Me & City (Suzhou, China)

The Tiger Year is near the corner! You know what Chinese do specially to celebrate the most important festival among the whole year—The Spring Festival?  Making Chunlian and Chinese Fu is one of the interesting and meaningful custom passed down generation by generation.

Chunlian, literally translated as spring festival couplets, is made by writing a couplet in Chinese calligraphy on two strip-type papers with red background.  The couplet for Chunlian, usually very nice verse, always express some lucky, good fortune, prosperous, peace and joy wishes people dream of in the coming new year.

Unlike Chunlian, which is made up of poetry, Chinese Fu only contains one Chinese character, Fu(福), literally means good fortune and happiness. When making Fu, the red square paper is usually rotated by 45 degree. I’m not sure if there is any special reason but personally I think it can have the character written as big as possible and looks nicer after rotating:）

It’s not still over when Chunlian and Chinese Fu is readily made, they have to be stuck on door before the first day of the new year. Remove the old Chunlian & Chinese Fu and replace the newly made ones, so done!

Okay, would like to get Chunlian and Chinese Fu or have interests in making them yourself? There are two events you may join!

Free Chunlian Giving Away
Date & Time: 31st, Jan. PM 2:30
Location: Huxi Community Working Committee Building 4th fl. 165 Xinghai Street, Suzhou, SIP
Organizer: Huxi Community Working Committee
Contact: E-mail: huxiexpats@163.com/Call: 86-512-8818 3536

Jiaozi Party & culture activity

In China, we call the last month(12th) of the lunar Calendar La Yue, the server winter, and the Laba festival is on the eighth day of the month, exactly today!

According to the legend, people used to worship ancestors and pray for a plentiful of harvest & good fortune on the 8th day of  La Yue since the pre-Qin history. It is also said that the day of Laba is on which Sakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, realized the truth or philosophic theory after cultivating for 6 years under a pipal tree in an extremely arduous situation.

Chinese have a tradition of eating Laba rice porridge on that day wishing good luck for more than one thousand years, dates back Song dynasty. Laba porridge, tastes naturally sweet, is made up of a variety of fresh grains, nut meat and fruits which is harvested during the same year.  The main materials of Laba porridge is rice, usually polished round-grained rice, glutinous rice and seed of Job’s tears are preferred.  There is a wide range of colorful ingredients for Laba porridge, including peanut meat, dates, walnut meat, lotus seeds, small red beans, soy beans, chestnut meat, dried longan pulp, etc.  Add anything else if you want to be creative!

Have a bowl of hot Laba porridge in such a super cold day will be so enjoyable:)  You really can’t  miss it, and the good fortune!!

The Urban Best Practices Area, in which those honored cities show their idea and achievements,  is a big innovation of EXPO 2010 Shanghai.  It will be one of the centerpieces of the Expo 2010.  Cities have opportunity to display their experiences with urbanization in the area covering about 15 hectares in total.

Suzhou is so lucky to be one of the 55 listed cities all over the world who have halls to display their own. Under the title of  “The Protection and Renovation of the Suzhou Old City”,  Suzhou will show its achievements in protecting and renovating the city’s cultural and historical sites in the Urban Best Practices Area at Expo 2010.  Suzhou hall covers about 370 square meters.

A official movie introducing Suzhou on different aspects composed of  Suzhou image, Suzhou life, Suzhou new humanities and Suzhou new spirit is also busy preparing.  Suzhou will show her style to the wrold!

2010 is near the corner and so is EXPO 2010! I will continue to update the information & news on Suzhou at the EXPO 2010 Shanghai.

As 2009 comes to the end, the Circular of the General Office of the State Council released the  statutory holidays in 2010!

Please note in order to get longer and continued holiday time, taking extra days off during the weekdays are generally made up by woking on Saturdays and  Sundays instead.

New Year’s Day: Jan 1st to 3rd, a total of three days’ holiday.

Spring Festival: Feb 13th to 19th, seven days’ off.
On Feb 20th (Saturday) and Feb 21st (Sunday) everyone will resume normal work.

Tomb-Sweeping Day: April 3rd to 5th, three days off.

Labor Day: May 1st to 3rd,  three days off.

Dragon Boat Festival: Jun 14th to 16th,  three days off.
Everyone will work on Jun 12th (Saturday) and Jun 13th (Sunday)

Mid-Autumn Festival: Sep 22nd to 24th, three days off.
Everyone will work on Sep 19th (Sunday) and Sep 25th(Saturday)

China National Day: Oct 1st to 7th, 7 days off.
Everyone will work on Sep 26th (Sunday) and Oct 9th(Saturday)

Today is Winter Solstice Eve, also known as Midwinter Eve!  First let me tell you in short, it’s a big day for Suzhou natives!

Winter Solstice, one of the 24 solar terms in the lunar Calendar and usually falls in the fourth week(around the 22nd) of December in the Gregorian Calendar. It is the day of the year with the fewest hours of daylight.

The custom of  celebrating Winter Solstice Day by Suzhou natives dates back more than 2000 years ago，when the Kingdom of Wu adopted the Calendar of the Zhou Dynasty from which Winter Solstice is recognized as the first day of new year. So there is an old local saying in Suzhou  that “Natives celebrate Winter Solstice Day as big as New Year’s!”.

Just as in Christmas, the most important moment is the eve of the festival—Winter Solstice Eve.  A sumptuous dinner is usually well prepared to have a wonderful family reunion on the eve . Among all the elements of the fancy meal is Dong Niang Wine (冬酿酒), literally translated as Wine Brewed in Winter. It’s a rice brewed wine prepared about two months before the Midwinter Day made up with glutinous rice, sweet osmanthus and water is a must.

In Suzhou, Dong Niang Wine is a special seasonal wine, tastes  light and naturally sweet only made for the Winter Solstice. As the holiday approa ches , you can find the wine easily in many markets,  from big supermarkets to little grocery  stores. Besides, some Suzhou time-honored brand shops supply Dong Niang Wine brewed on their own every year as a tradition, such as Yuan Da Chang.  Most older natives prefer to wait in line for the wine brewed by these old shops,  maybe because the wine has accompanied them since their childhood!

Just as everybody know “When you in Rome, do as the Romans do”, I’d like to say when you in Suzhou, especially if you spend the Winter Solstice Day here, drink the Dong Niang Wine as the Suzhounese do! Cheers!

Art Museum of Suzhou Art Academy is a new museum opened recently. It locates in the east of Jinji Lake, SIP close to the Times Square. The background of AMSAA is Suzhou Art Academy so this museum mainly focuses on the art works from Suzhou local and peripheral artists. To some degree, the art works show and represent local art style. It’s really a good place to enjoy if you would like to feel something about local art.

click to view more photos

The museum will operate art works show(Chinese painting and Chinese calligraphy) periodically. A show of  The Masterpieces From The Ancient and Modern Famous Artists is held at present (Until the end of Oct.) to celebrate the opening of  AMSAA.   If you have time, rush for the day:)

Address:  Xinghu Street (Southern Square E-103)
Open Hours: 9:00 AM- 5:00PM
Admission: Free