2016年CRI Foreigners View on Chinese Spring Festival

 

"Hongbao and fireworks."

"Eating these Jiaozi, watching the CCTV program, maybe giving the children hongbao, and all these bianpao, the fireworks."

"Wearing traditional Tang suit and paying some New Year calls to friends and families."

Living in a foreign country can be the most exciting, challenging, and sometimes most confusing experience in a person's life.

Ricardo Akonso, 27-year-old media worker from the United Kingdom, has been working in Beijing for more than two years.

According to him, Beijing is usually crowded and busy, but also convenient and open like all the other international metropolises¹. But during the festival season, the city becomes restful.

Akonso is also impressed with the fireworks that are commonly seen and heard during Spring Festival.

"There's crazy amount of fireworks going on. It's like a war or something. It's crazy loud and you can't sleep well. I used to live in Dongzhimen in a little compound². It's like all the guys used to set off so many fireworks, so it was very very loud, but it was cool at the same time! "

The word "cool" can hardly summarize³ every foreigner's attitude toward⁴ fireworks. Some even say the whole city feels like a battlefield. And when you least expect it - KABOOM!

Unlike westerners who appreciate the visual aspect of fireworks more, Chinese also find the loudness cheering, since ancient Chinese believed that sound kept evil⁵ away.

Diego Torres, who now lives in Madrid, studied in Beijing for more than six years. He specifically⁶ mentioned that the long holiday has provided⁷ people, especially the young generations, with more options.

"Young Chinese people really love to spend time with their relatives but they also now take the advantage of the holidays to be alone. Maybe they first spend time with their relatives and then travel with their boyfriend or girlfriend. You see these lots of traditions but there is also a lot of free will and innovations⁸."

In the meantime⁹, to those foreigners who married into a Chinese family, the experience can be quite different.

Lee Na Dan from South Korea has lived in Beijing since 2008 and now has a Chinese wife.

Even though he has an Asian background, which includes the custom of celebrating the lunar New Year, the Korean and Chinese festivities are not that alike¹⁰.

"In Korea, we don't have dumplings during the lunar new year, that's different from in China. We have our own traditional food: a kind of soup that made of rice cake pieces. We play cards with families as well, like people in China. But we return back to our own homes at 8 or 9 at night. There's no such custom of staying up late during the New Year's Eve."

Anurabanda from Sri Lanka has been living in China for over 20 years. He got married with a Chinese woman. He celebrates two different New Year Festivals every year in both countries.

He describes how his family celebrates Sri Lanka's New Year festival every April 14th.

"In Sri Lanka, normally¹¹ we don't visit relatives on New Year's eve. On the first day of the New Year, couples would visit the husband's parents first, and then the wife's. I have 5 brothers. On the first day of the New Year, my brothers would bring their wives and children to my mother's house. So that would be over 30 people in a room. We eat every meal together. The biggest problem for us is that our cooking pot is not big enough!"

China and Sri Lanka have different traditions during New Year Festival. Many Chinese believe wives should spend the Spring Festival with their parents-in-law, while their parents are visited by sons and daughters-in-law. However, Due to the family planning policy introduced in 1979, most young couples are the only children in their families.

That's why young couples now celebrate spring festival by visiting each other's hometowns in alternate¹² years, inviting¹³ both parents to their homes or traveling with both parents.

Chinese Spring Festival starts on lunar New Year's Eve and ends after the Lantern Festival. Foreign people in China can participate in the tradition of lantern watching, riddle¹⁴ guessing, and the cooking of sweet dumplings to help them understand China's ancient culture.

1 metropolises   

n.一国的主要城市（不一定是首都）( metropolis的名词复数 )；中心；大都会；大城市

参考例句：

• That season, you ride it, all metropolises achieve what one wishes! 那时节，您骑上它，一切都会如愿以偿！ 来自互联网
• Carl has carried the banner in infernal metropolises. 卡尔曾经在那些地狱般的大都市流浪街头。 来自互联网

2 compound   

n.化合物；大院；adj.化合的；vt.加重；使化合

参考例句：

• Air is a mixture,not a compound of gases.空气是气体的混合物，不是化合物。
• How many households in the compound?院内有几家住户？

3 summarize   

vt.概括，概述，总结

参考例句：

• I will summarize what I have done.我将概述我所做的事情。
• They need to find information quickly and be able to summarize it in clear language.他们需要快速找到信息并能用清晰的语言概述。

4 toward   

prep.对于，关于，接近，将近，向，朝

参考例句：

• Suddenly I saw a tall figure approaching toward the policeman.突然间我看到一个高大的身影朝警察靠近。
• Upon seeing her,I smiled and ran toward her. 看到她我笑了，并跑了过去。

5 evil   

n.邪恶，不幸，罪恶；adj.邪恶的，不幸的，有害的，诽谤的

参考例句：

• We pray to God to deliver us from evil.我们祈求上帝把我们从罪恶中拯救出来。
• Love of money is the root of all evil.爱钱是邪恶的根源。

6 specifically   

adv.明确地，具体地；特别地，特意

参考例句：

• The book was written specifically for children.这本书是特地为儿童编写的。
• I told you specifically not to do that.我明确地告诉你不要那样做。

7 provided   

conj.假如，若是；adj.预备好的，由...供给的

参考例句：

• Provided it's fine we will have a pleasant holiday.如果天气良好，我们的假日将过得非常愉快。
• I will come provided that it's not raining tomorrow.如果明天不下雨，我就来。

8 innovations   

改革( innovation的名词复数 )； 新观念； 新事物； 新设施

参考例句：

• The engineer has many technical innovations to his credit. 这位工程师有许多项技术革新的成就。
• This year's copy contains no innovations over those in the past. 今年的版本没有不同于过去的新花样。

9 meantime   

n.其时，其间；adv.同时，当时

参考例句：

• I continued working,meantime,he went out shopping.我继续工作，这期间他出去买东西。
• In the meantime we pressed on with the airlift.与此同时，我们加紧进行空运。

10 alike   

adj.同样的，相像的；adv.一样地；同程度地　

参考例句：

• The twins are so alike that I can't tell which is which.这对双胞胎一模一样，我分辨不出谁是谁。
• All stories seemed dreadfully alike,no matter who told them.看来，不管谁讲，故事都是千篇一律的。

11 normally   

adv.正常地，通常地

参考例句：

• I normally do all my shopping on Saturdays.我通常在星期六买东西。
• My pulse beats normally.我脉搏正常。

12 alternate   

adj.交替的，间隔的；v.（使）轮流　　

参考例句：

• He and I clean our room on alternate days.我和他隔日轮流打扫我们的房间。
• That was a week of alternate rain and sunshine.那是晴雨天交替的一周。

13 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

14 riddle   

n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜

参考例句：

• The riddle couldn't be solved by the child.这个谜语孩子猜不出来。
• Her disappearance is a complete riddle.她的失踪完全是一个谜。