We now enter the year of the dog, which happens to be my year. One would
think that this would be a lucky year for me, but in fact, according to my chinese friends, it's actually unlucky and I'm supposed to wear red underwear to keep the bad luck at bay. I'm not sure if this means I'm supposed to wear red underwear every day for the whole year (I haven't been able to get a straight answer from anyone on this issue). if so, I'm going to need to go shopping.

The actual New Year's eve was Saturday. I didn't go out of town this year for the festival, instead opting to stay on home turf. On Thursday, I went to visit my friend in the countryside who lives on a mountain outside town. Her family was having their "tuannianfan" -- a big meal sometime in the days before New Year's that you hold for relatives and good friends. Luckily, the weather was beautiful that day, one of the very few sunny days we've had here in the last couple of months. Before lunch, Shuhui, her daughter, and I were standing on the top of a small hill where they lay out bamboo mats for drying rice and corn on. There were two chickens that were pecking at the rice, and Shuhui kept shooing them away (they were a neighbor's chickens, so it wasn't even their chickens getting fat off their rice), but the darn things kept coming back. Finally, her daughter charged at them, screaming and waving her arms and those chickens took off, one of them at a run with flapping wings, but the other one actually took to the sky and flew downhill about thirty meters. That was pretty exciting. I've never seen a chicken fly before. There was also a sort of visual poetry in seeing the chicken take off, since the year of the rooster was coming to an end. It would have only been surpassed if it had been a dog that chased it away.

Anyway, as we headed down the hill, we ran into Shuhui's husband getting on his motorbike with a basket on his back from which steam was rising.

I looked in the basket only to find a cooked chicken and the smoked face of a pig. He was going to their family's ancestral graves to offer food to their ancestors. I was curious about what would happen to this food, but my answer came when we ate lunch, and among the dishes were cold spicy chicken and slivers of smoked pig face.

The tradition of visiting ancestral graves and making offerings is important, especially around New Year's. It's not like the tradition is only kept alive in the countryside. My good friends in Yaan that I spent New Year's eve with had been out of town for two days just so they could visit their relatives' graves a couple hours away.

They offered food and burned money (it's not actual money, but it really does look very much like the RMB that I spend every day). Xinping told me it's especially important for relatives that have passed away fairly recently, like her grandmother that died two years ago.

Speaking of old people's health, last week I went and spent a few days at my friend Hongxia's house to celebrate her grandpa's birthday. She also lives in the countryside -- you may recall that I spent national holiday there the first autumn that I was here, and I went again last winter to join their house-raising party. At that point last year, her grandfather and her father were in a big fight because the house that her father built messed up the "feng shui" of her grandfather's house somehow. Her grandfather was so angry that he went to stay with one of Hongxia's aunts and her family for a few weeks until things cooled off, so he wasn't there for the house-raising party. Well, this time the party was for him (apparently the family dispute was resolved awhile ago). He was turning 73 or 74 -- no one was quite sure which -- and I asked if they had such a big party every year for his birthday. By big party I mean 60-70 guests, caterers (hired to make such celebratory morsels as stewed turtle, fried pumpkin cakes, and dozens of other dishes), and mahjong playing that went on for three days (when I first arrived, I sat down to play, but lost 80 yuan in an hour -- that's about $10, which is quite a lot here -- and so for the rest of the weekend I was just a spectator). Hongxia told me that they wouldn't normally have a big party, but her grandpa's health has not been good lately, and in Chinese culture it's traditional to have a big party for an older person's birthday if this is the case, so that you can encourage them to get better. While one would wish that this would always cure them, it does occur to me that if Hongxia's grandfather were to pass away, then at least he would have had a big party in his honor and got to see everyone together and happy one last time.

I learned about another instance of lucky/unlucky things while I was there. One evening, as we were getting ready for bed, one of their roosters started crowing. I commented to Hongxia that it seemed weird for a rooster to crow at night and she told me this is considered bad luck. She told me about one of her neighbors whose rooster crowed at night once. She went and grabbed it out of the pen, slit its throat, and threw it over the house to counteract the bad luck. Hongxia's father did not take these actions, but she said she could tell it made her father and her stepmother nervous to hear their rooster crow at night.

The day I left, my stomach was not feeling too good; Hongxia and I had gone into town the previous day so she could buy new clothes for the New Year and we'd eaten the Shuangliu delicacy -- rabbit heads -- which are good, but I think my stomach did not agree with them. So at lunch, I stayed away from the meat dishes and just ate veggies and rice. When one of Hongxia's aunts deposited a chicken foot in my bowl, I explained that I wasn't eating meat. Her great-uncle then asked if I was a devout Buddhist (the very devout are vegetarian), and I explained that no, I just wasn't feeling well. This led to a discussion of western vegetarian.

Chinese eating habits (a favorite topic here -- I have this discussion with everyone I ever share a meal with) and Hongxia said I eat everything (which is true). Her uncle asked if I'd ever eaten snake, and I said, "no, but I'd like to try it." So he promised that the next time they catch a big snake, they'll invite me to eat "phoenix and dragon stew" --
chicken and snake stew (the chicken represents the phoenix and the snake represents the dragon...in Chinese culture the phoenix and the dragon often go together). I think I may have the next big thing for campbell's soup to start marketing.

Alright, I'm off. I have only a few hours until I'm supposed to be back over at Xinping and Hong's house for more feasting, mahjong, and beat the landlord. I think I'm going to try to fit a run in, if I can dodge the kids setting off fireworks. It's actually not terribly loud here on the campus because there are wide open spaces, but in my friends' apartment complex, the sound is all contained and therefore deafening.

Oh, and just to make sure you all learned something today, here's your quiz (answers at the bottom):


1. What color underwear should one wear during their year on the lunar calendar?

a) gold

b) red

c) none -- one should go commando

2. Can chickens fly?

a) yes, always

b) yes, but only when scared

c) yes, but only if they're in an airplane



3. Why is molly so bad at mahjong?

a) she's not Sichuanese

b) she gets it confused with rummikub, the game of German origin she

plays at her grandmother's house in Illinois

c) scientists have clocked Sichuanese people playing mahjong at close

to the speed of light, and this gives molly a headache

d) all of the above



4. What are the main ingredients in "phoenix and dragon stew"?

a) chicken and snake

b) eagle and kamodo dragon

c) phoenix and dragon...duh!



Molly


Answers: 1(b), 2(b), 3(d), 4(a) and if you didn't get them all right, go
back and read this email again!