Lunar madness: the Chinese New Year!

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

That means Happy New Year in Chinese and is reserved merely for the Spring Holiday use. The Chinese New Year is the only real new year in this culture. Chinese people live following two different calendars, the solar calendar (which we use in the West) and the lunar calendar. In cities people live following the solar calendar, but in the rural areas farmers follow only the lunar calendar.

Living by two different calendars is an interesting phenomena, because you always have two different dates every day.. Confusing? Yes, I think so! So: the solar calendar as we all know always follows the same idiot-proof system regularly: a month begins with the 1^st day and continues on to 2^nd, 3^rd and so forth. But the lunar calendar is random and it starts from a different date every month: for instance this February started with the 1^st day of the solar calendar but the same day was the 13^th day of the lunar calendar. Most relevant difference however is the New Year: in China it's usually in February.

So the traditional Western new year, the solar calendar one, has no real meaning to the Chinese people. As their culture is ancient and the western modern inventions have only started to flow to China a few decades ago, it makes sense that the people still value the lunar calendar more. It was essential to the farming and country life, and still is the calendar to follow in every Chinese household. Though China is modernizing now its roots are strongly in the old days when farming was the only way to provide a life for the families.

The Spring Festival is awaited with great anticipation by simply everyone from a toddler to great-great grandparents. And it shows: people plan get-togethers with their entire families including all ages and remote family members. My school started organizing our party months before the actual event, which shows how very important this time of the year is. The show must be a success, reaching perfection. In fact our school's party was more like a festival: a whole day full of singing, dancing, plays and activities for the families. Many parents offered to join in the show as they wanted their children to see them singing and dancing and to be proud of them. The rehearsals went on feverishly until the very moment we all stepped on the stage!

Which brings me to my part in the show: a couple of months before the big day I was asked if I would mind participating in the program. I obviously gladly joined in, and so they asked me to sing a song. Don't get me wrong: I do not possess a magnificent singing voice, that is not the reason they asked me to sing! But as I am the only and first foreign teacher this school has ever had, it meant a lot to them to have me sing a Chinese song in front of all the students and their families. And mind you, I'm not one to shy away from attention nor am I normally self-conscious! So to be the starlet of the day sounded pretty good to me – especially after I asked to wear a traditional Han dynasty dress and they said “yes”! I was looking forward to the main event!

Learning the actual song, Mo Li Hua (Jasmine flower), was not a big deal as it was quite easy for me. Thank goodness for my linguistic abilities! I practiced the song many times on my own and luckily so, as the two weeks leading to the actual new year's party were somewhat insane and I would simply have had no time left to learn lyrics: everyone running around practicing their shows every day – we were rehearsing more than doing the actual teaching to be honest. Which was all good fun and a once-in-a-lifetime moment for me! I particularly enjoyed the first time I wore my Han dynasty dress in front of the great public and heard all the “oohh's” and “aahh's”, I must admit.

The actual day of the party was unlike anything I've ever seen. Chinese women don't normally wear any make up, so to see everyone wearing glitter in their eyes with fake eyelashes and these sensational storybook princess dresses was something I didn't expect! Everyone looked phenomenal and as we danced, sang, performed, smiled and delivered not one but THREE shows of 2 hours+ in length throughout the day...I think the ladies are superheroes. What fantastic team spirit! It was heart-warming to feel like I was a part of it all :)

As for my performance, I wasn't nervous about anything: which I guess isn't what you'd expect from someone with an ordinary, flat, no-vocal-range singing voice about to perform to almost 900 people. But luckily what I lack in singing voice I make up for in heaps of self confidence and stage presence; like a true diva I performed my song and the crowd loved me. To sing a traditional Chinese song to a conference room full of Chinese people, wearing an ancient dynasty dress, was surreal. I loved it to the very last second! I don't think no matter how absurd China gets during my first year here, this was my peak experience. I still can't believe it happened and I'm so glad I got to experience that day and be a part of the show. Words can't describe truly how it was. I hope pictures can give an idea of how it was to be there that day :)

Our staff party: my second day performing Mo Li Hua

On the stage with my beautiful dancers

A lot of our teachers, but not everyone!

After the party madness faded it was time to get ready to truly celebrate the Spring Festival: and that's done in the comfort of your home with the numerous family members, grand parents, great grand parents, heaps of cousins... Amazing lunch and/or dinner is prepared and it is eaten for sometimes hours with the family members. Later on the New Year Eve's Day (of the lunar calendar) all the Chinese people open their TVs as the most important broadcast is starting: for the entire evening the national Chinese TV broadcasting company is airing a show with something for the whole family. Again there is singing, dancing, comedy, magic tricks, acrobatic performances, even Beijing Opera! This TV-show is to celebrate the New Year and is massively important: everyone will be glued in front of their TVs for the full length of it.

The remaining of the Spring Festival time is even more leisurely: families enjoy the time catching up with each other as everyone has come together from all over the country. People from big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guanzhou, etc. travel to their families to smaller cities and rural areas. Most shops and restaurants are closed during the holidays. Not to mention schools: they are closed for at least two weeks.

So naturally I took the opportunity to go traveling the great country of China! But that's a story left for the next time.. :)

Xin Nian Hao!

My traditional Han dynasty dress, which I adore :) 

The Red Big Brother: propaganda in China

Two months in China and I've had a taste of what life here is and can be. Though obviously I am very privileged as a foreigner as my income is much higher than an average person's: I'm earning roughly three times more than my fellow Chinese teachers - for doing pretty much the same job. Also my apartment is a spacious, modern studio and I have a personal driver who takes me to school and back safely. So I realize I'm much better off than an average Chinese person.

So during my time here I have seen and experienced things to understand just how privileged in life I am - and all of us Westerners for that matter.

Is China the real land of the rising sun?

For the Chinese people the Chinese government does not guarantee anything. No benefits, no real support from the system. That's where family comes in, and that convenient "one family, one child" law really becomes useful. As parents devote themselves to their one child throughout their lives, it is a social fact and the correct order of things so that when the parents grow old the child is responsible for the parents. No government support needed as it's all kept within the family. Ingenious? I think so! One point for the Chinese government, the Red Big Brother.

As for the quality of life, it depends on your perspective. In other words, how much money you make. Chinese people in my province can earn as little as 500 RMB (equals 70€) per month if they work in a factory, or perhaps 2000 RMB (280€) per month for a teacher or a doctor. If you have a very good job as a CEO or a highly educated private entrepreneur you just might earn a whopping 4000 RMB (570€) per month.
To put that into perspective I will say the cost of living in China is low, but if one is a low-paid industrial worker one will struggle to support oneself. Only well-paid people can afford to eat out in restaurants regularly, have their children highly educated or go traveling. As the government doesn't pay benefits but, quite on the opposite, charges people for unconventional behavior, it's another point for the Chinese government. Or how would you feel about paying a 10 000 RMB fine if you wanted to have a second child? To be fair the "one family, one child" policy has been modernized a bit: if the parents themselves don't have any siblings they are legally allowed to have two children of their own.

The Chinese government does make it very difficult for its citizens do anything or even think outside the box. To begin with, the propaganda and censorship is very real. I'm not saying West doesn't have its own propaganda, because our media surely is influenced by money and corruption, but in China the Big Brother is more clearly observing and monitoring everyday life. If we in the West question whether our media is free or not, here it's not even a matter of discussion. For an outsider it's as clear as day. Us Westerners all have heard of the Western media ban in China: no Facebook, Google, or pretty much any other foreign websites. The official reason for it? I've asked some Chinese people and mostly all reckon it's due to the government "protecting" the Chinese citizens. So again, one more point for the Red Big Brother: obviously the brain washing has succeeded if the Chinese people are convinced this is for their own benefit!

I don't follow the Chinese news for two reasons: first of all because I can't understand any of it (my Chinese still on beginner level) and secondly, even if I did understand I wouldn't be able to trust any of it, so why bother. Out of curiosity, someday I will. But that is the part of China that I resent: lack of freedom in every aspect.

One ingenious part of the Red Big Brother's plan is to keep all its citizens in the country at all times to minimize safety risks. Traveling for Chinese people is hard for at least for two significant reasons: it's beyond their price range and they don't have enough consecutive holidays to travel abroad. The biggest holiday of the year is approaching, the Spring Festival, when everyone gets two weeks of holidays. The tradition is to travel to your home town and spend that special time with your family. As for me: I obviously decided to travel. :)
My good friend from work offered to travel with me, so we started to book flights before prices went through the roof. As we're doing a three city tour all over China the flights ended up costing us about 1400 RMB (200€) and I thought that was quite reasonable: I didn't think that for an average income worker it might be quite expensive..
So my friend and I started talking about traveling and she told me that she would've loved to live a life like mine: traveling from one country to another, working in different cultures and exploring. Unfortunately for a woman in China the path of life is quite different compared to a Western equivalent.
When a Chinese woman is in her early 20's and without a boyfriend, her parents will start introducing suitable men to her and will encourage marriage and a child. As respecting your parents is very important in the Chinese culture and you are responsible for making your parents happy and proud, there are not many options for a woman. Some young women are "lucky enough" that if they choose not to find a boyfriend and marry, their parents will allow this and the daughter will continue to live at home with her parents: eventually as they grow older the daughter will have the responsibility to take care of them.
And in case you didn't think this far yet, let me reveal this much: virginity for a Chinese woman is very important. A girl must be a virgin when she marries, and she is to have only one boyfriend in her lifetime: later that boyfriend will become her husband. Anything other is unheard-of.
You can imagine my Chinese girlfriends' surprise (or shock) when I told them that I have had quite a few boyfriends in my life and I have not once been married - nor do I want to get married, ever.

So the cultural differences are rooted deep between East and West. Though I must confess I have begun to ponder that the Chinese culture must have some greater sense and intelligence behind it: how else can one explain that their way of life has flourished for thousands (!!) of years virtually unchanged? Our Western culture is a toddler, no, more like an embryo compared to the Chinese culture.
In saying this there are still many things about the Chinese culture that do not make sense to me or which I don't approve - but at the same time so many things I admire about their way of life and the history.

China surely is a great land of old traditions, modern wonders and plentiful conflicts. It's impossible to stay neutral: you will love it or hate it - I think most likely you will do both! I recommend everyone to experience China themselves :)