Lunar New Year/Spring Festival

As Sam unwittingly reminded me, it's so easy to get wrapped up in the whole idea of "Chinese New Year," forgetting that other Asian cultures (particularly Vietnam) also celebrate the lunar new year, especially for those of us that live here in China. That being said, Chinese New Year is probably one of the coolest holidays, not to mention one of the most absurd.

Take, for example, this article from china.org.cn about the wreckage left on the streets in the aftermath of last night, Chuxi (pronounced Chew She), which is essentially New Year's Eve:

About 30,000 sanitation employees in China's finance hub Shanghai worked through the night to sweep up some 1,200 tons of fireworks debris, left behind by revelers on Sunday evening as they welcomed in the Lunar New Year. -Xinhua News, via china.org.cn

1200 tons of debris! I can personally vouch for the sheer amount of burnt red paper that left behind. If you can forgive the camera-phone quality, take a look at these two pictures I took myself:

One of those comes from the street by where we ate dinner, the other is the entrance to my apartment building. That's a lot of firecrackers. I shudder imagining the environmental cost this holiday pays in the name of scaring off dragons. Most of the fireworks get exploded on Chuxi, it seems to me, but the holiday lasts fifteen days. I guess even then, firecrackers tend to get exploded all the time, anyway, so whatever.

Everyone knows, or should know, that I absolutely love fireworks, so there's no reason why I shouldn't have been totally stoked for this. And I was, believe me. But there are only so many times a man can take almost getting killed because someone didn't think it was really necessary to warn me they had just lit firecrackers a bit down the sidewalk. Or so many times a person can tolerate that unexpected "Oh, no! Did they cross the Straits?" panic when woken at 8:30AM by explosions. As my friend Ivan puts it:

" I am in a country where the setting off of bigass fireworks in the street by private, unlicensed individuals (such as myself) is not only legal, but socially encouraged."

It's not that the fireworks are really a problem, and for the sake of getting a full night's sleep at night, I assume that people take precaution. However, there's something to be said about not exploding fireworks in the middle of a busy street, where they'll burst just meters (that's kind of like a yard for you all back in the States) from the glass windows of a tall building.

Over the coming weeks, we've got more holiday to celebrate. Friday is the Money God festival, Sunday is the birthday of the common man (when people traditionally count their age up another year), and the Sunday after that is the Lantern Festival. I'll be eating a lot of dumplings...

Oh, right...

So remember that bit about China maybe possibly sort of kind of beginning to feel the economic crisis thing? Yeah, that's definitely happening. Yours truly has been busy not posting blog entries over the past few weeks because I've been pulling a James Woods and trying to experience what it means firsthand to be affected by an economic crisis. Notes:

1) Having no money in your wallet or everyday-use bank account is bad.

2) Bok choy soup and rice is a surprisingly tasty meal, now that I've had enough practice making it this month.

3) Taking the bus is less of an adventure when you have to do it. On the other hand, it's now "effortlessly" green to do so.

4) Seriously, having no cash on hand is awful.

Just before embarking on this research, I was blessed enough to have a visitor here in Shanghai. This made for a really good opportunity to be a tourist. Too often, I think, we don't take the time to actually check out the stuff around us. Just thinking about the list of places I haven't been in New York is a headache, let alone the places I haven't been here in Shanghai. So, even though this last week might have been partial inspiration for my "research," it was probably worth it. Skyscrapers, gardens, temples, pedestrian streets, and a super cool "museum" definitely helped me close 2008 on a high note.

2009, however, has already been interesting. Work is picking up. Imminently, I'll be taking on a whole new batch of responsibilities as the company plans to do some "spring festival cleaning". (Chinese New Year is called the Spring Festival here. So, it's actually a pretty good joke.) Plus, we have our big new service launching, TalkOnline. I've also made my way onto Chinese TV already, and as soon as I get a copy of the video, you can be sure you'll find it here.

Also, according to China Daily, the government sponsored English language newspaper, "China is about to enter a peak time for mass incidents..." That means riots and protests. So, that's exciting, right?

Anyway, 2009 is here and I'm planning to make it a good one. Now, who's going to join me?