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Celebrating Chinese New Year with friends We
responded to our invitation to have New Years Eve dinner (a special
occasion; January 23 was Chinese New Year) at the home of Richard,
Bryan's friend and director of training at the hotel. Richard lives with his wife, mother, sister, brother and sister-in-law, their children in a traditional Naxi home. A Naxi home consists of a front door which opens into an open roof courtyard that's maybe 15 feet square with kitchen and sitting room on the edges and bedrooms upstairs. We watched TV for awhile (VCD of "American Beauty") then the meal began.
The meal consisted of about eight different dishes, which everyone was free to take what they wanted. The meat dishes were combined with vegetables and spices, and very delicious. Pork, Liver, and a couple of different kinds of fish, with some very interesting vegetables like Lotus Root (which is delicious, by the way). We ate in the open air courtyard. Temperature this time of year is in the range of 40 degrees F, and people here get used to it and just wear several layers of clothing. If it's especially cold, they'll build a wood charcoal fire and sit around it. But the temperature was quite comfortable, and as it grew dark, you could hear more and more firecrackers going off all around in celebration of the new year.
Richard,
his Mother and Bryan after dinner At
dusk we went back to the hotel, where a party was being hosted for hotel
staff whose families live far away.
More wonderful food to eat, and they rolled in a big screen TV so
everyone could watch the Chinese New Year TV Special. Chinese TV, needless to say, is quite interesting. They tell me that nearly everyone in the country, i.e. a billion people, have TV's. They'll have TV's even if they don't have a telephone, which reminds me of Brazil -- same thing. Doesn't matter if a TV costs 1-2 months income!
Chinese
TV shows have all the commercials at the beginning and the end, with no
interruptions in between. So
this Chinese new year TV special was all in Mandarin so I didn't
understand any of it. However, you can figure out a lot of things just
by looking. The show
consisted of (in my perception) three things: 1.
Skits which were very similar to 1950-60's Amercan TV -- one of
them reminded me of "I love Lucy" and another reminded me of
Archie Bunker. Men were
usually depicted as Idiots. This
must be universal, and remember, this was obvious even in Mandarin, to a
guy who knows how to say "Hello" and can barely pronounce
"Thank You" and can now write a total of four Chinese
characters: Man, Big, King, and Country. 2.
Traditional dance and music from various Chinese ethnic groups
and sections of the country. I especially liked the ones from Mongolia and Tibet. 3. Art forms clearly borrowed from the west - Britney Spears type pop/dance music, and most interesting of all, STOMP. The "STOMP" piece was done by young children with rythmic brooms and percussive cutlery and pots and pans, and very well done.
Chinese
kids play pots and pans "STOMP" style on the Chinese New Year
TV special Bryan
and I got bored after awhile and decided to go bowling in the Hotel's
bowling alley. We were the
only people in the 12 lane bowling alley that night. But sure enough, there were two staff members minding the
place. I'm sure they'll
come in handy in a few years when busloads of American tourists are
stopping by!
Bryan, the killer bowler: Beat me by 2 points |
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