Xin Nian Zai Wuhu

As I write this, I’m sitting with the Tu family in Wuhu (芜湖) watching TV. I guess you hear a lot about 春节 (Pinyin: Chun Jie. Literally ‘Spring Festival’ but mostly known as Chinese New Year) traditions, and I wasn’t quite sure what I was in for when Lydia Tu invited me to spend Chun Jie in Wuhu with her and her family. But as far as I can discern, the only real Tu family tradition is to watch the evening TV specials. Everyone else’s prerogative seems to be to use their ample supply of fireworks to make as much noise as humanly possible.

We did also have a Chun Jie dinner that, to borrow a phrase from Arlo Guthrie, couldn’t be beat. I think the first phrase Lydia taught me after arriving in Wuhu was “吃饱了”. Her parents were really concerned that I wouldn’t like rice and roasted chestnuts, yet apparently hadn’t even considered the possibility that I wouldn’t like beef tripe or boiled pig’s feet. As far as the whole “reunion dinner” thing goes, Lydia explained that most families in the cities only have New Year’s dinner with their nuclear family. Her adorable fourteen year-old cousin 黄鑫 (Huangxin) came over though. Lydia said that the most important thing about Chun Jie is that you shouldn’t spend it alone. Wanting me to stay here with her family instead of going back to my hotel is the only thing she’s really insisted upon since I’ve been here.

I’ve been having a wonderful time in Wuhu though. As I alluded to before, they felt that their apartment was too small and insisted on putting me up in a hotel. I remarked to Lydia that I’d ask to help pay for it, but that I knew she wouldn’t let me. She looked at me very seriously and asked how I knew that. I replied that I’d already spent two weeks with an Asian family. It turns out that Lydia’s favorite thing to do when she’s home on break is to sleep in and watch gritty war films all day long. It’s like I’ve died and gone to heaven. Her favorite movie right now is Saving Private Ryan, and I’m taking my job of introducing her to Band Of Brothers very seriously. Of course her parents are dreadfully worried that I’m bored out of my gourd, and tomorrow we have to go into town to keep them pacified.

Wuhu is a four hour bus ride south of Shanghai (or five and a half hours if the traffic is bad. Guess how I know that). It’s a small city, having only about 4.8 million residents, so roughly the population of Singapore and the size of Portland metro. I’ll be able to give a better report after tomorrow, but as far as I can tell Wuhu is pretty representative of most of the mid-sized cities in China; modern enough, but still not quite in the 21^st century. It reminds me a lot of what I’ve seen on former communist bloc cities in Eastern Europe. People live comfortably enough, but outside it’s dirty and there’s lots of what we’d call “urban blight” in Eugene.

Lydia’s, and even Huangxin’s English is quite good, but when Lydia isn’t around to translate, I’ve been able to communicate with her parents without too much trouble (although it’s true that most of our conversations only consist of asking whether I’m hungry and/or if I like what’s on TV). The TV specials are apparently hilarious, but I can’t understand much. There all variety shows with comedy sketches interspersed with song and dance performances, and here and there a magic show. While I can’t understand much, the dancing is really interesting (some of the acrobatics are pretty amazing), and as Lydia says, “Music is universal.”

I’ve spent most of the evening writing and showing Huangxin my pictures and old Chinese homework. She liked reading through my old Chinese end-of-the-term skits. At first she thought Taylor London must be a girl. I guess she assumed this because his Chinese name (罗泰岚) sounded feminine. I told her people have the same problem with his English name. At exactly midnight, all hell is supposed to break loose. And by that I mean, every poor yokel is going to put on a firework display that would rival most professional shows back home. And as I said before, noise is the main object. I’ll try to snap some pics while I’m walking back to the hotel, so I can post them with this tonight.

新年快乐！

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