Like I was saying, the New Year seemed to have come and past in a flash. But for one culture, this is not the case. Can you guess which one I am talking about? Here's a hint:
If you said New Yearland (I mean New Zealand), try again with "China."
Yes, the cool thing about China is they essentially have TWO New Year celebrations. The first is what we Americans consider to be the New Year on January 1. The second happens to fall on February 12. It changes every year because it is based on the lunar calendar.
In Chinese class, my Chinese teacher is having us prepare a New Year's Celebration that evening at the school. She is inviting the Chinese community in our city to come, in addition to our parents and school administration. It's going to be a Chinese potluck and performance event.
The Chinese potluck is pretty self-explanatory: everyone brings a Chinese food dish (aka try to, but chips and cookies are welcomed). The Chinese performance starts to get interesting. Each class is doing something a bit different. Our class is reading Chinese idioms and performing two skits: The Five Brothers and a Mulan Cross-Talk.
When I did my google search to find an idiom to read, I came across many. Most weren't very enlightening. Neither is the one I selected. But I thought it was stupidly funny. It's called Cover One's Ears to Steal a Bell. It goes a little something like this:
"Long, long ago, there was this guy who wanted to steal his neighbor's bell. Knowing it made noise when moved, he decided to cover his ears. So when he stole the bell he covered his ears and couldn't hear it ring. He was very surprised when he got caught the second he had retrieved the bell."
Today you might say, "What they are doing is like covering their ears to steal a bell." It's foolish and stupid...and funny.
For the skits, we all have parts (some in English, some in Chinese). My favorite line in my part is when I sing "Reflection" from the movie Mulan (did I ever mention I like writing sarcastically at times?). So I changed the script. Other than that, it's fine. The guys in our class advised that we choreograph the performance. I wish they were being sarcastic.
Now, don't get me wrong about the celebration. I think it's a great idea. What better way to collide two cultures together. And plus, the potluck portion is like the cherry on top....I wonder if they have such a phrase in China.....I guess I'll just have to bring some cherries to the
event and find out.
*Image courtesy of Qstarz International
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