Chinese New Year

For many Chinese, Chinese New Year is a time of warmth and mirth with family and friends, surrounded by delicious goodies, fun and laughter. This year, because of Covid-19, millions across China have not been able to make the trip home because of travel restrictions imposed after a fresh round of coronavirus cases. In fact, the past year has been less than kind to the world in general. How have we responded as individuals? What do we remember, and what would we rather not think about? In this Chinese New Year period, comic artist Bai Yi reminds us to give ourselves credit for making it through another year.

Audience ratings of the CCTV New Year’s Gala give quite an accurate reflection of north-south divides, which judging by the latest economic information, are still very relevant in China today. Zaobao correspondent Yang Danxu casts a keen eye on the data.

While China has soared ahead in other areas such as expressway construction and port development, it lags behind heavyweights like the US in railway development. A fundamental cause is relying on the government as its single investment channel. Plugging its railway gaps, literally and figuratively, would give China’s economic development a decided boost.

Singaporean journalist Edwin Ong shares his story on surviving the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in Chongqing, China. From his observation, the long period of self-isolation is wearing down Chinese residents’ resolve to stay home for everyone’s sake. One tires most by doing nothing.

Graduate student Lorna Wei returned to her hometown in Hebei province for the Chinese New Year holidays, only to land in the eye of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus storm. She shares her personal experience, from the inside.

Chinese New Year is usually a time of celebration and feasting, with the festivities stretching all through the first fifteen days of the first lunar month. This year, however, the arrival of the Wuhan coronavirus has put a significant dampener on what is generally the biggest festival of the year for the Chinese. ThinkChina offers a glimpse into the muted welcome for the Year of the Rat.

Young academic Chen Nahui, assistant professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, thinks about the confluence of time and space as she flits between New Year memories long past. What has become of her hometown Shenjiamen, a port town in Zhejiang?

Chinese New Year customs and practices can be different depending on where one is, whether within or outside of China. Young academic Pang Ruizhi describes his Chinese New Year as a child in Shandong, northern China.

There was a time when “fatty” and “oily” were signs of prosperity. Young academic Lorna Wei reminisces that gone are the days of fighting over the last meatball as the post-80s and post-90s generation Chinese become more wealthy. But with material abundance comes emptiness. Is it harder to be happy? The realities of Chinese life hit home as the Spring Festival draws near.