Time to Usher in the Year of the Rabbit

We flew back to Taiwan to celebrate Chinese New Year with Di’s family.  We actually didn’t spend it in Taipei though, we went way south to the town of Ping Tung where Di’s family is originally from.  Thankfully Taiwan has a new high speed rail system, so we were able to travel the 500 kms from Taipei to Ping Tung in about an hour and a half on a comfortable train.  About 6 years ago was the first time I went to Ping Tung, and it was on a really scary plane that looked like it should have been retired to the junkyard about 20 years earlier.  Yay for progress.

Chinese New Years is the most festive time of year in much of Asia, and is largely about family (kind of like Christmas back home).  So we spent our time there hanging out with Di’s relatively small family.  The star of all the meals and get-togethers was definitely Di’s 20 month old niece, who is ridiculously adorable (that’s me and her in the picture in Di’s old family lot).  She’s quite the entertainer, and though I know everyone says that their kid is the cutest, I think she really is the cutest.  When I celebrate Chinese New Year back in Vancouver with my extremely large family, we usually have a couple of festive meals together and follow certain traditions (like handing out red envelopes full of money and wishing everyone a great new year with Chinese sayings).  Spending it in Ping Tung was an entirely new experience for me as the people here are more traditional.  Di’s family house in Ping Tung has a room where they light incense and pray for a good year, so we partook in that.  We also burned gold and silver plated papers in a big fire in a metal bin, like what you see in old Chinese movies.  Di’s brother and I took down the old red papers full of Chinese sayings in calligraphy around the house that brought in the year of the tiger (last year).  We then replaced them with new red ones that ushered in this year, the year of the rabbit.  We also went to a busy Buddhist temple that Di’s great grandmother had founded many years ago to again ask for a good year, and we drove around town as Di’s parents handed out red envelopes to those they knew and wished them all a happy new year.  Di’s dad is also a prominent member of the town’s Rotary Club, so we went to their big function as well.

Our good friend Mike’s family is also from Ping Tung, so he invited us to spend an afternoon with them as they were close by.  We let Di’s parents take a nap as we went to chill with Mike, and his large family was relaxing in an old-school communal courtyard lined by three houses that their family owned.  Those layouts used to be extremely common, as one house would hold the grandparents and the others would hold the sons/daughters and their families.  It reminded us of the old HuTongs in Beijing where family houses also had courtyards.  One of Mike’s elders told us that courtyards like theirs used to be everywhere, but now there are practically none to be seen as they’ve been bulldozed and replaced by high rises.  However Mike’s family kept theirs (though no one lives there now really), and every Chinese New Year they return to spend the day with family.  The adults were playing Mah Jong or just talking, and the kids had their own mini play table as well (though 6’3 Mike was eager to sit and play with them on a little stool).  And as with all Chinese get-togethers, there was a ton of amazing food and drink available.  It was really cool to see 3 generations just spending time together in this courtyard, just as Mike had done when he was a little kid, and his parents has done when they were little kids.

We’ve travelled the world this year, looking for authentic cultural experiences from all different walks of life.  And though our experiences have been nothing short of amazing, we’ve still always been the outsider or the guest who’s been given the opportunity to partake or to watch.  Being truly part of a tradition that’s older than time really is incredible.  It’s a feeling that is almost beyond description, kind of how people back home would describe Christmas, or how our Muslim friends would describe Ramadan.  Though there is an underlying reason for the celebrations I’ve just listed, family really plays a central role in all of them.  I was happy to celebrate with my new family, and look forward to Di celebrating with ours in the future years.

So another lunar year has passed, and with the start of the year of the rabbit Di and I would like to wish everyone a year full of health, happiness, and prosperity.  Happy New Year!