Chinese New Year

One of my conversations with my friend Nick Miller (BEIDA, ‘06) centered around the Chinese New Year. “It’s the biggest celebration ever,” he said, or something close. After listening to fireworks go off for what must have been nearly twelve hours with absolutely no let up, I am tempted to conclude he’s right. The Chinese New Year, aka the Spring Festival, is approximately a half-month-long celebration that starts in the end of February (February 18 this year), and ends in mid-March. It is the functional equivalent of Christmas/Holiday/New Year in the west, and in fact most of BEIDA was emptied out as students returned to their homes for most of February. This year, 2007, is the year of the pig.

Our trip started with an early morning drive out of the University, and approximately an eight hour bus ride through the Chinese countryside. Highlights include looking out the window and seeing absolutely grey as fog and smoke combined to make for unpleasant viewing, looking at miles and miles of desert, and seeing the cooling towers of a nuclear reactor powering a small city uncomfortably close to the bus. No word on the safety features employed on these reactors.

After a less than overwhelming lunch, and a few choice movies on the bus, we arrived in Taiyun, the capital city of the Shanxi province. China is divided administratively into twenty-two provinces, roughly analogous to U.S. states in both political concept and (for most) size. Shanxi is about two provinces over, so think of it as a trip from D.C. through Virginia to North Carolina–or for the Michiganders, from Michigan through Ohio to West Virginia. Shanxi is somewhat renowned for having a great number of (dirty) coal mining operations and plants, and is sometimes blamed for the high levels of pollution in the surrounding provinces. Taiyun is the capital city, and it was certainly capital in size, as we drove through (once again) rows and rows of massive apartment and housing complexes, and into the downtown.

The program was given two choices, we could eat as a group, or we could eat with a local family. Feeling adventurous, I chose to eat with a family. Amanda (AU), Josh (Hampshire College), Kari (AU), and I thus drove across town, to a massive apartment complex, following a middle aged lady up the stairs. The apartment buildings were spacious on the inside, but on the outside looked both cramped and small–six stories of dirty exterior. Regarding our hosts, I had rationalized that, well, as we were American students, and initially it was just supposed to be Amanda and myself, both first year language students, we would have english speaking hosts. Not the case!

Still, they were lovely people. The father, maybe early forties, worked in a firm in the next province over and commuted to work (I think!). The mom seemed to stay at home. They had a teenage daughter, seventeen, I think, and a friend of hers from school was also over for the new year. We asked later, and sure enough, the friend was along just to “see the Americans.”


Given my rather finicky tastes, the dinner was. . . interesting. I am certain the food was all traditional, much as ham and cranberries might be around for a Christmas dinner, although this was rather indescribable–both figuratively and literally. Josh and Kari, although advanced students, couldn’t figure out how to translate the more advanced words for the food, only getting the fact it was “meat” of some sort. Hmm. The most interesting, I think, was this . . . bread, pictured here. It is in fact steamed bread, but shaped like a fish. The significance was lost on me at the time, although according to later research I think it was supposed to be a “koi fish,” symbolizing additional wealth for the new year. It tasted like steamed buns, despite its rather fishy appearance.

The evening was great, despite my lack of language skills. We conveyed my life story of being born in South Korea and now living in Michigan (a perennial favorite to tell to the locals), and in general had a good time. Additional festivities included watching the New Year’s broadcast on TV, and trying some opera dance moves. Needless to say, they were much better than us. As an explosive ending, if you will, we all went outside and set off the traditional firecrackers. As we walked out of the complex to get back to our hotel, the skies were already flashing with fireworks, as a low rumble could be heard all around me.

We arrived back at the hotel, where a number of our group had bought their own fireworks. As promised by Nick, when the clock approached midnight, the “city exploded.” I’ve never heard or seen so many fireworks in my life, and despite the warmth, kept my hat on to try and muffle the sharp explosions from all around me. I’m not sure what the safety regulations are on fireworks in China (probably non existent) as large fireworks–the real fireworks that blow up mid-air, not just sparklers–were shot in front of our hotel, no more than twenty feet from the entrance, and from rooftops and balconies above us. It was surprising to see the fire(balls?) hitting the sides of buildings. All in all, it was a fantastic show. The fireworks kept coming, and when we woke up seven hours later, were still going off here and there around the city.