{"id":697417,"date":"2024-02-16T18:43:42","date_gmt":"2024-02-17T02:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=697417"},"modified":"2024-02-22T12:42:29","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T20:42:29","slug":"fireworks-family-fights-blizzards-and-dragons-cdts-archive-of-2024-lunar-new-year-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2024\/02\/fireworks-family-fights-blizzards-and-dragons-cdts-archive-of-2024-lunar-new-year-content\/","title":{"rendered":"Fireworks, Family Fights, Blizzards, and Dragons: CDT\u2019s Archive of 2024 Lunar New Year Content"},"content":{"rendered":"
As China\u2019s Lunar New Year holiday continues throughout this week, CDT Chinese editors have collected and republished over a dozen essays, articles, and other content reflecting the zeitgeist of the transition from 2023\u2019s Year of the Rabbit to 2024\u2019s Year of the Dragon. As blogger Xiang Dongliang noted, this year\u2019s holiday was notable for <\/span>fewer red envelopes<\/span><\/a>\u2014but more advertisements on CCTV\u2019s annual televised Lunar New Year\u2019s Gala. It was also notable for the <\/span>sheer number of people traveling<\/span><\/a> (<\/span>610 million train tickets<\/span><\/a> were sold in the two weeks before Lunar New Year) and disruptions due to <\/span>heavy snowstorms and blizzards<\/span><\/a> in many cities and provinces of central and eastern China, including Chongqing, Guizhou, Hubei and Anhui.<\/span><\/p>\n The Lunar New Year\u2019s content archived here can be divided into several broad categories: hometowns and family life, winter weather, the challenges that lie ahead, and language and culture.<\/span><\/p>\n Hometowns and Family Life<\/strong><\/p>\n A question posted to the Q&A site Zhihu (\u201c<\/span>Why do so many families fight during Lunar New Year?<\/span><\/a>\u201d)<\/span> drew numerous detailed responses, some of them quite dark, covering the gamut of family dysfunction, mental health issues, strictures of tradition and patriarchy, and parental pressure to marry, reproduce, or earn more money. Zhihu user <\/span>WDKYMYS <\/span>answered that they hate going home for Chinese New Year because of their parents\u2019 dysfunctional marriage and constant bickering, and confided that they often wished their parents would just get a divorce and be done with it. Another Zhihu user, writing anonymously, observed that younger people living in the city tend to put up a false front and revert to ossified gender roles when visiting parents or in-laws in the countryside, which can lead to arguments. Respondent <\/span>\u7b11\u767e\u6b65 (<\/span>xi\u00e0ob\u01ceib\u00f9<\/span><\/em>) listed four factors fueling familial conflict during the New Year: increased financial burdens, tight quarters shared with relatives, status competitions, and loss of faith in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n An article from Weibo account \u4e66\u751f\u610f\u6c14\u770b\u4e16\u754c (<\/span>sh\u016bsh\u0113ng y\u00ecq\u00ec k\u00e0n sh\u00ecji\u00e8<\/span><\/em>, \u201clooking at the world from a scholarly temperament\u201d) notes that for many middle-aged workers, this Lunar New Year is <\/span>a time of anxiety due to the widespread problem of unpaid wages<\/span><\/a>. But for younger people returning to their hometowns at New Year, writes the author, the main source of anxiety is familial pressure to settle down, get married, or have children. Many find themselves fending off parental pressure to get set up on dates, go on blind dates, or accept the services of a matchmaker; some would rather avoid this by not going home at all.<\/span><\/p>\n WeChat account 3\u53f7\u5385\u68c0\u7968\u5458\u5de5 (<\/span>s\u0101nh\u00e0ot\u012bng ji\u01cenpi\u00e0o yu\u00e1ng\u014dng<\/span><\/em>, \u201cthe ticket-taker in theater three\u201d), which covers current events from a cinephile\u2019s perspective, <\/span>wrote a New Year\u2019s essay about the invisible sacrifices and contributions of women<\/span><\/a>. Per the account\u2019s focus on film, the author dissects two female cinematic characters whose unwavering support of the male protagonist is overlooked and ignored: <\/span>Qin Cairong<\/span> from the <\/span>quirky 2021 sci-fi film \u201c<\/span>Journey to the West<\/span><\/a>\u201d (Chinese title:\u300a\u5b87\u5b99\u63a2\u7d22\u7f16\u8f91\u90e8\u300b<\/span>Yuzhou tansuo bianjibu<\/span><\/em>) and Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer from the 2023 biopic \u201c<\/span>Oppenheimer<\/span><\/a>.\u201d The author also mentions the films \u201c<\/span>Barbie<\/span><\/a>\u201d and \u201c<\/span>Everything Everywhere All at Once<\/span><\/a>,\u201d as well as \u201c<\/span>Tell Me, Mom\u2014Why Would I Bother to Get Married?<\/span><\/a>,\u201d a spoken-word video that has been viewed over one million times on Bilibili. Addressing her mother, the video\u2019s narrator says, \u201cDad loves Lunar New Year, but I know you hate it, Mom, because while he and his friends are eating and drinking and <\/span>talking big<\/span>, basking in familial warmth and affection, you\u2019re slaving in the kitchen alone. And after all the dishes have been eaten, after all the friends have left, you\u2019ve got more work to do, picking their garbage up off the floor and cleaning up their mess.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Winter Weather<\/strong><\/p>\n For many traveling home for Lunar New Year, the joy of family reunion was tempered by travel delays and disruptions due to intense snow and rainstorms in many areas of the country. A Sanlian Lifeweek Magazine feature described some of the <\/span>nightmare travel scenarios<\/span><\/a>: fliers stranded at Wuhan’s Tianhe Airport for 30 hours; drivers navigating icy roads, sleeping by the roadside, or caught up in a six-mile-long traffic jam on the Shanghai-to-Chengdu section of Wuhan’s Outer Ring Expressway; and a family trapped in their car for 18 hours on the final 50 miles of their journey home to Hubei. The <\/span>Beijing News WeChat account focused on human interest stories<\/span><\/a> published a similar feature, with <\/span>photographs of traffic jams<\/span><\/a>, trees and plants covered in ice, people pushing vehicles through snow, and vendors selling noodles and other snacks to stranded motorists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n