ChineseNewYear--BlowingShitUp!!!

This is the year of the OX

a traditional Nian, bringer of bad luck and the kind of guy that usually pisses on your toilet seat

a non-traditional, but awesome, representation of the dreaded Nian..

" Last year, my wife left me, i lost my job, my prostate fell out, and some bastard pissed all over my toilet seat last new years eve! I'm not taking any chances this year; I bought 200 boxes of firesworks and 50 fire cracker chains. I am blowing shit up... ! Fuck you, Nian and bad luck!!!!


Happy new year--good luck, come in here! These things are pretty much on every door you can imagine...

{note-i have posted three new posts this week, so check out all three if you have not yet!]


"Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is often called the Lunar New Year, especially by people in mainland China and Taiwan. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: zhēng yuè) in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. Chinese New Year's Eve is known as Chúxī. It literally means "Year-pass Eve".
According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian or "Year" in Chinese. Nian would come on the first day of New Year to devour livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One time, people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, the Nian never came to the village again. The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk. The Nian became Hongjun Laozu's mount.
The period around Chinese New Year is also the time of the largest human migration, when migrant workers in China, as well as overseas Chinese around the world travel home to have reunion dinners with their families on Chinese New Year's eve. More interurban trips are taken in mainland China in this 40-day period than the total population of China. This period is called Chunyun (春運 or 春运).
On the days before the New Year celebration Chinese families give their home a thorough cleaning. There is a Cantonese saying "Wash away the dirt on ninyabaat" (年廿八，洗邋遢), but the practice is not usually restricted on nin'ya'baat (年廿八, the 28th day of month 12). It is believed the cleaning sweeps away the bad luck of the preceding year and makes their homes ready for good luck. Brooms and dust pans are put away on the first day so that luck cannot be swept away. Some people give their homes, doors and window-frames a new coat of red paint. Homes are often decorated with paper cutouts of Chinese auspicious phrases and couplets. Purchasing new clothing, shoes and receiving a hair-cut also symbolize a fresh start
The biggest event of any Chinese New Year's Eve is the dinner every family will have. 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 饺子) after dinner and have it around midnight. Dumplings symbolize wealth because their shape is like a Chinese tael. By contrast, in the South, it is customary to make a new year cake (Niangao, 年糕) after dinner and send pieces of it as gifts to relatives and friends in the coming days of the new year. Niangao literally means increasingly prosperous year in year out. After the dinner, some families go to local temples, hours before the new year begins to pray for a prosperous new year; however in modern practice, many households hold parties and even hold a countdown to the new lunar year. Beginning in the 1980s, the CCTV New Year's Gala was broadcast four hours before the start of the New Year.


Bamboo stems filled with gunpowder that were burnt to create small explosions were once used in ancient China to drive away evil spirits. In modern times, this method has eventually evolved into the use of firecrackers during the festive season. Firecrackers are usually strung on a long fused string so it can be hung down. Each firecracker is rolled up in red papers, as red is auspicious, with gunpowder in its core. Once ignited, the firecracker lets out a loud popping noise and, as they are usually strung together by the hundreds, the firecrackers are known for their deafening explosions that are thought to scare away evil spirits. See also Myths above. The burning of firecrackers also signifies a joyful time of year and has become an integral aspect of Chinese New Year celebrations.[6]" Wiki wiki wiki...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year



So thats alot of information! Chinese New Year is a huge deal here; as big as Christmas is back home. It lasts forever and the Chinese really go all out. This year is the Year of the Ox( fairy's year!); last year was the year of the pig! You can see little oxxes ( stuffed animals, pictures) pretty much everywhere. I thought the Myth of the Nian was pretty intersting; especially when you consider that Nian mean year. Yes, the Chinese travel all over the damn place during this time of year; the busses, trains and planes are packed! I actually did the spring cleaning thing: for new years, I had extra time, and Yipin was coming so i had to clean as anti being bitched at insurance! It took about three days! The guy who lived here before me must have never cleaned, so i kept finding grime and crap on everything. It was exhausting!
Yeah, the color Red is big here! People whose zodiac sign is ox are supposed to wear red pretty much all year( i don't think that they do). Also, it is important to change your hair style and wear new clothes on the new year( W. said that he went down to the office when they all came back from holiday and all the girls had new hair styles!) Its a great time to be in China; I hope to come and visit every Chinese New Year!


So School ended in late Dec/ early Jan and i was exhausted. I had never tuaght before and to say it was a learning expereince is a understatement. Still, i learned alot and was a better teacher by the end of it, but I was very tired... I have been off since the first week of Jan., but not totally. The company has given me tutoring jobs; just a few kids who i taught in the YouHome building, which is about 10 minutes from my apartment. So it's been alot of work, break, work, break.... But i finally feel relaxed and normal. This time has given my the chance to see much more of the city and just take it easy. I am off this week; i start again next week or the week after that( the company is not that great with giving you time to prepare, but i am pretty much ready at this point) the spring semester. I feel that i will be a much better teacher and will be able to handle new challenges.

So, while many people have chosen to travel( which is a great thing to do and i plan on doing it before i leave), I chose to stay in Dalian. This was not only due to economic reasons and the desire to rest, but also to see this city. Dalian is really a wonderful city and i love it more everyday. Becuase I was not travelling, I was alone for most of it( winston has been travelling to inner Monglolia to see his wonderful girlfriend Maria). I had heard of spring festival but was not sure what to expect. The week before it really started was a little spring festival<>. On that day, i noticed alot of candy being sold on the street. This, i was told, was candy for the ancestors and would give you good luck( luck is a big thing in this culture). By night, however, the candy was gone, and was replaced with big tables selling fireworks. For about 3 weeks, there were tons of fireworks "shops"everywhere. you think rednecks like fireworks, they have nothing on the Chinese. Everyone buys them and sets them off. They set them off from their apartment windows, on the street, from roofs, everywhere. Its complete anarchy. it also dangerous, but luckily I did not witness anyone getting hurt. I am sure people do. They were lighting off fireworks all night. I thought it was pretty awesome; little did i know what was to come. So it died down a little bit that week. People were getting ready for the Holiday; buying food or leaving for wherever home was. Fairy had invited me to her house for New Years eve; I wanted to see how the Chinese actually celebrated. So the big day came; and there where a good bit of fireworks going off. Fairy is the 11 year old english prodigy who i made friends with from the English corner. I went to her house; her family was very nice to me ( many Chinese are honored to have an American guess; they make you feel like a rock star. I was honored to be their guest.)
Fairy's family didn't speak much english( here father did speak a little, but only after he was fairly drunk). Fairy acted as an iterpreter and did a very good job. She is so young but her english is excellent. Her fathers parents( traditionally, the fothre's paretents are the ones you are closer with, but there are many exsceptions to this in modern China) were there also. they offered me tea and soon we had dinner. Dinner was crazy;they had all kinds of food, mostly sea food. Fairy's family is fairly well off; they have an extemely nice apartment. It was only the 2nd time that i had been in a chinese living place; I had been in crazy lio's families house. they are poor and live in very very small aprtment. they are good people; despite lio being a shit head-- but thats a story for another time). Anyhoo, the dinner was great. many chinese dishes, lobster, snails( yes i ate them, not bad), sea cucumber( a rare and exspensive delicecy here, but meh... and crab legs. The father was intent on getting me to drink and i ended up drinking beer and Baiju( chinese "wine"but more like moonshine in taste!) We went out to the patio type area and drank and smoked. He did speak some english, but mostly we kind of fumbled through converstaion. Outside the chinese where really starting to get into it and we saw many great firworks. He shot some bottle rockets out of the window, which is not uncommon here! It was a pretty good time. then the mother, who is very cute and quiet started to make dumplings, which is traditonal new years food. The father had a bit too much to drink and passed out; Fairy was Pissed, but i guess this is another new years tradition! We watched a bit of the New years teleiviosn broadcast, which is also a tradtion, albiet a more modern one. It was ok, i cod follow much of it, but was lost sometimes. Then around 10, i started getting tired. Itold fairy i was going home, she was a bit upset. it turns out that the chinese stay up all night on this night, but she had not told me. I felt bad for dissapointig her, but i was very tired, having spring cleaned that day. So i felt bad, but left. it was still a very cool experience.

The cab ride on the way home was exciting, as the chinese were blowing shit up! Everywhere we went, there were fireworks in the sky and chains blowing up on the sidewalks! it was one of the coolest cab rides i have ever had. We get back to Ba yi lu and shit was going nuts. I waited until about 11: 30 and then went out to check things out. it was spectacular. people were lighting ghost fires, chains going off everywhere, and boxes and bottle rockets everywere. They buy these boxes and you just light them and run! they can set off a display that rivals anything we have in america! They don't usually have all the shapes and fancy effects, but just gorgeous standard high in the sky fireworks( well sometimes they pop off a few feet over your head!); about ten boxes rivals the displays you see in most american small towns during the 4th of july. It was kind of like being in a war zone! at midnight, the entire sky was full of color; the ground was thick with smoke. I stayed in a one block radious and seen the greatest firework display i have ever seen in my life! The chinese just come out of woodwork with boxes and chains( which are really loud and bright and cool). I saw them light them on the yellow line of Ba Yi lu with traffic going right next to about ten shooting boxes. You really have to see it to believe it! It was one of the best experiences of my life! I watched it until about 1:30 and then somehow passed out, despite the fact the the city was blowing up outside my window. The fireworks continued, at a lesser level, pretty much for two weeks, until lantern festival. And then that night, they were pretty intense again, with fireworks going off everywhere and people lighting some in the middle of the street. The tradition is that the fireworks scare off bad luck and the Nian, and the chinese do not fuck around when it comes to bad luck! Picture a city bigger than Pittsburgh where everyone is lighting off boxes that contain form 10 to 30 big blooms! its simply amazing. thats what it was like during the big nights.

All in all, the Spring festival was amazing and alone was worth coming to china. I enjoyed every asspect of it. During this time, Yipin came to visit. that will be the subject of my next post, which should be up in a day or two so check back soon!

Fairy

you can click on any of the images on this blog to get a better view. These one's were taken by Winston.

The Little girl in the pictures is Fairy ( her self given English name). Fairy was the first person to talk to me at the English corner. We have sort of bonded since then. Fairy has about the best English I have ever heard from a Chinese person and she is 11! She also speaks Japanese! She plays four instruments. She has just returned from Beijing where she competed in a English competition and came in 2nd place in her age group ( out of the whole country!) She is not my student, but we talk every sunday at the corner( i did help her tidy up her speach for the competition, but she had very few errors). I am very fond of her and amazed at intelligence! She is also very much a regular kid. Sometimes, at the corner ( which is really zhong shan square), Chinese people think that she is not chinese because she speaks English so well.

It's starting to get cold here, so the English corner was a bit lame today. However, i had fun as always. Two weeks ago, i was still sweating, and now my hoody is kind of not enough for the weather.

Good bus example today. I got on the five after the English corner. Downtown has the stop where the five ends/begins and is one of the few places where the Chinese line up. So i get in line, which is massive. I dread this ride because the five tends to be extra crowded. Two fives come and I think that it won't be that bad. There is a Small metal frame that forms the Que line. Now, for some reason, many chinese won't break that line. They will break any other line, usually. They will jump in front of you at McDonald's. They will break traffic. but many of them will not break a line that has the metal que thing. If they do, they will only do it when the line stops( the non- que breakers will stop when the seats are full, which is ridiculous to me because they will pack a totally full bus any other time. So i get on the first bus, and get one of the last seats, although there was some lady racing on my hip trying to push me out of the way to get a seat, she got one, i don't know why they do that--old ladies and men really like to push people out of the way here. So the querers stop soon, and then people who don't care about the line will come on. Well, i was pretty lucky to get a seat. The next bus won't board until the first one leaves. Well, people just kept coming on. It was crazy; about the fullest bus I have ever been on; not a inch of wasted space, people pressed up against the door. The thing that i found insane is that was a totally empty bus behind us that would board as soon as ours left! I don't understand why all those people did not just wait! The only thing i can think of is that they are just very impatient. Oh well, Chinese buses...

Back to school tommorrow. Will write about teaching soon

Weekend:ClubLove,oldmanassonthebeach,englishcorner,andGermanyinChinese

(disclaimer-- all the pictures used on this site where ripped off from google images as I was too dumb to invest in a camera. well, hopefully soon... You can click on them to get a better view)

My three day weekend was pretty eventful. Today was tied up in teaching and trying to figure out how to use a international phone card( i did not succeed). The corporate bureaucracy in china can get a bit brutal. That being said, this weekend was good...

I have already described the concert for Mid Autumn festival on Saturday. On Sunday, I went to English Corner as I always do. English Corner is held in Zoogshan Square, which is the pictured in the last two images ( the buildings around the park are pretty cool too). I have not mentioned muchabout the city, as was pointed out by my father, but i plan to. For now, It's a very modern city with much to do. Its similar to an American City, but with a Chinese flavor. As I said, more to come about Dalian( which leads me to a digression: there is so much to write about that I am waiting for the right time to do so). Anyhoo, Zoogshan park is small, but very nice and clean. The center part is kind of a raised circle which they let kids roller blade on! Ironically enough, you are not allowed on the grass! The park is in the center of the city and is very popular: The Chinese take full advantage of their many parks. On Sundays, this park hosts English Corner, which is very informal( meaning if you want to participate, you just show up and start talking). English speakers( unfortunately, not very many lately) come and the Chinese who can speak English talk to them. For the Chinese, it's a chance to practice their English and meet someone from a ëxotic"country ( and some of their ideas about America are pretty interesting). For myself, it's a vital activity that allows me to actually converse and form bonds with the people from the city that i live in. English speaking does not happen very much outside of school and the Corner, so this is a chance for me get to know the people that I am surrounded by. While Chinese children must learn English in school, and they start very young, its still not commonly spoken in the city. So i get some attention and also get to not feel like a complete idiot who cannot speak with anyone. And I love the people at the Corner dearly. The Chinese are a very friendly, curious, interesting people. As soon as I show up, I am mobbed by people who surround me and ask questions. And they Ask about everything: America, Politics, Economics, My personal life, am I married, Movies, books,drugs, race relations, language, Education... everything. They are very polite, but they áre not afraid to ask a question! One of my favorites is a ten year old named Fairy, who speaks nearly native level English and is very cute and precocious( she always brings me a gift) Fairy speaks Chinese of course, English, and some Japanese( she calls me Sensei sometimes!) The children are very cute. Everyone wants to ask questions. English is considered a very valuable skill in China, so they like to practice. I will undoubtedly talk more about the Corner in this blog, but that's enough background for now.

While I was at the corner, a teacher who is my handler in one of my schools( makes sure that I don't get lost, find classes, ect.) came to take me dinner as per our previously discussed plans. Her Husband, her son ( the biggest five year old that i have ever seen) and her took me to a Chinese Version of a German Beerhall! I truly wish that I had pictures of the chinese waiter boys in linderhosen! They( the teacher and her husband) were so very nice and insisted on treating me. The place was a buffet and must have been expensive because I ate so much food( and especially German style meat) that i nearly puked! It was huge and the linderhosen boys kept coming and cutting off different meats with giant ass knifes of of these big racks. Waitresses dressed kind of like Amish women brought us big mugs of dark beer brewed on site! It was a very cool place and the teacher( ms. Su) and her husband were very kind and generous. Her husband works for a company that builds ships and was a very interesting guy.

So i met Winston at the corner again and talked to some more Chinese. We eventually met Ryan and Miles( incidentally, Miles is from Monongahela Pa, right down the road where i grew up and went to a Chinese night club, Club Love.A club is a club, and i usually loathe them, but it had that relaxed Chinese vibe( the clubbers, not the staff. the Chinese take making money extremely seriously and business like). Full of pretty girls, i had a few drinks and left, as I am in love with a Chinese girl already and don't think that I can handle more than one( joking, Yipin!). There were breakdancers and club dancers. it was fun. they dropped confetti from the ceiling, played American hip hoppish type music and it was a fun time. Again, not really my scene, but still cool. Many Russians, and there seems to be a instant dislike between Russians and Americans in china. I don't know why, and it's unfortunate because they seem to outnumber us by like a hundred or so to one! There are many Russians in Dalian, and very few Americans.

The next day, Winston and I went to the beach, which is like five minutes away from my apartment! it was nice and the pictures above where taken at the same beach we were at. I love to see the Chinese having fun and they were. The only thing bad about the beach was that there were hardly any girls in bathing suits. Unfortunately for Winston and me, there was an army of older Chinese guys in Speedos. I have seen too many wrinkled old Chinese male asses! There are cliffs you can walk on, and the islands in the picture are beautiful. The water was clean and the beach, while rocky was nice. We had a good time. Winston almost got picked up by Fat Middle aged Russian lady, but managed to escape( ladies love Him, Chinese too).

Well, that is all for now. So much to write about. I will continue this soon...