Reportage
Year of the Rabbit: the Chinese dream of openness and gentleness
At the Lingyin temple in Hangzhou, January 21, 2023. © Stéphane Lagarde/RFI
Text by: Stéphane Lagarde Follow
4 mins
Midnight ravioli this Saturday evening January 21 for the Chinese, Koreans and Taiwanese who celebrate the entry into the year of the rabbit, an animal that the Chinese hope is synonymous with sweetness, after three years of closure of the country under the policy zero Covid.
Reporting from Hangzhou, eastern China.
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From our correspondent in China,
It's a busy day at the "temple of the retreat of the soul", on the heights of Hangzhou.
It is one of the largest Buddhist monasteries in China.
Incense sticks held with clasped hands, pilgrims and tourists alike hope for a peaceful moon change after the turbulent Year of the Tiger.
China year zero
These three young women came to see their families for the Lunar New Year.
Arms laden with packages at the exit of a souvenir shop, they take advantage of this first vacation without health restrictions to pray and shop.
“The Spring Festival” which follows the Chinese New Year, is a celebration of sharing and altruism: “
Here, we pray for the happiness of all
”.
This prayer is shared by many Chinese who would like to turn the page on those years when China isolated itself from the world to protect itself from the virus.
Hangzhou year zero and even China year zero, after Covid zero.
On the large stone slab covered with sinograms at the entrance to the temple, it is still on the character of "happiness" (福
fú
in Chinese) that visitors come to press, on tiptoe and with outstretched arm, the palm of their hand.
Happiness and wealth (财富
Cáifu
), because these three years of closure have also cost traders dearly.
In the parking lot, at the foot of the climb that leads to the temple, a guard in uniform expresses his newfound joy, cheerfully blowing into a harmonica.
“
The Year of the Rabbit is very good,
he said.
You see those lights, everything is open!
For three years, it was closed here.
Now it's slowly reopening.
Life returns, as before!
»
► Also to listen: in
China, those who do not go on vacation during the Lunar New Year holidays
Concern for rural people
Life as before, but Omicron continues to run in China.
If the health authorities affirm that the peak of
contaminations
has passed, for hospitals the entry into the year of the rabbit, this January 22, remains tense.
The most vulnerable people, often elderly, continue to flock to the emergency room.
The great Chinese New Year migration - more than two billion trips are to be made between January 7 and February 15 - could worsen an already complicated epidemic situation.
In a series of videoconferences with caregivers, the Chinese president on Wednesday January 18 expressed his concern for the countryside, where medical establishments are less well equipped than in megacities.
“
I am especially concerned about rural areas and our farmer friends, of whom there are many
,” said Xi Jinping.
Despite calls for caution from some experts, many families have chosen to reunite after three years of deprivation.
In the countryside of Hangzhou, on the way to the temple, January 21, 2023. © Stéphane Lagarde / RFI
► To read also:
travelers happy to leave with family for the Lunar New Year, despite the epidemic
The rabbit, the child's friend who also has teeth
In the taxi that brings us back from the heights of the "western lake" where the monastery is located, the driver tells us about Georges Pompidou who came here in 1973 and about the pauwlonia, the Chinese "imperial trees", which line the roads in Hangzhou and since renamed "
faguo tong
" - the "French trees" - in homage to the French Prime Minister of the time.
“
Deng Xiaoping also visited the temple
,” adds the driver.
Five years later, the policy of the “four modernizations” and the opening up to red capitalism began.
“
Hopefully the opening or reopening picks up speed with the Year of the Rabbit
,” he continues.
The Rabbit is historically known as the most tender and outgoing of the twelve Chinese zodiac animals.
But beware, say the cautious commentators, the friend of children also has teeth.
And then, the rabbit is also the rabbit symbol of the
#MeToo
movement in China.
In Mandarin, 'Me' sounds like (mi) 'rice' and 'Too' sounds like (tu zi) 'rabbit'.
A movement particularly repressed during these years of closure of the country.
► To read also: China: with the Lunar New Year, the fear of a new wave of contamination
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