February 23 2007 Gung Hay Fat Choi

Well I’ve been through my first Chinese New Year in Hong Kong. As a Gweillo outsider I have enjoyed the experience. I dabbled in bits and pieces of the holiday, wished people “Kung Hay Fat Choi” and handed out Lisee (red packets with money) to service personnel around the apartment.

On the Friday before the holiday I went to the Lunar New Year Fair in Victoria Park. It was like a giant carnival midway, with thousands of pig balloons for sale. I went for the flowers; there were hundreds of flower stalls, selling very specific types of flowers, most for $88 HKD (8 is a very lucky number). I bought peach blossoms, forsythia branches, all kinds of yellow, pink and red flowers (the colors of prosperity and money). I had beautiful bouquets of flowers all over the apartment, and today (a week later) I went out and replenished them, because now they’re all really cheap. In fact I picked out some lilies at a flower stall in Central today and the lady threw in 3 more stalks because they were going to go bad.

At the fair everyone seemed so happy and excited. They advised me on my purchases and told me which peach blossom branch to buy. They took it very seriously – the blossoms had to be perfect. The Chinese were being very Japanese about their flowers!

Sunday was the first day of the lunar New Year. On Monday night we went over to Kowloon to Aqua to eat a special meal, and to watch the fireworks. It’s too bad that it was so cloudy and rainy, but the fireworks were still spectacular. The paper said that there were Chinese characters in the fireworks but I sure couldn’t see it! Actually the strangest thing about that night was that they had all of the streets closed off in Kowloon. I’ve never seen anything weirder than thousands of people walking down the middle of Nathan Road.

Chinese New Year is a family holiday. Family members go to each other’s houses and eat huge meals with special food. People travel long distances to be with their families. Now that I see what an important holiday it is here, I feel sorry for my Chinese friends in the US. They must have felt very lonely and sad when the lunar New Year came and they were too far away to be with their families.

One day I was going out and I got in our elevator. A Chinese family was in the elevator. The little boy and girl were dressed in their Chinese outfits. The little boy was about 5 or 6 years old and was beside himself with excitement. He just couldn’t stop talking, about his clothes, his new book, and the many different ways to say “happy new year” (English, Cantonese AND Mandarin)! He was so cute, and just like an American kid would be about Christmas. I was tickled.

Things have been quiet in Hong Kong this week, but not completely dead. Some things are open (the malls, some restaurants), but the streets were uncrowded and the traffic was pretty sparse. By Wednesday it was time to start handing out red packets with new money. I was nervous at first, but I quickly realized that nobody is insulted by a red packet. People just seem happy and grateful. I kind of feel like I’m giving out valentines. I still have quite a few to give out; hopefully I’m not missing anyone. I need to go to the apartment gym and give them out there. I’d like to give some to the cleaning ladies around the apartment and the little air conditioning maintenance guys. I think I have up to 15 days after the holiday begins to give them out.