(Chinese New Year at the Grassroots Level) "Foreign Son-in-Law" Steve's Chinese New Year Interests
Chinanews.com, Hohhot, January 26, title: "Foreign son-in-law" Steve's Chinese New Year fun
Chinanews reporter Li Aiping
41-year-old Steve has been in China for 10 years, but he is not very fluent in Chinese.
Even so, it does not hinder his exploration of Chinese Mongolian New Year customs, because he has a good wife—Lin Na, who will try to answer his curious questions.
During the Spring Festival of the Year of the Rabbit, Steve looked at the meat on the table from morning to night every day, and asked Lin Na very puzzled, "What is this custom?"
"This is our Mongolian New Year's custom. It's on the table, but it doesn't have to be eaten." Lin Na told her husband Steve from New Zealand.
Ten years ago, Lin Na met Steve when she was studying in New Zealand, and the two quickly fell in love.
After Lin Na graduated in 2013, Steve followed her back to China for development.
At first they worked in Xi'an, Shaanxi. During this period, Steve, who was amazed by the magnificence of Qin Shihuang's Terracotta Warriors and Horses, developed a strong interest in Chinese culture.
When he was in Xi'an, his happiest thing was "riding a bicycle on the city wall of Xi'an and enjoying the city view."
In 2017, due to the needs of career development, Steve came to live in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region with Lin Na. He said: "This is a city completely different from Xi'an. I fell in love with the salty milk tea here at first, and it feels so good. "
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, Steve and Lin Na have lived in Hohhot for 5 years.
Steve, who already had two sons under his knees, gradually integrated into the "prairie city" of Hohhot.
During the Spring Festival, under the guidance of Lin Na, Steve used khata to greet the elders and sent simple blessings.
Due to Steve's blunt Chinese pronunciation, it also had a "comedy" effect.
The open-minded Steve doesn't take these "embarrassing things" to heart. He is especially curious about giving children "lucky money" on the first day of the first lunar month.
"Why do children under the age of 12 get 'lucky money', but married people don't have 'lucky money'?"
Steve, who has spent five Chinese New Years in the local area, was puzzled by the upside down posting of the word "福" during Chinese New Year. Later, Lin Na told him that it meant "lucky home".
Steve said humorously, "Chinese culture is so broad and profound, you have to study hard."
During the Chinese New Year, Steve was most "nervous" about "identifying relatives": Lin Na's family had many cousins, cousins, cousins, and cousins, and he didn't know how to call them.
"These titles are very simple in English, but they are too complicated in Chinese. Every Chinese New Year, I have to remind myself not to make mistakes." Steve said, "You must go to the countryside as soon as possible. After a few years, maybe you will still It will become a China hand."
"During the Spring Festival, relatives gather together to drink and sing, and the singing sounds one after another, which makes me feel a different kind of happiness." Steve said, this is his favorite atmosphere in Hohhot.
During the Spring Festival, facing the care and greetings from relatives and friends, Steve would answer concisely in Chinese: "I like Inner Mongolia, we love Inner Mongolia." (End)