Chinese New Year 2019 – cultural snapshots of society

Metallicman ^ | 10FEB19 | editorial staff

[vannrox]

Here are (what I like to call) “snapshots” of the Chinese New Year celebrations in February 2019. The Chinese use a lunar calendar, and the New Year started on 5FEB19, and started the week-long celebration.

This celebration is profoundly different than anything experienced in the West. It is a time of family and friends. It is a time of crazed dancing, and orgy of food, and prolonged heavy drinking. It is also a time when you will see friendships renew, relationships expand, and families strengthen.

The cultural aspects of this event are (in large part) unknown in the West, but I find them fascinating. Everything from the “spontaneous dancing upon arrival”, grain alcohol guzzling, monkey parades, and the barbecued octopus tentacles dipped in hot spicy pepper sauce becomes commonplace during this time.

Here we look at a series of scenes from China. All of the scenes are in the form of micro-videos. All videos were taken within the week of 3FEB19 through 8FEB19 and represent a cross-section of typical China as observed by typical Chinese using their cellphones. The application used to record these videos is the TikTok APP.

While officially, the week vacation is a full week, many businesses and factories stay shut down for an entire month. They work reduced shifts leading up to, and after the official holiday. They also rely on reduced staffing during this period, as most Chinese travel great distances from their employer to go back home for the holidays.

Of course, the traffic is crazy and the crowds are massive. It is very difficult to get a plane seat, or a seat on the train as literally millions of people are moving here and there, to

[vannrox]

If you know some other website that shows the "spontaneous dancing upon arrival" or the monkey parades, I'd be interested in seeing them.

[Hot Tabasco]

If you know of some other blogster who professes to have implants inserted into his brain based on alien technology, I would like you to post their link too........

[laplata]

Looks stupid to me.

[Nevadan]

Thanks for posting. I enjoyed that. I knew that Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday, but I didn’t know all that it entails. I expecially enjoyed the impromptu dancing.

[Fiddlstix]

[yldstrk]

Spare me this sick adoration of China. My dad grew up in China and says it is an abominable place.

[oldvirginian]

He proudly displays the Chicom flag on his homepage.
Wonder how much he will end up loving China once Xi really tightens down the clamps?
Its happening.

[Zhang Fei]

Full Metal Jacket has some of the greatest (and funniest) lines I’ve seen in a movie. Adapted from “The Short Timers” by Gustav Hasford, a Vietnam vet who died far too young, many of the best lines are direct quotes from Hasford’s novel. Here’s a sample, related to the Lunar New Year celebrated by Chinese, Koreans and Vietnamese:

A grizzled war correspondent talks about how Tet is going to be just peachy and a time for GI’s to relax:

---

“The Tet holiday is like the Fourth of July, Christmas and New Year all rolled into one.

Every zipperhead in Nam, North and South, will be banging gongs...

...barking at the moon and visiting his dead relatives.”

[Zhang Fei]

We don’t agree about China policy, but this is an excellent post.

[DUMBGRUNT]

Thanks a fun read.

I spent about a year in Taiwan long ago when Father Chiang was still around.
One difference is the drinking, wine and beer readily available. Drunkenness not so much?

[Albion Wilde]

bump

[vannrox]

Yeah. This is getting buried, and it is really worth viewing.

[Albion Wilde]

What does KTV mean?

[vannrox]

A KTV is unique to Asia and there is nothing like it at all in the United States. Here's a link to a very detailed explanation of how a Business KTV works in China. Of course, there are family, friends, and old-folk KTV's.

In short, it is a private room filled with couches, beer, and snacks where you can dance and sing to your heart's content.

[Albion Wilde]

Thank you. Is KTV an acronym for something?

[vannrox]

That's a really good question. I haven't a clue. Everyone calls it a KTV whether you are in China, Vietnam, Japan, or Korea. In fact, that is the ways the buildings are lit up. Sort of like this...



The way I was first introduced to this was when I first started going to China. I was telling my hosts what we liked to do for fun where I grew up. I talked about hunting, fishing, and cruising in the car. And then, because I was from a rural area, I told them about how we would get a keg and go out to the woods to party and sing to the Country and Western songs.

They said they do the same thing. And I was surprised. So they took me to a KTV. And I fell in love.

[vannrox]

Yeah. This is a great post, and it is a shame that it is getting buried. I mean, how often do you see monkeys on parade, and dancing upon arrival?

[vannrox]

Oh and by the way, they have these little two-person KTV booths all over the place now. You can hop in and belt out a few songs while you are waiting for your starbucks coffee, or have some spare time while waiting for the train. It's pretty wild.

[Albion Wilde]

Wow, that looks like a really fun place! And I hear you (from your home page) about how China doesn’t put up with mess, and so people are enjoying life the way we did in the 50s in this country, before the marxist Youth Rebellion, Sexual Revolution, Women’s Lib, whatever you want to call it. It’s hard to convey to people who haven’t lived it how much more secure you felt when the rules were enforced and you could trust people more, because the penalties for stepping out of line were severe.

[vannrox]

Yeah. That idea that everyone is drinking but no one is getting drunk took me by surprise too. Then I figured it out. Nah, it’s all about face.

They have become masters at hiding that they are drunk. Oh, yeah, they are often sh@t faced drunk, but they would never ever show it to your face. LOL.