Chinese New Year is for Lovers

So, while you all were out celebrating your Valentine's Days (Chinese: 情人节 qíngrénjié : "Lovers' Day"), I finally got to culminate my month-long vacation and celebrate my first Chinese New Year!  It was special.

(Forgive us foreigners for looking ridiculous in this picture)

My friend Ross and I were invited by a friend of ours, 海洋 (hǎiyáng : "Ocean", not pictured above) to have dinner with his family for the new year, which I was pretty excited about, although I felt a little bit strange.  I felt it would be like my family having strangers over for Christmas; I had never met his parents before, and being a foreigner as well, I felt I would be more than a little out of place.  Which, of course, I was.  But hey, I'm pretty much always out of place here, so no worries, right?

Anyways, the experience itself was really interesting, and we got to experience a lot of Chinese New Year traditions, and eat lots and lots of really delicious home-cooked food, and of course be the recipients of the typical Chinese guest treatment.  Which meant, as we entered, we were basically forced to sit down, and were not allowed to do anything helpful for the rest of the evening, even if everyone else was.  Female guests, incidentally, are allowed to help; male guests are generally expected to sit around, smoke cigarettes, and wait for other people to do things for them.  Perfect. (Sarcasm.)  Anyways, after things were prepared, everyone sat down to eat this delicious meal, with the exception of the resident matriarch who continuously cooked throughout the meal, and switched out whichever dishes looked low for piping hot new ones.  I probably ate about 12 different Chinese dishes, and they were all, without exception, delicious.  So even though I felt bad for Haiyang's mom (who I absolutely loved), it was awesome. 

As we ate, we took part in another Chinese New Year tradition, dating back a glorious 27 years: watching television.  Specifically, watching the 新年晚会, or "New Years Party".  This television program is broadcast throughout the country every year from 8:00PM until just after midnight on New Years Eve, and is watched by an estimated 90%+ of families throughout mainland China (note: government-issued numbers are not to be trusted).  The sheer power of a television program controlled by the government, and watched by over 700 million nationalists is mind-boggling, and it's actually rather chilling how many of the various programs were focused on the glorious country rising up to the highest heights, supported by the glorious foundations of Mao Zedong and the communist party, etc. etc..  Although all that aside, it was also interesting trying to follow the various comedy routines, in between rousing patriotic scenes of beautiful mountainsides and huge tanks.  Luckily, at about 9:30, the power went out!  I love China.

This was actually the part when I was the happiest of the whole experience.  Haiyang's mother, aunt, and uncle all came to join us about the dinner table, and we did some good old fashioned family bonding by candlelight.  It was a great time, and I felt very lucky to have experienced it.  None of my pictures from the evening are very good, as I was taking everything hand held in the dark, but it was really very nice.

 

At around 11:00 or so, the kids (us) all left the house, and went to find a few friends of ours and walk the streets, enjoying the fireworks.  Now, I've mentioned before that the Chinese love their fireworks, but never have I experienced anything like this.  At about 11:30, the whole place erupted into some kind of war-zone, with huge fireworks being lit off in the midst of tall buildings, small children walking around in packs unsupervised with lighters and explosives, and of course my favorite, people lighting firecrackers and then dropping them out of their upper-story windows.  It was awesome!

I didn't get any good pictures of fireworks, but just trust me, there were lots of them, ready to usher in The Year of the Tiger.

Happy New Year Everyone!!