New Year's, Chinese style

During Chinese New Year, there is much more celebration than anything I have ever experienced in the US, even our Christmas. Buildings are covered in red banners and streets are packed with parades, dancers, food carts, and people. The Lion (Dragon) Dancers have to be one of the best parts of the celebration. These dance troupes are paid by the wealthiest businesses to dance ceremoniously outside. A worker inside the building pretends to lure the lions (which look like dragons to me) in with a bunch of celery-looking greenery and a red envelope filled with coins. The lions enter the building and "bless" it with good fortune. Outside, there is a little group of musicians with enormous, booming drums, setting a beat for the dance.

I spent hours following a group from building to building before they went to the town square where enormous stilts were placed. To my utter amazement, the dancers, two or three to a costume, climbed up and leaped from stilt to stilt while maintaining both the beat and the uniformity of their lion shape. It is truly an art.



The other amazing part of Chinese New Year was the proliferation of fireworks. Big ones, small ones- all are "officially" illegal, yet everyone had them. Even my friends who were cops. The first night of the firework displays, after a wonderful feast at a friend's home, I was led up to the roof of the apartment complex. There I saw the massive fireworks from an American Fourth of July being let off all around us, in every direction. I stood in awe as the sky filled with colorful lights and the sound of booms and whistles reverberating from every corner of my little city! And I was told this was just the beginning of several nights of such displays. I couldn't wait.

The next day, a friend (we'll call him DY) came from a neighboring town, promising a big surprise for me. DY had a car- very rare in our neck of the woods- and he asked if he could take my laowai (foreign) friends and I somewhere special that evening. I asked my friends David and Vrinda along and, after another delicious feast, we set out for the outskirts of town in DY's fancy car. When we'd reached a spot where no buildings could obstruct out view, DY pulled to the side of a road. We got out and looked: along the entire stretch of the horizon, more fireworks were exploding! I reached for my camera, to find I'd forgotten it at the house. DY reassured me and said his surprise would make me feel better. He led me to his car trunk. Inside, was a giant white cardboard box with red Chinese symbols. I looked at him quizzically and he laughed, lifting it up out of the trunk. On the ground, it reached nearly to our hips. David seemed to catch on, and asked DY if it was safe. DY assured him it was and asked for some help carrying the box. The two of them carried it to an open track of land, and I saw DY pull something from his pocket- a lighter. "Get back, everyone," he said. I finally got it: he had gotten hold of some 4th of July sized fireworks! I had no time to ask questions, though. Fireworks shot up into the sky directly above our heads, exploding in such loud bursts that I covered my ears. Tiny fizzles of light cascaded about our shoulders. It was exhilarating. Every so often there would be a pause and DY would approach the box to relight- and every time, I pictured the most horrible idea of the entire box going up and taking DY with it. He managed to get out alive, however... and gave me one of the very best memories of my life.

While on the subject of fireworks, I have just one more funny bit. After our fun with DY, we arrived back to our favorite little bar to find a group of our police friends whispering and plotting. Two of the men went off in a truck, while the rest of us sat back and had some pijou (weak Chinese beer). They were soon back with a truck full of small (and-ahem!- illegal) fireworks. We took armfuls of Roman candles and other pieces to the square across the street, while a couple of the men stood watch at the street corners. From time to time, a shout would raise and we'd all scoop up fireworks and run to a nearby building until the coast was clear (but would we have even gotten into trouble? The patrolmen were their friends, after all...) Playing with fireworks is fun, but that much more so when everyone is slightly worried we could be caught!