We're back!
We went to Hsinchu this Chinese New Year. My in-laws live in Taipei, which we hate going to because of the cold, rainy weather during Chinese New Year. Here we are gathering for another round of that most human of activities, eating with family.
We went up early to avoid the massive New Year's traffic, which paralyzes the roadways and increases travel times threefold. Later that day we went to Neiwan, a Hakka community in the mountains above Hsinchu.
I've made a page on Neiwan on my Taiwan website. After returning and eating a scrumptious dinner, this being Taiwan we enjoyed a round of calligraphy. My father-in-law has considerable painting and calligraphy skills. He decided to give us many of his old paintings.
Here he is hard at work.
Meanwhile, the kids sat around and watched the recent flick The Ice Age in Chinese, with Chinese subtitles. One of the interesting things about such movies is the built-in class structure of the dubbing. The serious leading characters, the sabertooth and the mammoth, were dubbed in Chinese with a Beijing accent, while the sloth, a buffoon, was dubbed in Chinese with a strong Taiwanese accent. The subtext was clear: people who speak in Taiwanese accents are stupid buffoons. This sort of thing is extremely common in the local society, where the media, in all of its multivariate aspects, continues to be a mainlander stronghold. In movies and TV, Taiwanese are lampooned for being vulgar, uneducated, yokels.
The Taipei Times report today that Chinese New Year is losing its appeal due to the pressures of money and family gatherings. It's just too expensive, and too much work. This year we did it potluck and paper plates. Next year.....maybe will skip it altogether, and get together the following weekend, when it isn't so crowded. It's silly that on a single day the entire island piles into a car and heads somewhere. Its high time we stopped running modern industrial states using the ideas of ancient fuedal agricultural societies. The world would be a better place....
4 comments:
Actually, it means nothing. We all did some calligraphy together, mine to the general amusement of everyone (they were hideous). Lots of fun.
Two interesting things I've noticed regarding Chinese New Year: recently more restaurants have been open during the "holiday season" (even New Year's Day) than in the past. I recall when I first came to Taiwan the only places to eat were McDonald's and 7-Eleven. Now a lot of places are open.
The other thing that has changed is the number of stores that are open during the holidays. *Sigh* Nothing is sacred anymore...
Clyde said:
(sorry, but I refuse to make another password)
I noticed this also Jonathan, but I think the restaurants open on New Year's day really took off in just this last year! Just a few years back, my wife and I were so busy with Ph.D. stuff that the day came and we worked all day to find at night we had nothing to eat and the kids looking at us as if expecting something special (imagine that). Well, we got in the car and all of Taichung was dead! KFC on Taichung Kang Rd. was open (closing early though), but it was packed!
In general, restaurants have been booming the last couple years. Before the new highway was finished I had to drive through Taichung to get to CYUT. Every night I came home there were just so many people out eating.
Another twist on all of this--ordering your Chinese New Year's Eve dinner from a supermarket or hotel... has this been going on for a long time? (I ordered my Thanksgiving turkey from a hotel, but that's another matter...)
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