A Chinese New Year Tale

This is my third Spring Festival in Beijing. I have attended New Year celebrations in various places and although fireworks always make an appearance; nothing can compare to the sheer volume and intensity of the pyrotechnics found in Beijing.

I’ve been lucky enough to never experience a warzone firsthand. However, the cacophony of rockets, firecrackers and other explosives echoing around the city for days, can sometimes give the impression that the city is under siege.

There is a traditional story, which explains the reasons for the excessive use of fire-flowers illuminating the sky and the barrage of booms that reverberate around the entire city. I have condensed and illustrated the story below:

Considering the endless rumbles I have heard so far, I think it’s safe to say that Nian will not be making a return appearance any time soon.

To the 3 questions I always seem to ask myself (yet already know the answer to) during Chinese New Year:

1) Should I eat more?
Yes. It's an important holiday. For goodness sake, sneak another dumpling - they're good luck so it would be silly not to!

2) Am I going to find a seat on the subway today?
YES!! With many people returning to their hometowns, Beijing encounters a mass exodus that provides those who stay in the city, with a convenient and comparatively quiet public transport service.

Seats?!!!

3) Hasn’t everyone used all of the fireworks yet?
No. The answer is always no. Even when you just want a quiet nap, there will be some onomatopoeic obscenity just waiting to blast in your ear.

Last night, I went to 后海 (Hòuhǎi) with my friend Liz. She has, what can only be described as a firework fetish and came bearing about one billion boxes of the bangers (only a slight exaggeration). Houhai was a beautiful setting to watch the fireworks light up the night sky while getting reflected in the lake.

Luckily, Liz was uber-prepared and brought masks along for both of us. The pollution levels had been low all day, but she knew that the sky would soon be inundated with gunpowder and smoke.

It was a fun evening and has certainly confirmed my fondness for one of China’s most important festivals of the year.

Bạn có xem màn trình diễn pháo hoa chào đón năm mới không? Ở Bắc Kinh, pháo hoa nổ tung thành một đám mưa tia lửa. Tối qua tôi đã ăn phở bò và nem rán…Chẹp chẹp~
Tôi đã học được Lễ Hội Mùa Xuân được tổ chức để xua đuổi tất cả linh hồn quỷ dữ của mùa đông...Chúc bạn một Năm Mới Thật Hạnh Phúc!

Bai Gong Fang Museum

Last weekend, I went on an adventure to a strange yet fascinating museum. The 百工坊 (bǎi gōng fāng) museum is situated near to the Temple Of Heaven and roughly translates to “One Hundred Handicrafts Workshop”. The museum was set up in order to promote the traditional arts of Beijing and China; some of which are in danger of dying out. 

Liz and I started off the day, as every intrepid explorer should: with a thirst-quenching bubble tea. From speaking to locals, it seems that this museum is not very well known, so we were pleasantly surprised and slightly suspicious of how easy it was to stumble across the building from where our taxi left us. We were even more delighted that it was free entry.

The museum itself is spread out across three floors. Long corridors are dotted with doors and inside each room is a person demonstrating traditional Chinese arts. We saw many interesting handicrafts; including painted gourds, metalwork, pottery, dough sculptures, paper cutting and woodcarving. The workers were perhaps shy or nervous about speaking with foreigners; however, using the basic Chinese skills we came equipped with, some were more than happy to talk about their trade.

One particularly friendly craftsman, Mr Yao Fuying, was quite animated and passionate when talking about his job. He enthusiastically explained that from a young age, he started a special kind of embroidery work called Jingxiu. From what I could understand, Mr Yao said that Jingxiu is a skill that was passed down in his family and one piece of embroidery can take him about twenty days to complete. It is quite possible that he also told me the meaning of life, however my Chinese level is still not good enough to comprehend the technical language he used. So we thanked him and continued our journey around the museum.

On the second floor, we were incredibly intrigued (and perhaps a little perturbed) by the art of 毛猴 (máo hóu) “hairy monkeys”. It is a rather unique craft where small figures are created from the fluffy buds of magnolia flowers and the body parts of cicadas. These little models are then put into a variety of scenes depicting daily life. I felt compelled to buy a souvenir so I chose one that was wielding 糖葫芦 (tánghúlu), which is candied fruit on a kebab stick (Beijing’s version of a toffee apple).

I would definitely recommend a visit to this museum and would happily revisit at a later date - if only to buy some more máo hóu souvenirs!

On the third floor, there was a large workshop in which guests are invited to try some handicrafts in a “DIY” style. Unfortunately, there was nobody there to give us this opportunity. In fact, the entire museum was very quiet. I am not sure if this is because it was a Sunday or if it is often low on visitors. 

Munching on toast slice cigars after the museum visit.

Chủ nhật vừa rồi tôi đã đi một viện bảo tàng lạ. Tôi có thể tìm thấy nhiều món hàng thủ công đẹp ở đó. Rất thú vị nhưng kỳ quái!