0. It appears that while the emphasis on learning the spoken language is key, there are a few daily tasks that do require at least a basic level of reading ability. Of course, these incidents give further justification for having an "Ayi" or nanny/housemaid to help around the house...the good news is, we figured it out long before we ran out of underwear. Enjoy!

Shanghai Skyline

Not much to write...just had a few requests about our view of the Shanghai skyline. This is the view from the kitchen in our apartment. We're about a 15-20 minute cab ride from the Huangpo River and the skyline you see here. It's lit up like you wouldn't believe on the weekends, and definitely a must-see. The tall building in the background towards the left is the tallest building in China, the Shanghai World Financial Center...also referred to as "the bottle opener". If you look down from our building, I personally think the view is even better...

Also, it's less likely that the smog will obscure the second view!

Immersed in the Culture

Ok, so we've celebrated our first seven days of survival here with only a few minor bumps and bruises along the way. The eighth day should be lucky, right? Hope so!

So, we had our cultural training and orientation, started our language lessons, had numerous people give us tips for what to do and not do...but...can anyone tell me which one is laundry detergent, which is fruit cleaner and what is meant for dishes? And, once you tell me which on is for dishes, which one is meant for the dishwasher and which is dish washing liquid? None of the training prepared us for this.

Many have done this even in their own country, but this is just one small example of how a routine, simple daily task can become a major undertaking. What is not shown in this video is the time spent at the "hyper"-market trying to reason which is which.

If this is what the Berlitz language method meant by "total immersion", I'm not sure we want anymore of it.

Oh, and by the way, we got a new tip from another expat regarding Carrefour...to help defend against the continual onslaught of stimulation (LCD's, Christmas music in Mandarin, constant crashing of carts into anything and everything, etc.), many people walk around in their own little world listening to their iPod's in an attempt to drown out the noise around them. Now, if only they had bumpers to stop people from ramming into you or your cart...

Really, though when it comes right down to it, a bit of patience and a good sense of humor, and the daily struggles can be a huge bit of entertainment.