Foreign students view Chinese holiday with joy and a touch of homesickness
Print Edition
PART of getting to know the culture of a foreign country is to observe its festivals and holidays. Ahead of the Chinese New Year, Shanghai Daily reporter Cao Yunyi asked several foreign students living in Minhang about how they celebrate the Spring Festival holiday.
Nikolay Pokachev 24, Russian
In the three years I have spent in China, I have celebrated Spring Festival here only once before.
That was in Shanghai in 2013. My classmates and I watched fireworks on the Bund and drank toasts to the New Year. I remember thinking it was strange that there seemed to be more foreigners than locals on the Bund.
This year I will also be spending Spring Festival in Shanghai, staying at the home of a friend with a big family. I’m studying marketing, and I’m writing a paper on how the traditional New Year Eve’s dinner involves family relationships.
In Russia, New Year’s Day on January 1 and the Russian Orthodox Christmas celebrated on January 7 are also big events for family reunions.
Last year, I arrived back home in time for Christmas there. It was the coldest day of that year, hitting minus 30 degrees Celsius, but I was warm in a home with my siblings, parents and other family members who traveled through snow to gather together. That was the best Christmas I can recall.
Whether it’s in Shanghai or Moscow, a festival is meant to be spent with your family.
Brian Ignacio
25, Dominican
I can’t contain my excitement seeing snow in Shanghai. Everything I wear now was bought in Shanghai because there are no thick jackets sold in the Dominican Republic. Life here is fast paced and stressful.
I am studying in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. We are pretty much left on our own during Spring Festival. So for this year’s holiday, I will stay in my dorm and finish a paper. I celebrated Spring Festival last year with friends, eating hotpot.
In the Dominican Republic, we celebrate the Patronales Festival, which is similar to the Chinese New Year. Families travel from city to city. Towns and streets display colorful decorations.
Nuomin Erdene
27, Mongolian
Our university always organizes a Spring Festival party for foreign students staying on the campus during the holiday. I attended last year. We had hotpot and we received red packets from teachers.
The thing that interests me most about Spring Festival is how the usually busy streets empty out. Shops close, and no one can be seen walking on the street. That’s unusual for Shanghai.
In Mongolia, we celebrate the White Moon Festival. Each family prepares food and hosts relatives. We visit family members one by one. But younger people find it all too much trouble, so just get together and have one big meal, like the Chinese do.
I guess the best thing being a student in Shanghai is that I don’t need to think about the pressure of the holiday now.
Liudmila Babinets
21, Russian
Getting used to living in China was hard for me. I was sick for the first four months. The doctor explained to me that my body was adapting to a new environment. It made me miss my family even more.
Spring Festival for me is the time to catch up with friends whom I often don’t have much time to see during a busy semester. It’s a quiet time to spend with people I care about.
I miss everything my grandmother cooks. Dinner begins at 10pm on our Christmas Eve, which is our version of Spring Festival. The dinner lasts until four in the morning. There is also significance similar to China’s Qingming Festival. We cook rice porridge with raisins for our ancestors and light candles for them.
Lee Ping
25, Malaysian
Due to the influence of China, we also celebrate Spring Festival in Malaysia. The red packets are my favorite part about the festival, only in my country we call it ang bao because Malaysian Chinese is heavily influenced by the Minnan dialect spoken in Southern China. I haven’t flown home for the Chinese New Year in recent years, but I hope they are saving the red packets for me.
One thing I notice about China is how tightly people are connected. You can hardly find a girl eating or walking on the street alone. It seems that Chinese love being in a group. I used to do solo backpacking trips, but this time I want to share a journey with a friend. So we’ll be traveling to Nanjing in Jiangsu Province and Macau during the Spring Festival, and maybe I’ll go back to Malaysia after that.
My study here requires me to spend whole days at lab, so Spring Festival is the only time I can travel and get some fresh air. My uncle in Malaysia also travels almost every Chinese New Year, so it’s hard to see him. People are living a more fast-paced life I think.
Maria Sklyar
25, Russian
I really miss my parents and Russian traditions like getting together with family for the New Year. I just eat dumplings during the festival here, but I have learned a lot.
Every Chinese person is trying to return home for Spring Festival. Train and flight tickets during the period are always very expensive and hard to get. Lots of shops and restaurants close for the holiday because their owners have returned to family in other parts of China. I recall a Chinese film I saw about returning home for the holidays. It was called “Lost in Journey” and I like it very much.
Some holiday traditions are interesting to me, like fish served for the New Year’s Eve family dinner because its pronunciation is similar to that for “prosperity.” And the fireworks meant to frighten off evil spirits.
For me, Spring Festival is the time to rest and prepare for the coming spring term.
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