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| David Wang's Views on Life in YantaiDavid's Mandarin Newsletter Introduction of Qingming Festival (March 2007)
Introduction of Qingming Festival (Tomb-Sweeping Festival/Day, All Souls’ Day, Chingming Festival) Qingming, meaning clear and bright, is the most important springtime festival, usually around April 5th. It is also called Tomb Sweeping Festival, on which people visit the gravesites of their ancestors, pay respects to the dead at their tombs and hold memorial ceremonies in honor of their ancestors. This is one of many ways to demonstrate filial piety. As part of honoring the dead, people would also spend some time cleaning the gravesite area. They would uproot the weed near the gravesite, plant some new trees, wipe the tombstones and decorate the tombstone with fresh flowers. Qingming is also an important climate day for peasants. Tea made before this day has high quality. Knife fish, in Yangtze River is delicious before Qingming, but later on its bone will become tough and meal will not be delicious. So in China peasants have many agricultural proverbs describing this day. Now Qingming, is not just a day for mourning the dead. The festival is celebrated two weeks after the Vernal Equinox, and the dates usually turn out to be the 4th, 5th, or 6th of April, thus people also go out to celebrate the new season, the onset of warmer weather, the start of spring plowing as well as of family outings. With the coming of spring, nature wakes up, dressing the world in green. All is new, clean and fresh; therefore, Qingming is also a happy occasion for outdoor activities, such as picnicking, tug-of-war, kite-flying, swinging, dancing, etc. This might be an important reason why this festival has been very popular for thousands of years. New Words 1．Qingming=Tomb Sweeping Festival : 清明（节） qīnɡ mínɡ jié 2．Ancestor：祖先 zǔ xiàn 3．in honor of： 纪念 jì niàn 4．filial piety： 孝顺 xiào shun 5．Knife fish ：刀鱼 dāo yú 6．Vernal Equinox： 春分 （around March 20th）chūn fēn 7. picnicking: 野餐 yě cān 8．tug-of-war： 拔河 bá hé 9. kite-flying: 放风筝 fànɡ fēnɡ zhenɡ
Traditions of Chinese New Year Key words: Nian (年nián), Cleaning up (大扫除dà sǎo chú), paper- cuts (剪纸jiǎn zhǐ), couplets (春联chūn lián), make dumplings (包饺子bāo jiǎo zi), fireworks and Firecrackers (烟花爆竹yānhuā bàozhú), red envelope(红包hónɡ bāo), The Lantern Festival (元宵节Yuán xiāo jié)，Tang Yuan (汤圆tānɡ yuán) Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the oldest and most important festival in China, it is called (Guo Nian) in mandarin. The date of the New Year is determined by the lunar/solar calendar rather than the western calendar, so the date of the holiday varies from late January to mid February. February 18th this year marks the start of the Year of the Pig. Even though the climax of the Chinese New Year, (Nian), lasts only two or three days including the New Year's Eve, the New Year season extends from the mid-twelfth month of the previous year to the middle of the first month of the lunar new year. A month from the New Year, it is a good time for business. People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration material, fo-od and clothing. Transportation department, railroad in particular, is nervously waiting for the onslaught of swarms of travelers who take their days off around the New Year to rush back home for a family reunion from all parts of the country. Days before the New Year, every family is busy giving its house a thorough cleaning up (dà sǎochú), hoping to sweep away all the ill-fortune there may have been in the family to make way for the wishful in-coming good luck. People also give their doors and window-panes a new paint, usually in red color. They decorate the doors and windows with paper-cuts（jiǎn zhǐ） and couplets（chūn lián）with the very popular theme of "happiness", "wealth", "longevity" and "satisfactory marriage with more children". Paintings of the same theme are put up in the house on top of the newly mounted wall paper. In the old days, various kinds of food are tributes at the altar of ancestors. The Eve of the New Year is very carefully observed. Supper is a feast, with all members comingtogether. One of the most popular courses is dumplings (jiǎo zi), which boiled in water. "Jiao zi" in Chinese literally mean "sleep together and have sons", a long-lost good wish for a family. After dinner, it is time for the whole family to sit up for the night while having fun playing cards or board games or watching TV programs dedicated to the occasion. Every light is supposed to be kept on the whole night. At midnight, the whole sky will be lit up by fireworks（yānhuā） and firecrackers（bào zhú）make everywhere seem like a war zone. People's excitement reaches its zenith. Very early the next morning, children greet their parents and receive their presents in terms of cash wrapped up in red paper envelope（hónɡ bāo） from them. Then, the families start out to say greetings from door to door, first their relatives and then their neighbors. It is a great time for reconciliation. Old grudges are very easily cast away during the greetings. The air is permeated with warmth and friendliness. During and several days following the New Year's day, people are visiting each other, with a great deal of exchange of gifs. The New Year atmosphere is brought to an anti-climax fifteen days away where the Festival of Lanterns sets in. It is an occasion of lantern shows and folk dances everywhere. One typical food is the (Tang Yuan), another kind of dumplings made of sweet rice rolled into balls and stuffed with either sweet or spicy fillings. The Lantern Festival （yuán xiāo jié） marks the end of the New Year season and afterwards life becomes daily routines once again. Customs of observing the New Year vary from place to place, considering that China is a big country not only geographically, but also demographically and ethnically. Yet, the spirit underlying the diverse celebrations of the Chinese New Year is the same: a sincere wish of peace and happiness for the family members and friends!
New Year’s Congratulation Commonly used: 1. Happy New Year! 2. May you come into a good fortune! 恭喜发财！（Gōngxǐ fācái!） Formal : 1. Best wishes for the year to come! 恭贺新禧！（Gōng hè xīn xǐ!） 2. I hope you have a most happy and prosperous New Year.
Do's and Don'ts Do's: 2. Wear articles of red clothing because red symbolizes luck. 3. Eat vegetarian food because it's not good to see blood. 4. Buy new clothing because the Chinese word for clothing is "fú", (Chinese homonym for wealth) 5. Children should stay up as late as possible on New Year's Eve for it is believed that the later they stay up, the longer their parents will live. Don'ts (Taboos): 1. Don't wear white or black clothing, since they are the traditional colours of mourning. 2. Floors may not be swept and garbage may not be disposed of on the first day of the New Year for fear of casting riches out the door. 3. Don't swear or quarrel. 4. Don't break any dishes; otherwise you may incur more misfortune for the New Year. In the event of breaking a dish, quickly say "Peace for all time", and the bad luck will be warded away. 5. Don't drop your chopsticks. 6. Don't say the number “four” (Chinese homonym for death) or mention death. 7. Don't borrow or lend money.
Brief self-introduction David, a 26-year old Chinese guy, is fluent in both Chinese and English and can speak a little Japanese. David is originally from Dongying City, Shandong Province. The second largest oil field in China, Shengli Oil Field , is located in this city. And the Chinese national mother river, the Yellow River, comes into the sea in there. Btw, the most convenient way to go to Dongying from Yantai is to remain in a bus for 4 hrs and a half. Information: 1. Shengli meams victory in English. 2. The first largest oil field in China is called Daqing Oil Field which is in the city of Daqing, Heilongjiang Province, north of China. The origin of the name Daqing: A few decades ago, our Chinese had been in vain putting our back into looking for crude oil. To our big surprise, we eventually managed to find the so-called "blood of the industry" in a place. Then we named the place "Daqing" with the meaning “big celebration” or “big congratulations” in Chinese. 3. Heilongjiang Province is divided by the national boundary between Russia and China. 4. There is a railway station and an airport in Dongying, but there is no airline between Dongying and Yantai. If you take a train, you will arrive in Zibo city first then take another train from Zibo to Dongying. Btw, trains are absolutely convenient in UK. In average ordinary cities in China, trains are much slower than buses. David got his Bachelor’s Degree in British and American literature and now he is preparing studying for his Master’s in Management. He plans to specialize in terrorism and foreign affairs at China People’s Public Security University in Beijing. David loves learning foreign languages, esp. English. David thinks English and Chinese have so much in common, for instance, we use “eyes bigger than your stomach”, “road show”, “sunshine boy”, “bite off more than you can chew”, “cash cow”, “apples don't fall far from the tree”, etc. EXACTLY in the same way. Now you can see David is extremely interested in sharing cultural similarities and differences with his friends, as the result, David registered in Yantai a government-authorized company with the name David Cultural Exchange and Consultancy Co., Ltd. Now the author David would love to tell you a real story that took place on Aug. 14th, which could help you understand how important the Guanxi is in China. On Aug. 14th morning, David’s gf Tingting and David were driving to the foreign affairs office, PSB of Yantai city in order to help their foreign friend Alec extend his visa. Suddenly, David parked his car on the one side of the road because he was busy with a call. Then a traffic police car arrived. The problems are, David’s car was parked in the wrong place, David didn't take his driver’s license with him, David didn't take his Car Registration Document, and David even didn't pay his monthly fee on roads maintaining and construction for the past 3 years. Information: Guanxi means your links or relationship with influential people in various fields. If you buy a car in China, your must-pay expenses is as follows, 1. the amount of money to buy a car 2. the tax for the car, 6%-10% off the car price 3. car insurance 4. the monthly fee on roads maintaining and construction, 220rmb/ ton, month So, David would be fined and even be expropriated of his car. At that time, David tried his best to talk bullshit with the traffic policeman (TP) and didn't sign his name on the fine paper. At the same time, Tingting was checking telephone numbers in David’s mobile phone then gave somebody a bell. 10 mins later, another cop car arrived, and there came David’s PSB friend Big Fat Guy (BFG). Then the TP and the BFG salutated, talked, and then shook hands. David invited the TP and the BFG to a pre Alibaba 1 year Anniversary dinner on this Sat then they said good-buy to each other. 5 mins later, David called the BFG when David was driving down to the PSB of Yantai city. “Thanks a lot BFG,” David said happily. The BFG replied, “no probs! That TP is nothing and he will be easily bloody wasted with you at the dinner cos he is a much smaller drinker than you! Then every time when the TP see you in the future, he will definitely smile at you!!!” How do you like the story? I think the foreigners who have been living in China for merely 3 months could understand the subtle principle in China, which works at university recruitment, job offering, doing business, and even EVERYWHERE in your EVERYDAY life in China. David
David Cultural Exchange and Consultancy Co.,Ltd. Email: davidmatiz@sina.com |
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