Surprisingly enough this is our first time celebrating the Chinese New Year on the mainland. The first three years we spent in China we were strongly encouraged to avoid the "craziness" that is lunar new year and escape to the tropical paradises of Thailand or Malaysia. We had conferences (and free flights) so were not about to protest.
But even this time around, we were warned over and over about how insane the fireworks are for Chinese New Year. Two weeks of nothing but explosions keeping you from well-deserved sleep, driving you slowly mad. Better to leave the country. It's hard to escape it within China, and travel on the trains or planes is also said to be a nightmare due to hundreds of millions heading "home" to the countryside back from the city.
Having just arrived 6 weeks ago, it was hard for us to justify leaving the country so soon. As I mentioned above, the horrors of in-country travel were too daunting to overcome. So we decided spending our first lunar new year in China was long over due. Staycation in Shenyang for us!
I expected to take some amazing pictures of fireworks or have a story of some building burning down with all the mayhem we might witness, but alas, it was not to be. We caught up on sleep, and I was awoken only once over a 5 day holiday to a few firecrackers before going back to sleep. The area where we live has a ban on fireworks and being a decidedly commercial district saw all the shop owners return "home" to the countryside for the nation's most important holiday. All of the restaurants also shut down and even the grocery stores were closed for a day or two. It was kind of a ghost town up until the last day of the holiday.
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| apron-wrapped ready to wrap dumplings |
We did wrap dumplings with a bunch of other foreigners (the few that were stuck in town) on the eve of Chinese New Year which was lots of fun. We were later served different dumplings than the ones we made. I guess there were doubts about our aptitude. I've had a number of Chinese friends ask me if I can make dumplings and it always baffles me a little. There seems to be about as much skill involved in wrapping a dumpling as scooping ice cream, which is to say not much. Still it always seems to impress people when I say- sure, I can make dumplings. Maybe they are being polite or maybe this is another skill that Chinese people don't believe foreigners could possibly learn unless they are especially gifted.
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| dumpling preparations |
All that was involved in this session was rolling out the wrappers with rolling pins (think an uncooked disc of flour noodle about the size of a small sand dollar) and then take maybe half a tablespoon of pre-mixed filling (ground pork, green onion, garlic and other veggies). Place the filling in the center of the wrapper and then pinch the wrapper closed around it.
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| R as a captive student |
It's custom to make dumplings (jiaozi) on new year's eve and then eat them after midnight (we didn't wait, we ate them around 9pm) because jiaozi are the same shape as a coin and symbolize wealth. Prosperity in the new year is the big focus in Chinese culture.
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| my dumpling friend |
It was possibly the most low-key holiday ever. I made a batch of chili. We played board games with other friends from the consulate and watched movies. It was a great time to keep getting to know people here better.
NOTE: If you were hoping for firework pictures the Atlantic has a great photo journal with pictures from Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and elsewhere. I'm sure parts of Shenyang were quite festive just not where we are! Check it out:
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/02/chinese-lunar-new-year-2013/100457/Happy Lunar New Year!
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