Zhang Qian

    zhqcindy@163.com

    EVERY time Nancy Barr spoke of a 3-year-old Chinese girl that she stayed with for three days during the Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, she would burst into an affectionate laughter for the adorable child. It was Barr’s first time spending time with a Chinese family during a Chinese holiday.

    “It was an absolutely wonderful time to spend the traditional festival with a Chinese family,” said Barr, who is an American teacher, as she told Shenzhen Daily about her three-day experience in Longhua District.

    While teaching in the neighboring city of Dongguan, Barr wanted to experience how an ordinary Chinese family marks a traditional holiday. Under the arrangement of Jason Stine, a trip organizer and agent in Shenzhen, Barr was invited to visit a family in Shenzhen for the festival.

    “They were very excited and welcoming when they picked me up at the bus station on the [Chinese] New Year’s Eve,” Barr described the first impressions she had of her host family for the Spring Festival.

    The three-day stay was filled with joy and “lots of eating,” according to Barr, who initially wanted to be “a fly on the wall” to observe and experience what Chinese people do for the holiday.

    One of Barr’s most unforgettable memories about the Chinese New Year was standing on the family’s balcony admiring the fireworks at night, while the excited 3-year-old girl gave “speeches” in a mix of languages combining Chinese with the English that she had learned in kindergarten.

    Barr also went to a flower market where the family purchased an orange tree that symbolizes good luck and fortune. “There was a massive amount of people and different kinds of flowers at the market and it was so fun,” said Barr.

    In the eyes of this American teacher, how Chinese families celebrate the festival is similar to holidays in the United States. “People get together with their family and spend time together by playing games, eating or visiting places.”

    However, Barr also noticed some differences. One thing was that the grandmother of the family took complete control over everything pertaining to the preparation of meals, while the adult children in American families would do the majority of the cooking on the holidays or family members would bring food to share.

    According to traditional Chinese customs, married Chinese women visit their own parents on the second day of the Lunar New Year, also known as “Chu’er,” but before that they would spend most of the holiday with their husband’s family. With the family, Barr also paid a visit to the hostess’ mother on Chu’er.

    Now Barr has become good friends with the family. The hostess of the family told the Shenzhen Daily yesterday that they were going to visit Barr in Dongguan on the weekend.

    While Barr was celebrating her first Spring Festival in the city, Stine spent a weeklong holiday in the countryside. At the invitation of his friend, Datou, Stine stayed with Datou’s family in Rongxian, a county in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

    In order to avoid Chunyun, the massive movement of people around China during the holiday, Stine and his friend left Shenzhen on the night of Jan. 26 and arrived at Datou’s home early the next morning.

    Although Datou’s family treated him with warm hospitality, Stine found it remarkable that they did not show much surprise at receiving a foreigner for the holiday, even though it was probably their first time encountering an expat.

    The Chinese New Year always features big meals that people can hardly finish eating. Stine especially enjoyed a lot of food that Datou’s family prepared, but what made his holiday wonderful was joining the activities in the village and seeing Datou’s old friends and classmates in his hometown.

    “My best memory was riding in the empty, dark streets on an electric bike at midnight after hanging out with Datou’s friends in the county town,” said Stine. Fireworks lit up the dark sky, filling the countryside with festival joy.

    Chuyi, the first day of the Chinese New Year, was a busy day of fun activities in the village. Datou participated in a basketball competition held at the village’s primary school with other men from the area, while dozens of women joined a tug-of-war competition beside the village.

    “It was so fun because everyone was taking the competition seriously and put effort into joining the games,” said Stine. He added that he did not join them, but enjoyed watching people race.

    It was not the first time Stine had celebrated the Chinese New Year with a Chinese family. Two years ago, he was invited to spend the holiday with another friend of his in Jiangxi Province. However, the custom of visiting his friend’s relatives, overeating meatballs and drinking too much rice wine was too much for this American tour agent.

    Compared with the Chinese New Year celebrated in Jiangxi Province, Stine said that the holiday in Guangxi was more relaxing and like “a nice regular day” with many activities and family gatherings.

    Before this year’s Chinese New Year, Stine was inspired by a Chinese article summoning expats to celebrate the Chinese New Year with Chinese families and looking for families that can host foreigners during the holiday. He translated the activity into English and put out a notice in both languages. Around 50 people contacted him soon after the advertisement was published.

    Stine put all of the people who contacted him into a WeChat group and privately asked them simple questions about their living habits, such as whether the family owns a pet or anyone smokes in the family.

    Combining all of the information into two lists — one with expats who would like to stay with a Chinese family and one with the families who were willing to take in expatriate guests during the Chinese New Year — and uploaded the lists onto the WeChat group where people could reach out to whichever person they wanted.

    “The outcome was so-so, because not everyone would take the initiative to make first contact, but I know a few people who managed to find host families to stay with during the holiday,” said Stine. Barr was one of the people who successfully found a matching family.

    Stine said that he was considering providing a more professional matching service next time if more people contact him, and that it could be a good business for him in the future.

    “I’m still waiting for people to give me feedback on how they celebrated the festival with the Chinese families and if they would like to purchase a more professional service in the future,” said Stine.