Of Memory and Chinese New Year

Travel Blog  •  Julia Ross  •  02.07.08 | 7:33 AM ET

imageThe Year of the Rat begins today, and I’m missing the firecrackers outside my window at 6 a.m. A year ago, I was living in a fourth floor walk-up above a night market in Taipei, taking in the full clamor of Chinese New Year for the first time.

The firecrackers exploding on that first day—long strings that writhed furiously on the ground, whistling bottle rockets that sent pedestrians ducking for cover—augured more to come. I was in for a week’s worth of sensory overload, anchored by a midnight image even Ang Lee couldn’t improve on: A half-dozen Taiwanese families, gathered on rooftops surrounding my building, carefully feeding stacks of “ghost money” into glowing urns.

Funny how I’ve edited out the lonelier parts of living abroad, though. As much as I’m wallowing in vivid recollections of last year’s Chinese New Year, a post on World Hum contributor Daisann McLane’s blog, Learning Cantonese, brings me up short. She writes:

I’m not a big fan of Chinese New Year in Hong Kong. Before I came here, I always imagined it would be a lively, fun time of great excitement and interest. Then I got here and found out that Chinese New Year is when all your favorite restaurants close for a week, the streets go dark for three days, and all your Hong Kong friends vanish into the bosom of their various family obligations.

She’s got it right, actually. Spending a major holiday in a foreign country can be terribly isolating. My Taiwanese friends disappeared as well that week, and as I stood on that rooftop, transfixed by the ghost money ritual, I’ll admit I’ve never felt more non-Chinese.

For now, I can rely on Daisann’s terrific Hong Kong dispatches in the International Herald Tribune’s Globespotters blog to keep me immersed in the culture.

This week, she sheds light on where to find the city’s best diner-style comfort food (try the cha chaan teng) and the Chinese New Year practice of writing spring couplets—four-character verses conveying luck and prosperity. 

Daisann’s own spring couplet, inked by a 77-year-old in Causeway Bay, reads: “The flower in heart embroiders (her) language/With serious grace and abundant affection.”

Keep the posts coming, Daisann. Xin nian kuai le!

Photo by yienshawn92 via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Tags: Asia, China

Julia Ross is a Washington, DC-based writer and frequent contributor to World Hum. She has lived in China and Taiwan, where she was a Fulbright scholar and Mandarin student. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Time, Christian Science Monitor, Plenty and other publications. Her essay, Six Degrees of Vietnam, was shortlisted for "The Best American Travel Writing 2009."


5 Comments for Of Memory and Chinese New Year

Eva Holland 02.07.08 | 10:12 AM ET

Great post, Julia.

“Funny how I’ve edited out the lonelier parts of living abroad, though.”

Yes, yes, yes.

yingying 02.07.08 | 9:18 PM ET

i’m chinese, so glad to read your article which made me recall my new year in my hometown, which is shenyang the captial of liaoniang province.

Peter Levenda 02.08.08 | 1:47 AM ET

I’ve spent years living and working in Asia and I can well understand Julia Ross’s comments about the loneliness of the holidays for wai guo ren (foreigners) in any part of China ... but I had the great good fortune to have bonded with the Chinese people I worked with and to have spent time at their homes during the New Year, for several years in a row.  It not only took the sting out of being a foreigner in their land, but enabled me to have a deeper understanding of the culture that was so hospitable towards me and others like me.  I came to look forward to the food,  the songs, the kitschy television shows in Mandarin and Cantonese, the giving of ang pow (hong bao,  the “red packets” of money you give to the younger, unmarried members of the families you visit)... and the drinking with the men of the families that often went on into the wee hours! I am back in the States now, but I miss being in Asia this time of the year (the way many western expats miss being in their home countries for the Christmas holidays, I imagine).  My recommendation to all expats is simple: don’t be such an expat!  Do what you can to learn the language, understand the culture, stop hanging out at the Hard Rock, and pay close attention to everything around you.  Treat your hosts with respect and interest.  People are pretty much the same everywhere; they respond well to courtesy, good humor, and respect. 

Gong Xi Fa Cai!  Gong Hay Fat Choy! and Xin Nian Kuai Le!

(Peter Levenda: author of “The Mao of Business”)

Thai travel 02.13.08 | 6:26 AM ET

In Thailand, chinese new year is very popular including ceremony and foods.

Laptoper 04.24.08 | 12:46 PM ET

Happy china new year! No more champagne and a fireworks is gone.

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