Chinese New Year decorations in Shanghai
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about Christmas decorations in Shanghai. Even though Christmas is not an official holiday in China, the decorations in Nanjing West Rd. (a very central and fancy street) were quite impressive. As the new year is going to start in a couple of days, I thought I should also write a post about Chinese New Year decorations. So I went again to Nanjing West Rd. to take pictures.
Chinese New Year (also called Spring Festival) is the most important holiday in the traditional Chinese calendar. But it seems this doesn’t automatically mean fancy malls will spend a lot of money decorating, unlike in Christmas, because I couldn’t find any stunning decorations. The same mall that had an impressive Christmas tree full of lights a couple of months ago, only has this now:
It is beautiful and I love the papercut design, but if you compare it with the first picture in this post… anyone would think Christmas is a more important holiday, right? It is true that the Christmas pictures were taken at night, and the lights made everything more stunning, but even though… I think the fancy malls in Nanjing West Rd. haven’t been up to the standards regarding Chinese New Year decorations.
One mall had a Monopoly-themed decoration:
Why??
I have no idea what this is supposed to be. Does it look like a sheep? No, right? The only thing linking it to Chinese New Year is the red colour…
Sheep, at last!
As you might have guessed by now, next year will be the Year of the Goat, or the Sheep (it is the same word in Chinese). The Year of the Goat/Sheep doesn’t seem to have word games, unlike last year, when the Chinese internet was flooded with pictures of various things riding horses.
What do you think of the New Year decorations in Shanghai? I am kind of disappointed. According to the pictures from CL at Real Gunners, it seems Chinese New Year is more important in Malaysia than in China! Or, at least, that people there make a bigger effort in decorations. Maybe overseas Chinese are feeling homesick?
If you are in China, I hope the fireworks and firecrackers don’t disturb you too much these days. Today during my walk I found this sign:
Fireworks and firecrackers prohibited!
But that was only inside a compound, I’m not sure if it is allowed in the street.
Happy Chinese New Year to you all!
I thought the first mall was alright, the one with lamp stands on the stairways and stickers all over the front windows. It’s quite a feat to get up there to paste those big stickers too.
Thanks for linking my blog by the way (you got my name wrong btw >.< , CL, not CY). I wouldn’t say we are homesick. In fact, most of us here don’t regard China as home anymore. Maybe our grandparents, but not us. To us, home is Malaysia, so when we feel homesick, it is homesick for Malaysia.
I think the reason for the flamboyance here (and Singapore) is mainly due to the fact that the mall operators want to encourage us to spend more. Most of those decorations are done and sponsored by malls. We have been spending a lot less money for festivities over the past couple of years, the shops probably wants to instill that festive mood into us to make us loosen up our wallets more. Five years ago, you won’t be seeing the large scale decorations like what you see now in Malaysia. Yet five years ago, we have been spending more than what we are spending today.
Ooops! I knew it was a bad idea to write a post in a hurry before going to the train station. I don’t know what I was thinking. Sorry!! (already corrected).
The thing about being homesick was a joke, in fact many mainland Chinese would leave the country if they could haha. But it is true that Chinese traditions seem to be carried on better outside of China! In Taiwan and countries with a big Chinese population. Even if it is only decorations aimed at encouraging spending ;)
Happy Chinese New Year Marta and family. Wishing you lots of love and luck.
Thank you Lani! Happy New Year to you too :)
Looking forward to enjoying my first CNY myself.Looking forward what I see.
Hope you enjoy it! However it might be more about hearing than seeing… get ready for the firecrackers!
Thats about10 times the decoration for new year than I have ever seen so far :)
Happy New Year already, still few hours ahead for though
You mean in Germany or in China? :P
Happy New Year! Only a few hours left ;)
In Germany :)
This is awesome, and very interesting how Christmas has caught on as a decorative tradition. Do you think any locals see Christmas as more of a time to celebrate, or is the bright, flashing exuberance of the decorations more an interpretation of how Christmas is celebrated in the West, and not necessarily meant to “outdo” the décor of Chinese New Year? I love the first picture, the open cubes, I don’t know how else to describe it, it’s just amazing!
The thing is Chinese people don’t usually celebrate Christmas (unless they are Christians) and everybody here works on the 25th of December! But because of western influence (I guess mainly movies), young Chinese people have adopted Christmas as a holiday to spend with their boyfriends/girlfriends having dinner in a restaurant. Not very similar to the real deal, haha. The decorations on the malls are probably just to encourage spending :P I just think it is weird that the malls spend more money decorating for Christmas than for Chinese New Year.
“The decorations on the malls are probably just to encourage spending :P I just think it is weird that the malls spend more money decorating for Christmas than for Chinese New Year.”
I think you just answered your own question. Malls spent more money decorating for x-mas b/c they want to encourage people to shop. They don’t do it for CNY b/c they know most people would be traveling away to their families.
But there are also many people from Shanghai! And it is true that on the first couple of days everybody is at home and the streets are empty, but later on everybody goes out. Maybe a little bit more of effort in CNY decorations could encourage even more spending :P
Although the decorations may be lacking, I’m sure everyone will make up for it with lots of eating and drinking.
Happy Year of the Sheep, Marta.
Oh yes, the eating and drinking will surely be excessive, haha. And the firecrackers! Tomorrow we have to get up at 3 am to go to the airport, let’s see if we can sleep at all tonight…
You’re right, not so many decorations. Come to think of it we didn’t see many either the two times we visited Shanghai. What’s the deal? Oh well. We’ve decided to sit this New Year out and hang out around home. Hope you have a wonderful New Year!
Have a relaxing holiday then! We are going to Tianshui (Gansu province) tomorrow :)
Happy Chinese New Year! So glad my sheepy card made it on time, hehe!
You’re right, the decorations are definitely more subdued than Christmas! Even so, I liked those purple and red fluffy(?) ball things, and the metal sheep. XD
Have an excellent holiday!! :D
It arrived right on time! hehe. Thanks a lot!!
The ball things looked good from the distance. I got closer to see what they were made of… plastic flowers!! If at least they had been real flowers… hahaha.
Happy New Year!! Hope you can catch the celebrations in Chinatown :)
Happy Chinese New Year, Marta! I hope you had a lovely evening dining at the restaurant (I envy you because you didn’t need to do the dishes)!
I thought the same thing about the decorations in Taiwan. The major departments stores went all out for Christmas but CNY seemed to be a little forgotten. One even just changed their Christmas candy cane light arches to red arches with lanterns hanging from them.
I saw CL’s pictures and they were pretty amazing. They actually put the ones I found around the city to shame!!
But, when all is said and done, it is all about family!! :)
Oh yes, I have also seen recycling of Christmas decoration into CNY decoration here… hahaha. So environmentally friendly! :P
CNY is all about family, yes. On the first day of the year we traveled to a city in western China and everything was closed and the streets were empty!
It would’ve been nice to see more decorations. The photos you took during Christmas sure did look like they went all out with the lights. :P Christmas has been made more romanticized over the years. Maybe to encourage more spending especially with couples. XD The metal sheep look so cute. :) Hope you had a good Chinese new year! :D
It was ok! However on the night of New Year day I got seriously sick. I think I ate too much!
Happy Chinese New Year Marta!! Wow seeing Jing’an Temple makes me so nostalgic… Chinese decorations are always so… strange? Tacky? I never know quite how to describe them. I hope you had a wonderful new year!!! Xin Nian Kuai Le!
Today we had a dragon (or is it lion?) dance in our office building! It was extremely cool! Much more than any of the decorations, hahaha. Gongxi facai!