Chinese New Year - a family affair

TLM has been in a Chinese dancing group over summer, with practices culminating in a performance at the Chinese New Year festival day on Sunday. This year she got to be in the parade too.

Here's a picture of her bun. It was my first successful attempt, with the help of a "doughnut" and a great many pins (her hair is less than shoulder length).

The boy was roped in to be a parade marshall, which meant he could walk around in his normal imposing manner and give scary looks to people who got too close to the floats or the vehicles towing them.

And me, I got to sit in the back of the drummer's float (which would have been hellish if my ear's hadn't been cleaned out) and give out water to dehydrated dragon dancers. Watching these guys and gals trot around in formation under the hot sun and with arms held aloft most of the time, I could really appreciate how hard a job it must be. It's just as well the boy didn't get roped into that, 'cos he'd have had to train for months to get into shape.

I would have liked to stick around for the performances after TLM's but they were hot and tired and wanted to go home and eat sorbet. Fair enough.

Baby dragons rule!

"There'll be dragons" I told TLM, hoping to excite her.
"I don't like dragons!" she answered, "they're scary!"
"Okay, there won't be any dragons" I replied, "but there might be free popsicles."
So TLM came willingly with me to watch the Chinese New Year parade.

It was hot (actually, only 25 degrees Celsius, but for this town it counts as a heatwave) and sunny. It was just the kind of weather that entices you to the outdoors, only to send you scurrying for the SPF 30 sunblock and a hat with a brim wide enough to support a pond-full of large frogs.

It was just the kind of burn-y hotness that made me anxious about the amount of time TLM and I were spending on the uncovered footpath, waiting for it to start.

Finally, we heard the distant crackling of what sounded like exploding Double Happies, and saw the glimmer of a long, sinuous dragan winding its way towards us in a cloud of firecracker smoke. TLM's face was alight with anticipation.

Then it got closer, louder and smokier. I tried to cover TLM's ears with my free hand (the other was holding her), but it had to divide its time between one of her ears and one of mine. Totally fruitless. TLM turned her face away from the spectacle and whimpered something about going back to the car. She'd forgotten that we'd taken the bus to get there.

The men under the dragon raised it up and down and wove in and out of legs, prompting me to wish I'd shaved my legs that morning.

But then TLM's mood changed. It was when some children from the Chinese language school passed by with more petite versions of the smoking dragon. I told her they were baby dragons and she chuckled delightedly.

There was more - Chinese opera performers with their faces made up in pink and white, drummers, men and women posing in beautiful traditional silk robes, a team of kung-fu exponents demonstrating whatever you call the kung fu equivalent of a kata, little girls in pretty red dresses (not sure of the relevance but they seemed a welcome part of the parade) and even Michael Tuffery's ox made entirely out of corned beef tins (click here and scroll down for a picture - actually the article is bloody hilarious!). The latter was present because it's the Year of the Ox, but what made it even more special for us was that we still have the children's library book of New Zealand art which features this very sculpture. But there were no free popsicles.

As I was saying, there was more, but as far as TLM was concerned, the baby dragons were it.

How to make a preschooler sound like Tom Waits

First my mum got it. She had the sore throat and the sneezes; when she couldn't get through the day without a scary-sounding pneumonia-like rattle, I had to take her to the After Hours medical centre. A nebuliser, an x-ray and two courses of pills later, she's almost back to normal.

Now TLM has it. Fortunately for her, she is not an elderly woman with a portfolio of medical ailments. TLM is not likely to need a nebuliser or any kind of medication. But when she sings she sounds like Tom Waits and when she poos I am utterly grateful that she's finally cottoned onto the idea of putting them in the potty.

So we didn't get to go to the white-folks' Chinese New Year festivities. Ah well, there were no fireworks anyway, and probably no lion dance either. There is still a chance of attending the Teddy Bears' Picnic tomorrow afternoon (which is entirely unrelated to anything Chinese).

Otherwise it will have been a fairly dull, croaky weekend for TLM.

Happy Chinese New Year

Are you an ox? I'm not - I'm a dragon. Apparently this is gonna be a good year for dragons. It should be a good year of oxen too, because it's their year.

My mum still keeps up the Chinese tradition of giving out lucky money to the "children" i.e. my brother and I, our respective partners and our respective children. But neither I nor my brother wish to keep that tradition going. Because if we did, we'd have to stay home all day to avoid other peoples' kids. And if we stick to giving money to the kids within the family we'd just end up swapping similar amounts of money (well, we'd hope it's similar amounts)

We don't let off firecrackers at Chinese New Year, mainly because I think it's illegal to use fireworks outside of Guy Fawkes' Night. But we do have a special meal. I suppose in a Chinese family, food-related traditions are probably the last to go!

But there's some touristy stuff going on in town next weekend - y'know, food stalls, a lion dance performed by a local cultural society, um...more food...

Anyway, I'd like to take TLM to the touristy Chinese New Year celebration so she can have a taste of what it's about. She's already done the food and gotten the red envelope (and got to hold it for exactly 2 seconds before I whipped it out of her hand and put it in my purse, because that money's going straight into her bank account). I'd quite like her to watch a bit of lion-dancing, see a few pretty girls in traditional costume, get sucked into a human tide of new-clothes purchasers (if you've ever been in Hong Kong during this time you'll know exactly what I mean)...

Us Chinese may be cheap drunks, but we're expensive eaters.

You dirty Rat year...

Happy Chinese New Year!

I didn't celebrate it this year, mostly because my mum and bro have been in Hong Kong for it. I don't envy having to put up with trebled prices for new clothes or haircuts; nor do I miss getting sucked into an engulfing tide of shoppers every time I leave the apartment. But it would've been fun to enjoy yum char with the family. Still, many red packets of lucky money are headed our way - ostensibly for TLM, but which might get diverted to pay a household bill or two.

Despite the rat's bad reputation in Western culture, being a Rat in Chinese culture actually sounds okay. According to the Chinese Centre of San Francisco:

People born in the Year of the Rat are noted for their charm and attraction for the opposite sex. They work hard to achieve their goals, acquire possessions, and are likely to be perfectionists. They are basically thrifty with money. Rat people are easily angered and love to gossip. Their ambitions are big, and they are usually very successful. They are most compatible with people born in the years of the Dragon, Monkey, and Ox.

I'm a Dragon. If I'd hooked up with a Rat, I might be a heck of a lot richer. But he'd have been too stingy to buy us a plasma tv. He'd be annoying me mightily with his perfectionism and scaring me with his temper. And he'd probably be blogging about my own shortcomings.

Probably, I'm better off with the boy Rooster.