Well, here at the YRC there still is the distant crackle of fireworks as the Chinese New Year/Spring Festival winds down. The city folk are all back at work and by the end of the week the migrant workers will have returned and Shanghai will be in full swing.
The week we will continue the YRC tradition of wandering: wandering physically, wandering in the narrative sense and of course, wandering in the logical sense in our report on the YRC staff's first Lunar New Year in the City of Hai, faire Shanghai.
Our loyal readers (not the rest of you ne'er-do-wells and reprobates) should be forewarned that the advice from every expat/visitor/non-mainland resident of Shanghai was to "run screaming to the airport" before the Lunar festivities began. After their descriptions of the horrors of remaining in the city, the YRC staff was left with an image of large numbers of terrified families streaming away from the city. This terrified exit would be similar to the scenes in the old Godzilla movies when the Giant Lizard began to crush tanks under his feet and wrestle with power lines. True, it was Tokyo, not Shanghai, but there is always hope he will someday visit here.
So, armed with that information, we at the YRC originally adopted what could be considered a bunker mentality. We stocked up on key supplies...vodka, DVDs and butterscotch and chocolate chips, loaded up our Kindle accounts and prepared for the Chinese Apocalypse.
It was to be the Year of All Years, after all. Best to be prepared. The Dragon is a particularly auspicious sign, so the celebrations were to be even more over the top than usual. The Dragon, according to Wikipedia:
Dragon – 龍 / 龙 (辰) (Yang, 1st Trine, Fixed Element Wood): Magnanimous, stately, vigorous, strong, self-assured, proud, noble, direct, dignified, eccentric, intellectual, fiery, passionate, decisive, pioneering, artistic, generous, and loyal. Can be tactless, arrogant, imperious, tyrannical, demanding, intolerant, dogmatic, violent, impetuous, and brash.
The Dragon is also the only imaginary member of the Chinese Zodiac and so is the only member of that elite team that is not consumed on the mainland. This is something that gives one pause. If dragon was available, how would it be served? I will have the Old Dragon Stewed with Bamboo Root & Ham (笋干老 龍 煲), please.
But, as advertised, we wander. Here you have, in honor of the new year, a YRC chronicle FIRST!! Yes, we have actual YRC video footage of the Wild Rumpus of fireworks from YRC headquarters South. This was taken by alert YRC camera persons at midnight. Check it out:
Background on the Lunar New Year's Eve from Wikipedia:
The biggest event of any Chinese New Year's Eve is the Reunion Dinner. A dish consisting of fish will appear on the tables of Chinese families. It is for display for the New Year's Eve dinner. This meal is comparable to Christmas dinner in the West. In northern China, it is customary to make dumplings (jiaozi, 餃子, jiǎozi) after dinner to eat around midnight. Dumplings symbolize wealth because their shape resembles a Chinese tael. By contrast, in the South, it is customary to make a glutinous new year cake (niangao, 年糕, niángāo) and send pieces of it as gifts to relatives and friends in the coming days of the new year. Niángāo [Pinyin] literally means "new year cake" with a homophonous meaning of "increasingly prosperous year in year out".[14]
After dinner, some families go to local temples hours before the new year begins to pray for a prosperous new year by lighting the first incense of the year; however in modern practice, many households hold parties and even hold a countdown to the new year. Traditionally, firecrackers were once lit to scare away evil spirits with the household doors sealed, not to be reopened until the new morning in a ritual called "opening the door of fortune" (kāicáimén, 開財門).[15] Beginning in 1982, the CCTV New Year's Gala was broadcast four hours before the start of the New Year.
You will be pleased to know that your YRC staff, adventurers to the end, decided to participate fully. Bunker we not! We had Reunion Cocktails and then bundled up with scarves and flasks to head to Jing'An Temple for the festivities. We were prepared fight the crowds at the temple, light the incense, torch off a mountain of fireworks and even watch the CCTV New Year's Gala on CCTV One (which for some reason, is not available in our apartment).
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| Let the Wild Rumpus Begin! |
Our loyal readers (not the rest of you ne'er-do-wells and reprobates) should be forewarned that the advice from every expat/visitor/non-mainland resident of Shanghai was to "run screaming to the airport" before the Lunar festivities began. After their descriptions of the horrors of remaining in the city, the YRC staff was left with an image of large numbers of terrified families streaming away from the city. This terrified exit would be similar to the scenes in the old Godzilla movies when the Giant Lizard began to crush tanks under his feet and wrestle with power lines. True, it was Tokyo, not Shanghai, but there is always hope he will someday visit here.
 |
| Supplies, Tovariches! |
It was to be the Year of All Years, after all. Best to be prepared. The Dragon is a particularly auspicious sign, so the celebrations were to be even more over the top than usual. The Dragon, according to Wikipedia:
Dragon – 龍 / 龙 (辰) (Yang, 1st Trine, Fixed Element Wood): Magnanimous, stately, vigorous, strong, self-assured, proud, noble, direct, dignified, eccentric, intellectual, fiery, passionate, decisive, pioneering, artistic, generous, and loyal. Can be tactless, arrogant, imperious, tyrannical, demanding, intolerant, dogmatic, violent, impetuous, and brash.The Dragon is also the only imaginary member of the Chinese Zodiac and so is the only member of that elite team that is not consumed on the mainland. This is something that gives one pause. If dragon was available, how would it be served? I will have the Old Dragon Stewed with Bamboo Root & Ham (笋干老 龍 煲), please.
But, as advertised, we wander. Here you have, in honor of the new year, a YRC chronicle FIRST!! Yes, we have actual YRC video footage of the Wild Rumpus of fireworks from YRC headquarters South. This was taken by alert YRC camera persons at midnight. Check it out:
Background on the Lunar New Year's Eve from Wikipedia:
The biggest event of any Chinese New Year's Eve is the Reunion Dinner. A dish consisting of fish will appear on the tables of Chinese families. It is for display for the New Year's Eve dinner. This meal is comparable to Christmas dinner in the West. In northern China, it is customary to make dumplings (jiaozi, 餃子, jiǎozi) after dinner to eat around midnight. Dumplings symbolize wealth because their shape resembles a Chinese tael. By contrast, in the South, it is customary to make a glutinous new year cake (niangao, 年糕, niángāo) and send pieces of it as gifts to relatives and friends in the coming days of the new year. Niángāo [Pinyin] literally means "new year cake" with a homophonous meaning of "increasingly prosperous year in year out".[14]
After dinner, some families go to local temples hours before the new year begins to pray for a prosperous new year by lighting the first incense of the year; however in modern practice, many households hold parties and even hold a countdown to the new year. Traditionally, firecrackers were once lit to scare away evil spirits with the household doors sealed, not to be reopened until the new morning in a ritual called "opening the door of fortune" (kāicáimén, 開財門).[15] Beginning in 1982, the CCTV New Year's Gala was broadcast four hours before the start of the New Year.
You will be pleased to know that your YRC staff, adventurers to the end, decided to participate fully. Bunker we not! We had Reunion Cocktails and then bundled up with scarves and flasks to head to Jing'An Temple for the festivities. We were prepared fight the crowds at the temple, light the incense, torch off a mountain of fireworks and even watch the CCTV New Year's Gala on CCTV One (which for some reason, is not available in our apartment). But what actually happened (dramatic music in background) was quite different that what we planned...and will be covered in PART TWO of Chinese New Year in the Year of the Dragon! See you then, and thanks for tuning in to the YRC!!
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