On Sunday afternoon, Chinese New Year’s Eve, we went to the local Chinese Gardens (opened 1975) to see how they were decorated.  Here’s what a quiet corner of the Bonsai Garden looks like without decorations:Wow!  Red flags all over, flapping in the breeze, pots of red and yellow flowers, ditto, lanterns everywhere, red cloths tied around the necks and waists of all the sculptures and, most astonishingly, hordes of gray plastic replicas of the Terra Cotta Warriors lining the bridges and greeting visitors at the door to each building.  My cellphone camera doesn’t do it justice, but it’s the best I can do lately.

We celebrated Chinese New Year Sunday night with our neighbors; festive red clothes, fun talk, cute kids, amazingly beautiful food – the biggest shrimp I’ve seen, each one requiring four adult bites to eat.  And we’d bought party poppers and sparklers, so were a big hit.  Next year we need to buy even more of them.  Our daughter bought a package of marshmallows and had the local kids roasting them over a tealight, until they got all creative and tried to start a campfire with sparklers and dead leaves  - with limited success, which is perhaps a good thing. 

Since my friend and badminton partner Mary is from mainland China we did the other Chinese thing, which is to watch CCTV’s New Year extravaganza – it’s kind of like a big patriotic variety show with all kinds of interesting things; farmers singing opera (in Mandarin-accented Italian), skits, the Chinese Navy’s performance troupe doing a tear-jerking salute to their children, lots of celebrations of the Beijing Olympics, and a most moving salute to the heroes of the Sichuan earthquake.  And acrobats!  And Jackie Chan! And Irish dancers, and traditional Chinese singers – wow.  Enough variety to choke a horse, and all at top volume.  Very colorful and fun, except I’m still choked up about the earthquake victims.  Such an interesting combination of pride, propaganda, and culture. And at least three hours in, no mention of Tibet; but then you’re only supposed to think happy thoughts during Chinese New Year.

January 28th, 2009 | Category: Entertainment | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL