chinese new year Posts
Gift Recycling: China’s Not-So-Underground Economy
As China celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival this past week, countless gifts were exchanged by friends, families, and co-workers in homes and offices all across the country. In the days following the festival, many gifts changed hands once again, this time behind store counters and in narrow back alleys. These second exchanges were part of a [...]
Video: 2011 Year of the Rabbit
So, it’s a little late and most of us have begrudgingly returned to work, but 新年快乐 fellow laowai.
I captured my own thoughts, photos and videos of my 6th Chinese New Year’s Eve on my blog, and so won’t waste space with a reiteration here.
However, I wanted to share this great short video by Jonah M. Kessel, Paul Morris and Kit Gillet:
24 hours / 24 photos — Spring Festival in Liuzhou
Liuzhou, China over one 24 hour period: 08:01:25 PM
Michael Steverson, better known as “Expatriate Games” in the blogsphere and on Flickr, has put together an awesome project entitled “Xin Nian Hao – 24 Hours in Liuzhou“. The series of photos and accompanying stories chronicle an entire day (one photo an hour) over CNYE and into the early morning hours of the first day of the new lunar year.
Chun Jie: The Next Generation
I really like Spring Festival. Honestly. Every year I hear the arguments about the “crazy Chinese and their crazy fireworks”, but despite the noise (and limb-losing danger) I have to admit that I get a bit caught up in the season.
I suppose I’ve not been here long enough yet to truly understand what that holiday feeling is, certainly not to the extent my wife and her compatriots do. Being home for the Christmas season this past December, I saw this in reverse. My wife likes Christmas; she liked the food, the gifts and the family visits (mostly the first two). But I don’t think she can really understand that “Christmas feeling” like those who have grown up in the culture do. That feeling, even at my rather ripe age and lack of religious penchants, that something magical happens between Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning.
But even with the limits of cultural comprehension; by comparison, I think we can all get the significance of what this season brings. That warm feeling of family, a great connect that spans generations. For the young, a chance to get a bit of cash and some new clothes; for the old, an opportunity to look back and see how life and family has changed over the years.
