"There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign."   -Robert Louis Stevenson

~~~

Ni Hao!

At 5 am, on the morning of January 26, the snow fell in Hunan province.  The white snow covered the muddy ground. A dog barked, a chicken wondered in and out of an orchard, and a bunch old Shaoyang villagers grinned at each other gleefully as they set off several loud strings of firecrackers.  No more than twenty feet away, I sat up in my wooden bed and stared around.  Snoring filled the house, telling me no others were rattled by these extremely loud firecrackers.  Yes, dear readers, this is the first tradition of the Chinese New Year -- firecrackers, a lot of them.

As I mentioned in the last blog entry, I travelled to Shaoyang with Bill for the Chinese New Year. While there, I learned more about the culture in the real country-side. 

I was greeted warmly by Bill's family, and the villagers and relatives I met.  The first night we arrived in Shaoyang (after a long, and somewhat dirty train ride), I learned to play ma jiang (mah jhong).  This game (at first sight) seems to be a complicated array of throwing in and out of large marble square pieces onto a table and mutterings something in Chinese.  Actually, ma jiang is difficult, but not nearly as intimidating as one would think.  I learned to play ma jiang in one evening, which seemed to amaze everyone present.  To win the game is to "hu." I did this, "hu"ing, as I call it, 4 times in a row that first evening (mostly by luck, of course).  I intend to teach this game to my mother and brother and sister, so we can all sit around drinking tea, cracking sunflower seeds, and slamming down ma jiang pieces, proclaiming loudly, "Ba wan! A, wo hu le!" ("8 thousand piece, Ha, I win!").

Besides learning to play ma jiang (and eating a lot of fruit while doing so), I observed some interesting New Year's traditions.  You're probably wondering what the title, "dao le" refers to. As I've mentioned before, during Chinese New Year, it's customary to hang a red sign with the character for "happiness" on it. These signs are actually hung upside down.  For a long time, I've puzzled as to why this is, but never had the nerve to ask.  Finally, it was explained.  In Chinese, the word "dao" means prosperity or luck.  The word "dao" with a different tone means "arrived." So if you turn the sign upside down, you can say happiness and prosperity (in the New Year), but it sounds like "happiness has arrived." ("fu dao le")

On the eve of the Chinese New Year (Jan. 25 for this year), at 8pm sharp begins a "variety" program on TV. This is the chinese version of our American program which counts down to the New Year. The only difference is, this chinese version starts at 8pm and ends at 1pm, with no commercial breaks. It is filled with dancing, singing, "comedy skits," young children doing painful looking flexibility acts, and old chinese men periodically giving speakes in favor of the government and "the happiness it will bring to the good comrads of China."

On the day of the New Year, it's customary for relatives to visit each other, sending "special honourable greetings." Before you go to anyone's house, whether they are a relative or a neighbor or friend, the visitor prepares several plastic bags of goodies to give to the host.  These goodies might include candy, fruit, dried meat/fruit, and an extremely potent (and dangerous, in my opinion) "white alcohol."  Before arriving at anyone's home, the "man of the house" lights a long string of firecrackers (which look a string of deadly red machine gun ammunition) and drags it along in front of the host's house. This is to warn the host that someone is coming with New Year's greetings.  This follows much tea drinking, and eating of fruit. Before you leave anyone's house, the host sends you off with a bag of goodies for yourself. It usually includes the same things you gave them.

Firecrackers and fireworks in general are a big deal during the New Year. Hunan, the capital of Chinese firework production, takes a particular pride in their vast selection of fireworks. At this time of year, the streets are littered with little scraps of red tissue paper, which covered firecrackers and fireworks.  Little children play with (dangerous) firecrackers and snappers, throwing them onto the ground, or perhaps into a pond with ducks (thankfully for the ducks, 6 year old Chinese boys have bad aim).  During the Chinese New Year, probably twice as many fireworks are sold in China, as compared with America's 4th of July.

Among the more somber of traditions is "giving new year's respect to ancestors."  On the eve of the Chinese New Year, on the Chinese New Year, and right before she left to go back to work, Bill's mother burned a special kind of paper to pay respect to her ancestors.  In fact, much to my surprise, she set this small fire in the middle of her living room (lucky she had a wood floor). I was a little started as she lit a match and threw it into a pile of paper. The paper went up in flames, and burned quite high. The plastic table cloth caught fire, and I became more tense, but Bill's mother uninterestedly swatted the table cloth with her hand, and bowed deeply 5 times to the papers. The whole family bowed, and so did I. The fire was put out, and Bill's mother poured a little liquid out of each glass onto the floor. This is to give a drink offering to the ancestors.

Toasting is a big part of Chinese culture, as well.  All of Bill's relatives and I ate lunch at a restaurant.  We drank white alcohol (I drank slowly, and painfully). We were spread over 3 tables. Every few minutes, one person from one table would get up and go to another table to toast the table and wish them good luck and health. Everyone stands and toasts and drinks. They sit. Minutes later, it repeats with a different person from a different table, to different people. We raise - we drink - we sit - we eat. It repeats several times.  In other to be polite, the younger people at the table attempt to clink their glasses lower than the older people (that is, not at the same level as Americans would clink). After lunch is over, we all stumble into the ally outside, pink faced and full (and some of us, a little tipsy).

So much happened in Shaoyang, it can hardly be explained in one blog entry, and alas, I feel I'm dragging you on.  Shall we just say, my other activities included climbing the vast miles of beautiful Hunan farmland ("The real China," I was told), eating, chasing and holding chickens and other wildlife, toasting, eating, being observed closely by villagers, eating, and also eating (no surprise, eating is a part of Chinese culture which cannot be ignored -- it is so deeply engrained in the customs and traditions of China, you wouldn't think of refusing food).

After I write this, I am packing my bag for Seole, South Korea, where the agenda is adventure, and the menu is spicy.

Expect more my friends. Until next time, I send you my honourable New Year's greetings: may you be prosperous, healthy and lucky in the year of the Ox, and may happiness "dao le" at your door step.

Zaijian,

Monika