Special Report: Spring Festival Special 2009
by Chinese media Writers Guo Likun, Wu Jing
BEIJING, Jan. 25 (Chinese media) -- Jubilant Chinese are
celebrating the biggest festivity, the Lunar New Year which not only arouses
spending spree but also triggers the world's largest human movement for family
re-unions.
Celebrations are everywhere -- fireworks in towns and
villages, entertainment in houses and public venues, 188 million homebound
railway travelers, crowds of people competing for New Year spending, and flocks
of Chinese tourists who choose to stay a little quiet in foreign scenic spots.
Two women walk past a mall with festive
decoration in Zhengzhou, capital of north China's Henan Province, Jan. 25,
2009. The celebration activities of the Chinese Lunar New Year have
reached high tide on Sunday as the Chinese Spring Festival draws near.
Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, is the most important
traditional Chinese festival of family reunion. It falls on Jan. 26 this
year.(Chinese media/Zhu Xiang)
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As a Lunar New Year Eve ritual, hundreds of millions
of television viewers have sit up until midnight watching the entertainment gala
produced by the China Central Television (CCTV) since the 1980s when many
Chinese tried to find fun through electronic devices such as the television.
Innovative people even have rehearsed their own
versions of the CCTV Lunar New Year entertaining show, vying for their elite
competitor, which monopolizes super stars, celebrities and lavish advertisers.
Many young netizens exhibited enthusiasm about viewing the Shanzhai TV show,
which indicates both mimicking and mockery of the elite version of the gala.
In the joyous atmosphere everywhere, "Happy Niu(Ox)
Year" became the most popular greetings among Chinese in the run-up of the Year
of Ox, the second animal sign of the indigenous zodiac. The New Year Day, or
Spring Festival, falls on Jan. 26 this year.
The Chinese pronunciation of "ox" happens to coincide
with the English pronunciation of "new". Meanwhile, the zodiacal sign of the
animal represents good luck in Chinese culture. "Happy Niu (Ox) Year" first
appeared in a song on the Internet, and was immediately widely spread via mobile
phone text messages.
"People who came up with the greeting words surely
expect a good start for the new year, since they have had too many ups and downs
in the past year," said Yuan Li, a scholar specialized in folk-custom with the
Chinese Academy of Arts.
The Chinese people underwent the frosting disaster in
the beginning of 2008, witnessed the turbulence of the March 14 Lhasa riots,
suffered the Wenchuan earthquake in southwest Sichuan Province, witnessed the
grand Beijing Olympics, and then the trauma of the tainted milk scandal which
killed at least six babies and poisoned hundreds of thousands of others.
Four girls rehearse for a show
celebrating the Spring Festival in Pengzhou, a quake-hit city of southwest
China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 25, 2009. Quake zone residents in west
China had made their own ways to welcome the Spring Festival, or the
Chinese Lunar New Year. (Chinese media/Wang Jianhua)
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"Under such a situation, the year of the Ox certainly
will have much greater impact than before, " said a well-known Chinese humanist
Li Hanqiu.
In supermarkets in Chinese cities, household
decorations, toys, paper-cuts and even pillows were made in the shape of an ox
or with the image of an ox. "Products connected to the ox all had a good
market," said a shop assistant surnamed Jiang with the Beijing Modern Plaza.
"We hope that the year of the Ox bring us an up-turn
in the stock market, " said a Beijing stockholder surnamed Zhang. In his
mid-30s, Zhang has put into the stock market two-thirds of his deposit and
almost had no profit.
Zhang, however, was not that pessimistic, since the
government has promised to invest 4 trillion yuan (584.74 billion U.S. dollars)
to boost the economy, and China's GDP of 2008 realized an increasing rate by 9
percent.
Locals perform folk dances celebrating
the Spring Festival in Pengzhou, a quake-hit city of southwest China's
Sichuan Province, Jan. 25, 2009. Quake zone residents in west China had
made their own ways to welcome the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar
New Year. (Chinese media/Wang Jianhua)
Photo Gallery
Chinese farmers also celebrates the upcoming ox year
in a special way. They have their farming cattle compete with each other to see
which one is stronger and more diligent.
"People with good farming cattle will have a big
harvest, " a farmer surnamed Li in Hongcun village of Yixian County in central
China's Anhui Province voiced their blind worship.
Even in the quake-hit Sichuan Province, people also
prepared to welcome a new year in a simple yet traditional way with the help of
the central and local governments, which have schemed three trillion yuan worth
of reconstruction projects.
In the worst-hit Yingxiu Town, some villagers hang a
preserved ham atop the pillar of the mobile homes, and some pasted blessing son
doors and windows.
To give eight family members a happy festival, Peng
Sha in Fengxiang village of Yingxiu has spent about 600 yuan on food. Wearing
new velveteen donated by Hong Kong compatriots, children of Peng's family could
not help themselves from eating the candies prepared for the Ox Year's eve.
"Ox year may have a much greater impact for
disaster-hit people," said Yuan Li. "People may better understand the spirit for
diligence, tolerance and persistence from the ox."
Jian Xiaojun, a 27-year villager in the quake-hit
Xuankou Town has moved into his new homes near the national highway. "I will
open up a small hotel with a small canteen, and grow vegetables and feed some
livestock in the backyard."
A man sticks a paper-cut of Chinese
character of "Fu", meaning "good fortune", onto the window at a cafe to
celebrate the Spring Festival in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet
Autonomous Region, Jan. 25, 2009. (Chinese media/Purbu Zhaxi)
Photo
Gallery
"Life will be better in the year of Ox, I believe,"
Jian said, although he was still in debt for the construction of his new home.
"Ox symbolized land and was beloved by farmers from
the very beginning in human history," said Li Hanqiu, noting that "the firm and
persistent spirit of ox also highlights Chinese people's faith for life".
The history of the People's Republic of China (PRC)
seemed to echo people's high expectation for the year of Ox. It was in 1949,the
year of the Ox, that the People's Republic was founded. And in1997, also the
year of the Ox, the PRC took over the sovereignty exercised over Hong Kong.
Chinese believed that good and bad luck always comes
in turn, therefore, after a full-year of hardship in 2008, we will meet a much
brighter 2009, said a netizen named "Mu'er".
In deafening explosion of firecrackers welcoming the
new year throughout the nation, bad news were still there. The sixth case of
human avian flu was confirmed Sunday in southwestern Guizhou Province. The
patient in a critical condition got infected with the H5N1 strain of avian
influenza, costing four lives since the beginning of the calendar year. A bad
weather-causing shipwreck in a Shandong Province lake Friday evening killed at
least eight passengers.
Noticing the nationwide eagerness for the year of the
Ox, Li Hanqiu said Chinese people still need to work hard in 2009, since
challenges and risks will still exist.
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