Introduction to Chinese New Year
Shuyi Wang
Feb, 2015
Outline
- Introduction
- Legend
- Celebration
- Food
- Transportation
- Greetings
- Entertainment
Chinese New Year
- Spring Festival
- 春节 (chun jie)
- When will be the Chinese New Year Day 2015?
- Feburary 19th, 2015
Chinese New Year
- When was the Chinese New Year Day 2014?
- Janurary 31st, 2014
- Why does Chinese New Year Day vary from year to year?
- Chinese lunar calendar
- Let us watch a short video
Animal Signs of the Chinese Zodiac
- 生肖 (sheng xiao) or 属相 (shu xiang)
- derives from the similar concept in western astrology
- means "circle of animals"
- relates each year to an animal and its reputed attributes according to a 12-year mathematical cycle
- Let us watch a short video
Animal Signs of the Chinese Zodiac
Animal Signs of the Chinese Zodiac
- What is your animal sign? :-)
Year in Chinese
- 年 (Nian)
- What is the original meaning of it?
- A Monster!
Story of Nian
- What happened between Chinese people and the Monster?
- Let us watch a short video
- It's in Chinese with English subtitles
Time Period
- from Chinese New Year's Eve
- the last day of the last month of the Chinese calendar
- to the Lantern Festival
- on the 15th day of the first month
- Longest Festival in the Chinese calendar
Firecrackers
- Larger ones
Firecrackers
- Another name: exploding bamboo
Fireworks
- Let's watch a short video
- You can see both fireworks and firecrackers in it. :-)
Fireworks
- Feels like in a battlefield?
- Where were they playing with fireworks?
- Can you play with fireworks on the street?
- American Students did that ... in China
- Let's watch another short video :-P
Lion dance
- 舞狮 (Wu Shi)
- a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture
- performers mimic a lion's movements in a lion costume
- is usually performed during the Chinese New Year
Lion dance
- Here is a video to show basics of lion dance
Lion dance
- Sometimes, you can see different style of lion dance
- Like this ...
Paper lantern
- 灯笼 (deng long)
- a lantern made of thin, brightly colored paper
Spring Couplet
- used as a New Year's decoration
- expresses happy and hopeful thoughts for the coming year
- a pair of lines of poetry which adhere to certain rules
Chinese Paper Cutting
- 剪纸 (jian zhi)
- the first type of papercutting design
- the cut outs are also used to decorate doors and windows
- they are sometimes referred to 窗花 (chuang hua)
- meaning Window Flower
Chinese colored woodblock printing
- 年画 (Nian hua)
- Tianjin is famous for Yang Liuqing Nianhua
Dumplings
- 饺子 (jiao zi)
- Eaten traditionally in northern China
- resembles a silver ingot, or money
Chinese New Year cake
- Niangao(年糕)
- its pronunciation is a homophone for "a more prosperous year"
- Most popular in eastern China
- Known as Chinese New Year pudding
- made up of glutinous rice flour, wheat starch, salt, water, and sugar
Spring travel
- 春运 (Chun yun)
- Traditionally, families gather together during the Chinese New Year
- In modern China, migrant workers in China travel home to have reunion dinners
- How many people are there in China?
- 1.36 billion by the end of the year 2013.
Spring travel
- special arrangements were made by railways, buses and airlines
- starting from 15 days before the New Year's Day
- world's largest annual migration
Spring travel
- If you decide to take the train ...
Spring travel
- Not easy even for the foreigners ...
Useful Expressions
- What do you say when you meet people on Chinese New Year Day?
- Happy Chinese New Year!
- 过年好！(guo nian hao)
- Happy New Spring!
- 新春快乐！(xin chun kuai le)
- Wish you the best of everything!
- 万事如意！(wan shi ru yi)
Custom
- What do you do when you meet friends' young children?
- Red envelopes for children
- 红包 (hong bao)
- the money used to suppress or put down the evil spirit
- put even number of money in it
- 20 or 40 US dollars will be fine
Get Red Envelopes in the old days
Today ...
- Children do not need to kowtow
- But they need to wish the elders good fortune and Happy New Year.
- 恭喜发财 (Gong Xi Fa Cai)
A myth
- Will Chinese children be rich after Chinese New Year Day?
- No!
- Parents will keep childrens' money from the red envelopes
- They will tell their kids "when you need your money, you can ask for them back"
- That NEVER happened!
- Red envelope money went back to other children's parents
CCTV Spring Festival Gala
- 春晚(Chun Wan)
- the broadcast has a yearly viewership of over 700 million viewers
- the premiere television events of China
CCTV Spring Festival Gala
- Let's watch a short video
- Part of 2014 CCTV Spring Festival Gala
- See how many Chinese New Year Symbols you can find in it :-)
CCTV Spring Festival Gala
Chinese New Year Song
- Lots of songs for Spring Festival
- The most famous one
- 恭喜恭喜 (Gong Xi Gong Xi)
- Let's watch a short video
- It teaches foreigners how to sing this song :-)
Thanks
- Thank you for your participation! :-)
