A story about Spring Festival (Chinese New Year)

I love this time of the year, it gets warmer, things turn green, not much field work, and days are stretching longer. Best of all, we can celebrate the spring festival!

1. Vacation
2017/01/13, Friday, 15 days before Chinese new year

For me, the festivity feeling starts when my older sister and younger brother come home and tell me no more school after today, because they both finished the exam. I am thrilled! It will be one whole month vacation for them, which means I can see them every day!

I cannot help and show my sister the 3 goat babies our parents got me since last month. Mom told me if I take care of them, after 3 months, they can sell them for good money and pay for tuition fee of my sister and brother. One of the goats is white, fluffy and very quiet, I like her the most, I’m thinking of giving her a name.

“Jie jie, what should a goat be called?” “Hmm, I don’t know, I only know one goat called Dolly” then she takes out her natural science book and explains me the story about Dolly. We sit on the stairs outside our country house, the sun is shining on our back, it is warm.

“Jie jie, since you finished this semester, can you give me again one of your books?” “Sure sweetie! There , this book is new year gift for you!” She pats my head, and gives me a kiss on the forehead. I grin, browsing curiously the book full of pictures and notes from jie jie.

2. Decorations
2017/01/18 Wednesday, 10 days before Chinese new year

Today 10 days before the Chinese new year, mom already got the decorations from the market.

The paper Fu（福） character

She bought in total 5 of the paper with Fu Character, 3 are made with paper cut which are more expensive, the other 2 are written with brush pen on a red rectangular paper.

I grab them and shout cheerfully, “Jie jie, di di, let’s put them on the doors! ” My sister goes to grab a ball of rice, my brother takes a stool, following me, he is only 6, trying very hard to move the stool. “Tiens, take the rice, let me help you with the stool” said my sister.

We first come to the kitchen, we are so excited to do this again, I put the paper gently on the stool with the character facing down, then jie jie put some rice on the edge of paper, squeezes the rice a bit using a spoon so they are sticking, then we take carefully the corner of the paper and stand on the stool to stick the paper on the door.

“Don’t make the same mistake again like last year Xiao Hua! ” said my sister. “I know! the character should be upside down because then in Chinese it sounds like ‘happiness is arriving’ !”

In half an hour we have the beautiful happy paper on our doors for kitchen, parents’ bedroom, my brother’s bedroom , me and my sister’s shared bedroom and on the toilet door.

Then we three are lying on the sofa and trying to breath, this is the only time of the year my brother and I don’t fight.

She also got home some paper, the Chinese brush pen and ink so that dad can write the Chinese Spring festival couplets

Dad is a pretty cool person, he can write the couplets himself. It is not easy to write a pair of good couplets, it is like writing a poem, only harder. A spring festival couplets are composed of a pair of poetry lines vertically pasted on both sides of the front door and a four-character horizontal scroll affixed above the door frame. The two poetry lines should have an equal number of characters, while their meaning must be related and antithetical. There must be a one-to-one correspondence between the two lines. The horizontal scroll is a four-character phrase, which sums up the two lines’ meaning.

His calligraphy is very beautiful too, some of our neighbors even come to ask him to write the couplets for them, and then they give us some gifts or some money.
Dad is pretty cool, he never talks to me, but he loves the family, I guess.

Red lanterns
In a good year, mom would also buy some red lanterns, they are really bright and beautiful, but really expensive, most of the time we could not afford it, this year to my surprise, she brought two of those home, father hang them in the front door after he pasted the couplets.

3. The dumplings
2017/01/21, Saturday, 7 days before Chines new year

Every year near the new year, our whole family sit together and make dumplings from the scratch. Dumplings are not so typical in our region, people from the north of China eat it more often, that is why tonight it is very special.

My father is working with the dough in order to produce the dumpling wrappers, to make perfect dumpling wrapper is not easy, you need to have the good amount of flour water mix, then you need to knead it until the dough is soft and smooth. Mother is working with minced pork and veggies in order to prepare the dumplings fillings. We kids are waiting until they are both ready so we can make the dumplings by adding the fillings in the wrapper and finish by sealing the wrapper. We would always compete who made the most, then father would give comments on the shapes.

“Oh we should put a magic coin in one of the dumplings like last year!” said my brother, “if I get the coin, I will wish to get one of the red cars that can actually run on the floor!”

I don’t like this part, the rule of the game is whoever got the lucky dumpling(with the coin) can speak out a new year wish, it was like a moment of discovering who gets the lottery. Last year, it was me who got it, I thought I can say anything I would really wish to have, so I said “I wish I could also go to school like jie jie and di di.”

Then the world went silent, father was angry, though he never speaks to me but he never really gets so angry at me. Pang!! He smacked his chopsticks on the table and was ready to shout at me. “Wei, please, not at this time of the year, and Li, take your sister to your room!”. Mom didn’t want anything to spoil the festival atmosphere, so I was sent to the room without dinner, it was not a happy evening, but I got to know that the magic coin is not magic.

After one hour, we already finished making the dumplings, one of them has the magic coin in there, I know my brother was looking at it all the time. But by the time the dumplings are cooked, nobody knows which one it is.

Finally all the dumplings are cooked and everyone has a bawl of dumplings, my brother still cannot perfectly use chopsticks, so he took a fork, and started to break all the dumplings.
“Oh bummer! I don’t have the magic dumpling again!”

Upon the biting of the first dumpling, I bit the coin, I don’t know if I should tell them because then I need to say a wish and I might got sent in my room again, I still want to finish my dumplings. So I put the coin back to my bawl and continue to eat my dumplings. After we all finished and was thankful for how good this evening was, suddenly my brother screamed, “No one got the magic dumpling?!” “Oh yes, where is the coin?”Then my sister lean to my side and saw it lying in my bawl, she said, “Xiao Hua got it , lucky you, make a wi…” Her voice went down in the middle of her sentence, she didn’t finish her sentence because she also remembered about last year.

“The ‘extra’ got it again, so unfair!” mumbled my brother. My sister gave him a look, he stopped.

“Hua, you got the coin, you can make a wish”. I know it is a lie, I’d better keep silent. “Come on, what do you wish for the new year?”Mother is extremely gentle tonight. I don’t know what to say, but on the other hand how bad can it be, I will be sent to my room, but at least I had my dinner already. “I want to have one Hu lu wa book, the animation book you got for xiao min” “Sure, tomorrow we will buy one for you too!” I am relaxed, confused, but at lease I am not locked to my room like last year.

4. Home Coming
2017/01/23, Monday, 5 days before the Chinese new year

This morning while my sister and brother are doing their winter vacation homework, I take Dolly and her other two buddies to a mountain near our house so they can have some fresh grass.

It is 11:00, the sun is already shinning, but it is still cold like any other winter morning.
I brought the natural science book along with me, sitting on a rock near the goats so that I can keep an eye on them. I have already finished reading the book my sister gave me one week ago, there are so many interesting and magical things in there, like there are so many animals in the world, and in the water and they all evolved differently. Now I am reading it the second time and try to tell the stories to Dolly, I hope she can understand and fall in love with learning new things too.

All of a sudden I am hearing someone calling my name from the direction of our house, it is mom. I wonder why she calls me now, it is too early to cook for lunch.

“Ai-iii!” I shout back as a response, this is our version of communication, it is fast and effective. Last year, a guy in our village came home and bought his father a mobile phone so that he does not need to answer his call from a store 2 km away. But it turned out his father could not use the phone because there is almost no signal in our village, in the end he used it as a flash light and an alarm.

“xxx just arrived home, come back now!” She shouts very slowly so that I don’t miss anything, but still, I missed the name of the person who arrived home. I quickly put my book in my bag and take the ropes attached to the goats so that we can rush home. This is what I like about new year, it is the only time of the year you can see almost everyone from the village coming home, every day one of them arrives and they all have different stories to tell.

By the time I ran home, from the front yard I already see mom is making a tea, dad is handing a cigar to our guest while chatting with him. They are sitting around our round dark wooden dining table, my sister and brother are also sitting on 2 stools near my father. The wooden dining table and the sofa in our living room are the only two pieces of expensive furniture that my mom’s families gave for my parents’ wedding as a gift. I heard that they moved once when I was very very young, the table and sofa came with them to our current place.

I quickly tie the ropes of the goats on a tree in the front yard and go in the house curiously, the guest is Jun.

Jun is the son of dad’s biggest brother, he is 21 years old, he is working in Shanghai, somewhere I know far far away but heard so many times from the TV. Every year when he comes home , he tells wonderful stories about Shanghai, about trains, and how busy the train is during this time of the year as everyone goes home to celebrate the new year. Only during this period would Beijing and Shanghai look like 2 empty cities. He also tells that he never has to work in the field, grows wheat or corns any more, that he actually works in a house, with non stop electricity and running water, where he writes not with a pencil but with a computer. He goes to work never by walking but on his own car.

“Wow Xiao Hua, you have grown a lot since last year! How old are you? ”
“I am 7.”
“Time flies! How was your exam? Your sister told me she got the first place in the class, your brother has a lot to improve though hehe, how about you? ”
“I’m not going to school.” I keep my voice as low as possible, and to avoid eye contact with Jun or my father, I look at my shoes, I would rather hope he stops asking.

“I heard you are going to move your parents to Shanghai with you, that is very nice.” Dad breaks the ice by talking about something else.
“Yes, the problem is that it takes too much time to come home every year, the traffic is not convenient here in the mountain, in Shanghai you can reach almost everywhere with a car, but here we don’t even have decent roads. I am trying to help them open a restaurant there, Sichuan food seems very popular in Shanghai, the only thing they need to get used to is the language”.

My heart skips a beat, my head is spinning, it feels like there is a thunder storm in my head and in my heart. I simply cannot believe it, does it mean I will not see Jun any more? He is the only person that everyone in our village is proud of, everyone speaks about him, he is the person I wish I could become.

I run quickly to the front yard, not letting anyone see me upset. I untie my goats and want to go somewhere, where I can be alone and think.

5. The Lion Dance
2017/01/25, Wednesday, 3 days before Chinese new year

In the morning before me and my sister wake up, my brother Xiao Min is already in our room, he looks immensely excited.
“Dad said we are going to the street to see the lion dances today!”
My sister and I both sit up immediately from the bed, putting on our clothes as fast as we can so that we can get ready.

While mom is getting ready the breakfast, I go out to get some leaves and grass for the goats so they won’t starve today. Breakfast is porridge with white bread, very warm.

“It is almost the new year, as usual, here is your pocket money.” Then dad hands out 3 red packets to us one by one.
“Yaaay!” We three happy birds jump away with our first new year lucky money. Usually after the new year day, we will visit all of our other families and get more lucky money from our uncles or aunts.
After the breakfast, we put on our newest outfit and headed to the village center. The village center is actually one single street with shops and restaurants, each Wednesday and Saturday is the hottest day of it, where more people would gather around and put on a small market so they can buy or sell things.

Today is Wednesday, by the time we arrived at the center after 30 minutes walking, there are already quite some people on the street. The lion dancing group is already starting, they are performing at the other end of the street and now the sound is approaching us.

In our village the lion dance performance usually only happens during Chinese new year, it is performed by a group of people containing the lion dancers, the drum players and the gong players, the lion dancers mimic a lion’s movements in a red lion costume following the rhythm of the drum and gong.

Everyone applauds when seeing the lions, we kids even follow it until they go through the whole street, the drum and gong stop, the lion dancers take off the lion costume and finally reveal their faces, they are smiling at us. One of the smile is quite familiar, it is Jun, his face is quite red, and his hair is wet due to the sweat.
My sister met one of her classmates and they went somewhere together, my brother was long gone before the show was finished, he said he is going to a shop to buy some candy or a car model with his pocket money. I have nowhere to go, so I go to Jun and ask him if he needs help.

After he changed and gave all the things to the organizer, we two went to a tea room nearby.

“Jun ge ge, tell me more about Shanghai, is everything better than here?”
“Life is definitely much better, but not everything, for instance, the air quality is worse.”
“What do you mean by air quality?”
“Well, in the country side, we have a lot of plants, but in the cities, there are only people and cars, a lot of pollution, especially this year, Shanghai is suffering a lot from the fog storm, you cannot see clearly what is happening within 10 meters. I am quite happy I come home. ”

He pauses a bit and continues, “But apart from that, it is really convenient living in a city, stores are just across the corner, not like here, you need to walk 30 minutes to a shop to buy salt or soy sauce.”

“Jun ge ge , do you think I can be like you when I grow up? ” I put my hands around the tea cup, try to warm my hands a bit.
He wipes the sweat on his head with a towel and then puts his hands around mine, rubs them a bit so they get warmer, looking into my eyes and says ” “Yes, if you go to school and study hard. ”

“I would like to, but dad said I should stay at home and help mom with the house work, I guess it costs too much for three of us.” I look at him and wonder if he can help to convince my parents, but he says nothing.

6. The thorough cleaning
2017/01/26, Thursday, 2 days before Chinese new year

I am helping mom making the breakfast, she told me today we are going to do a major thorough cleaning of the house and the yard in order to welcome the new year.
Suddenly I hear someone talking in the front yard. Out of curiosity I go outside and check what is going on, it is Jun and dad.

Dad is sitting on the stairs outside the house and smoking, Jun comes and sit side by side with dad, I can only see their backs.

“I think Xiao Hua is really smart, she knows about quite some things even without going to school.”
Dad continues to smoke, pretending nothing happened.
Jun turns his head to dad and continues: “Uncle, you should let her go to school, I think she would really have a bright future.”
Dad exhales a breath of smoke and puts the cigar down by pressing hard the cigar on the stair, he hasn’t finished half of it yet.

“Jun, not everyone is as lucky as your family.”

“It is just so not fair to her. Why don’t you let me help you? ”
“Fair?” Dad’s voice raises a bit, my brother and my sister both comes to the front door, and watching them silently, we are all frightened.

“You want to know what is fair Jun? Fair is like your family, if my first child is already a boy! Do you know what I have been through having a second child?”
He quickly lights up another cigarette.

” I lost my job in the city as a doctor and had to give a lot of fine, just because at that time there was this stupid ‘one child policy’!” He stands up and walk to the yard, Jun follows him.
“I would not have become a farmer if I have had Min in the first place! ”

“But they are born and they are all your children.” Jun puts his hands on his forehead, trying to understand.

“Yes, that is why I accepted it when I had the first child as a girl, she can take care of my boy after he is born, so I was still hoping and looking forward, even though I lost everything. But it was another girl! I didn’t look at her since she was born, I never wanted to speak with her, because for me, she is EXTRA. I almost divorced your aunt, but luckily one year later finally we had a son. ”

“Uncle! It is already 21st century! What is so important about having a son!”
“If I don’t have a son, who is carrying my name, huh? the girls will marry some one one day and their children will have another family name!”
“So you want to just keep Xiao Hua at home forever?”
“No, she will help the family, and when she becomes 15, she will marry someone in our village. There are already people proposing to us.”

So that is my fate, my parents already defined it, I didn’t even notice that my tears are all over my face. My sister tries to comfort me by holding my hand very tight.
“Stop it Wei!” Mom came out from the kitchen. Jun and dad turn around and see three of us standing behind them, they are stunned.

“Is this why we moved when we were young, dad? Is this why Hua had to spend the time with grandma until she’s 3?” Her voice starts to tremble, steps forward from the door and walks towards dad.
“All because you wanted to have a boy, isn’t it? Then what am I to you, what is Hua and mom? Are we all your slaves? Are you a stupid pig?” Tears come from her eyes and quickly drop on the ground, it is the first time she stands up against dad for me, she is a brave 9 year old girl.

“How can you say things to your father like that?!” Dad is furious, he walks forward towards her and raises his arm, slaps her on the face.

It was loud, my sister cannot stand still and falls on the ground. I quickly run to her and help her to stand up. Jun has already taken the arm of my father and asks him to calm down. My mom walks also to the front yard and crying about the ruining of the holiday, and asks us to go to our rooms.

to be continued…
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