Good Fortune has Arrived! So have the Fireworks of a Chinese New Year.

The Chinese new year (阴历的新年) arrives in approximately 2 hours and all around China one can expect to see the character for good luck "福" (fu2, as in the first picture), either upright or upside down.  When rotated, it is said to resemble "到" (dao4, meaning "arrived".)  Thus, it is a time to "receive good luck".  Common practice is to visit all relatives over the next 15 days (until lantern festival, the official end of spring festival) and wish each of them good luck.  As is common in Chinese culture, the wish is never as simple as one sentence.  Usually it involves multiple (easily 5 or more) wishes of good luck, happiness, success, riches, contentment, fortune, joy, peace, etc. Logically, with so many people wishing one recipient good luck, it's almost likely to come true! 

 

While there are good thoughts being sent all around China (usually in the form of text messages―something for which the Chinese cell phone companies must be incredibly thankful), there's also a perpetual thunder.  As it's my first year in a city for Chinese New Year, I've enjoyed/feared the constant drone of fireworks.  While jogging this afternoon, the firecrackers sounded like gunshots; being the ONLY person on the street I increased my pace home.  (Call it a gut reaction.) While walking to the grocery store, I was startled by the large fireworks across the road; this time I could enjoy, and not run from, the bright spectacle.

 

Now, as I watch the Chinese equivalent of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" (yet, here it's a 4-hour program of diverse acts from China's biggest celebrities) I enjoy the comedy, sights, and sounds from the television with a constant rumble, not unlike a city bombing, in the background.

In reality, I am thankful.  For all these people lighting fireworks, they benefit me by scaring off the human-eating "year" monster.  This is the origin of lighting fireworks and decorating with red.  Every year a monster by the name of 年 (nian2), awakes and pillages villages, destroying homes and eating humans.  This monster arrives only once a year, and thus the character for his name actually is the current word used for "year."  Further, one year an old man discovered that this monster despises the color red and is scared by the booming sound of fireworks/firecrackers.  Thus, at this time today, each home is adorned with red decorations, citizens wear red clothing, and each family celebrates the new year by setting off fireworks.  Chinese population density is so high that there's enough booming going on to scare anything away without me needing to do anything!

 

With that, I return to the television performance and prepare for a midnight excursion to marvel in the barrage of 12:00 a.m. fireworks.  Happy new year, everyone!  祝你们新年快乐，万事如意，恭喜发财，每天快乐，越来越开心，笑口常开，工作顺利，事业有成。。。

 

Later Days,

Rick

 

If interested, this performance is available here: http://www.iqiyi.com/zongyi/2012cctvzb.html (only 1/3 of the acts need Chinese; the rest are enjoyable without language comprehension.)

 

Prepare that Repertoire

 

A nearby mall that boasts the only ice skating rink in the whole province apparently offers more than I knew.  Recently my coworker showed me a full movie theatre and arcade inside (including bumper cars!) When I finally paid more attention to the advertisements everywhere, I realized there is also a piano center! It’s been a goal for the past few years to resume lessons in an effort to broaden my repertoire.  I scheduled a time to meet a teacher—one who at least has her masters in piano performance—and met with her today.  She’s friendly and experienced; she’s been solely focused on piano since the age of 12.  Today, I signed up, planning six months of lessons.

 

More importantly, this teacher—Ms. Li—did her entire undergrad and masters in Austria.  That means I can use both German and Chinese to communicate with her!  If there’s a problem with someone’s understanding or a word flows more smoothly in one language, we just switch.  Similarly, with European training, she is unlike most Chinese teachers.  She doesn’t overemphasize technique, rather preferring musicality.  Plus, she uses the 5-lined staff instead of solfege (seriously, some Chinese teachers will refer to notes in their relative solfege position, such as “fa”, or “la”, instead of “F” or “A”, for example.)

 

Without wasting time pondering the decision, I’m planned for 6 months of lessons.  I’m going back to the piano and that fact couldn’t make me happier. 

(P.S. Don’t remind me of how hard it is to practice 2 hours every day, for now I’ll focus on the fun part.)

 

Later Days,
Rick

The Metropolis is for Me

Spring festival holiday has arrived for me, meaning 36 days of holiday. 5 have already passed and I enjoyably spent them in Shanghai--the commercial capital of China. It's a metropolis on par with New York and Frankfurt (in my opinion.) Every moment in one of those cities and I'm ever more in awe, ever more desiring to simply never leave. (You can likely imagine how I reacted when I saw Deutsche Bank's headquarters in Shanghai. If only.)

The original idea to come to Shanghai was to see a UofM friend, Sijie. She's on her senior year winter break and, like me, flying back today the 12th. Playing on her idea, I stretched the visit to a 3 day trip--a relaxing end to a stressful semester and a pleasant start to a month holiday filled solely with study.

What a city. I don't need to see tourist sights, instead I dine. These past days were Mexican, Irish, Italian, German. While inflated in price, I think of it as what I would have spent on admission tickets. Better yet, each one is in an ever-more interesting place like the French Concession, XinTian Di, the Bund, or PuDong.
Now to make it even better, as I fly home to Zhengzhou, I somehow managed to get a first class ticket. Like I said, I love this city.

Later days,
Rick

Happy New Year! Boom!

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you celebrated with a bang. Here in China, my friends and I certainly did. The day started with students' classroom parties. I attended last year and know that it's quite unlike my idea of party and more of a informal, last-minute concert where all guests must sing solos. I decided to skip that, wisely. Then the school held a big concert for all the teachers, featuring performing teachers that can actually sing. Here our school leaders sing lead vocals to the closing number. 2 hours, no intermission, no English, little understanding. It slowly lost its enjoyability.

However, my own plans with friends made the night. One friend enjoys the flavor of beer, but has only drank Chinese beers. Another few friends had never had a cocktail before, being these were foreign to China until recently. Therefore, we held an international beer and cocktail tasting night. I introduced the flights of beers, describing each and explaining for what to look. Then I taught about mixing cocktails, covering techniques and guidelines. It was great fun to have the chance to introduce friends to something completely new.

The most fun, however, was when the new year arrived and we went out to set off firecrackers. I especially enjoyed it having never set off firecrackers in China before. Firecrackers are such a key part of Chinese celebrations. Birthdays, holidays, weddings, and more are all times that the Chinese will set off fireworks. Having lived here already 1 1/2 years and experiencing many times where I think the city is being bombed because of fireworks rumbling in the distance, I was thrilled that I could take part. Happy new year! Boom.

Later days,
Rick

Life in the Fog

This is to counter Bridget's complaint (at findingmykd.blogspot.com) This photo is normal life here. However, I hope you feel better soon! And Happy New Year!