An unusual Chinese New Year
Only 3 more days until our holidays start and 4 days until the Lunar New Year begins! This will be the second Chinese New Year we spend in times of covid. Last year, we were cooped up at home due to something which, at that time, we didn’t know much about. Fast forward 12 months and now covid-19 is an integral part of our lives everywhere in the planet…
There are not many cases in China currently. There were outbreaks in several cities a few weeks ago, but the size of these outbreaks, if we compare them with the situation in Europe or other countries… is minuscule. These days there are, at most, around 100 new confirmed cases per day in the whole country. In any other place, that would probably be a sign to throw all caution to the wind and celebrate the festivities as usual (ehm… yes, exactly what happened in Spain last Christmas and which caused the third and biggest wave to date), but not here. These small outbreaks were a big deal to China because we had been basically virus free for months already. And, as the Spring Festival, aka Chinese New Year, aka the “largest annual human migration in the world” was close, the authorities were fast to start a campaign encouraging people to avoid travel and celebrate the festival in the place they currently are. If they want to travel, they need a negative test and maybe even quarantine, depending on where they come from.
Chinese New Year decorations in a mall in Suzhou.
Many Chinese people are “domestic migrants”, as they might be from a place but move somewhere else for work. These domestic migrants often only go back to their hometown and visit their parents and other relatives for the Spring Festival, partly because they don’t have many more holidays and also because it’s the most important festivity in the Chinese calendar. For blue collar workers, many times also their children live in the hometown and they only see each other once a year. So, not going back home for Chinese New Year really is a big deal. But, to avoid spreading the virus further, companies are giving incentives to the workers that stay in the city, in the form of extra money or entertainment vouchers. It is a pain in the ass to have to spend the most important holiday alone, but I think it’s more important to avoid having overwhelmed hospitals and thousands of death, right? According to this article by the New York Times, though, it’s like the evil Chinese government is just trying to screw up everybody and only cares about the economy… right. Because it would be much better to just have everybody move around the whole country and then in 3 weeks see the consequences. Like it happened in Spain after Christmas or in the US after Thanksgiving.
Thean Hou temple in Kuala Lumpur fully decorated for CNY. This pic is from our 2018 trip.
We are lucky in the sense that we live in my husband’s hometown so we can see his family whenever we want. But we never cared much about Chinese New Year and, in fact, we always took the chance to travel during the holidays. Now this is going to be the third Spring Festival in a row that I spend in Suzhou. We will not go anywhere far, but I want to visit some places within the city. At least we will be able to leave our apartment, unlike last year! There will also be one more difference: After years of being banned, throwing fireworks and firecrackers will finally be allowed this year. Previously it was banned because it contributes to bad air quality, I think, and I’m not sure why this year it is allowed. I think maybe it’s to cheer everybody up? C. believes it’s because, in old times, firecrackers were used to scare evil spirits away. Maybe the firecrackers will help drive the evil virus away? We’ll see! I’m not a big fan of them, though. I remember one year when I was in Beijing for the Lantern Festival (2 weeks after Chinese New Year and also part of the festive period) and the noise of firecrackers didn’t stop for like 12 hours. It was very annoying! I have never experienced firecrackers in Suzhou, though.
Next year will be the Year of the Ox. If you are interested in astrology, you can have a look at the predictions for next year here. In summary… keep your head down like an ox! “Keep calm and carry on as best you can in 2021, but hold off on major moves if you’re able”.
I wish you a happy 牛 (pronounced new, “ox”) Year! Will you celebrate it?
The New York Times loves to publish opinion pieces that cater to conservative, rich, white men. of course they go off on China for discouraging travel. Never mind that if the American idiots had stayed home at Thanksgiving last year, Los Angeles wouldn’t be having to worry about worsening air quality due to the number of daily cremations.
I don’t envy you the fireworks. I hate them, and bored Americans have been using any excuse to set them off off this year.
Oh, I didn’t know that about the NYT, thanks for the info. It gets a bit tiring that every time China is mentioned on western news, it’s accompanied by negative words, even when the news itself is not necessarily negative. Yesterday while searching for articles I saw headlines like “China cracks down on Chinese New Year”, but if it was, let’s say, Germany cancelling Christmas celebrations, would they write “Germany cracks down on Christmas”? Doubt it.
Cremations are affecting air quality? Wow. That was said about Wuhan at the beginning of the pandemic, but I don’t know if it was true (the specific type of gas seemed to be coming from some steel factories, according to an article I read).
I’m not looking forward to the firecrackers… fireworks are a bit better.
It wasn’t only Thanksgiving in the US. It was a big motor cycle festival, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Eve, and then yesterday, the Super Bowl. There’s always a reason to go out and join the crowd if you’re looking for it. A little bit of good news here. Since Biden became president, more people are wearing a mask, and we’re getting more vaccine out. I had my first Pfizer vaccination last week. I’ll have my second on Feb. 21st.
Have fun in Suzhou. Happy New Year.
Oh, I’m very glad to hear that, Nicki. Both that more people are wearing masks now and that you got the vaccine.
Happy New Year to you too!
Happy Chinese New Year, Marta. Wishing you all the best for you and your family. xo
Happy Chinese New Year, Lani!
What I really admire about some non-Western cultures is their general belief in and practice of not placing their aged family members in seniors care homes.
As a result, family caregivers don’t have to worry over those loved-ones being left vulnerable by cost-cutting measures taken by some care-home business owners to maximize profits.
As for care-home neglect, it was present here in Canada before Covid-19; however, we didn’t fully comprehend the degree until the pandemic really hit, as we horrifically discovered with the CHSLD Résidence Herron in Dorval, Quebec, 10 months ago.
Western business mentality and, by extension, collective society, allowed the well-being of our oldest family members to be decided by corporate profit-margin measures. And our governments mostly dared not intervene, perhaps because they feared being labelled as anti-business in our avidly capitalist culture.
But, as clearly evidenced by the many needless care-home resident Covid-19 deaths, big business does not always know or practice what’s best for its consumers, including the most vulnerable with little or no voice.
In Spain there were also a lot of covid cases in nursing homes. The concentration of many elders in a single place definitely makes it easier for all of them to catch the virus…
It’s a complicated topic. My grandparents always lived alone, in their final years with a stay at home carer. My grandpa passed away in his own living room at 88. My grandma, when she was about 90, decided herself to go to a nursing home because she would have professional care 24/7. We even had a room prepared for her in my parents home, but she wanted to go to the senior care facility. She got visits every day. Sometimes she complained of her “home mates” (it has to be difficult to get used to live with strangers when you are so old, although I always joked with her that it was like a student dorm).
Here in China, my husband’s grandma (who will be 94 this year) always lived with my inlaws until she broke her hip a few years ago and moved in with my husband’s aunt. She used to meet her friends and play mahjong every day. After she broke her hip, she didn’t get the best treatment, I have to say. Now she can hardly walk and she stays in her room alone all day.
At the end of the day, I think it should be every elderly person’s own decision. But it seems in most cases money is an issue.
It sounds like sanctuary for the elderly and infirm who dread being placed in long term care. Every senior should experience this.
I am also in Suzhou this years’ new year for the third year and as far as I am told no foreign trips until after new year next year. My U in overseen by the Jiangsu Min of Edu, and that is their current mandate, a bit depressing.
Suzhou is remarkedly busy this spring holiday, not too surprising, and luckily a large number of places are open over the holidays. The line at several gardens, I frequently walk past some of them, is about as long as on a pre-covid holiday days. Mostly local tourist it does seem.
Anyhow, hang in there, this might be the last cold spell and I am ready for some warmer summer weather and some more progress globally to get the coronavirus contained. Until it is contained globally, I do not think Chine is opening its borders up much.
J
Thanks for the info. It is very depressing, yes. It makes me super sad that for my son, my parents are just an image on the phone because he hasn’t seen them in 1.5 years and he’s only 2.5 years. And we will most probably not seen them this year either. It really breaks my heart…
Suzhou was very busy, yes. I haven’t been to the gardens but I read that the tickets were sold out some days in advance. We went to several malls and parks and there was a lot of people.
I hope Spain can get its act together. New cases are down now after the Christmas debacle. My 80 year old uncle got his first Pfizer jab a couple of days ago.
新年快乐！！Happy New Year!! It sucks to stay home, but at least China is playing it safe. Many of my friends in Shanghai also decided to skip the celebrations and stay home. I also heard it’s extremely hard to travel during the lockdown — you need special papers and 14 day quarantine or something? But hey, I’m all for that — I wish we would do more of that in the US!
I hope next year will be more normal and you can bring your son to Spain to see the other side of his family! Stay safe!