China News Service
February 15, 2022
Overseas China(www.Chinaqw.com), the online homeland for Chinese expatriates all over the world, held a live streaming sharing on the evening of February 14th. Three expatriates, living in Japan, the US and Thailand respectively, shared with us how they celebrated the Chinese New Year, the Lantern Festival as well as the Winter Olympic Games.
Fu Yumeng, an information blogger in Yokohama, Japan, said that when the Spring Festival arrives, Chinese expatriates there usually raise red lanterns, paste spring couplets and the Chinese character “Fu” (meaning good luck). “We stayed at home this year because of Covid-19 pandemic”, he said, “so I made for myself a spicy hot pot on the New Year’s Eve, in the hope for a booming new year.” As the Chinese New Year came to an end, Fu also ate yuanxiao (Chinese glutinous rice balls) on the day of the Lantern Festival, wishing for a year with full energy and every success.
“I was born in the Year of Tiger, and that’s why I’ve bought a lot of red clothes for good luck”, said Wang Sichun, a Chinese expatriate in Los Angeles, who has celebrated the Spring Festival abroad for the third time. “Amusingly, with the new clothes on, I lost my cellphone on the first day of the New Year. But you get nothing new until the old is gone, so I believe it marks a brand-new upcoming year!” Wang ended jokingly.
Han Bing comes from Northeast Thailand, the place where many expatriates from Hainan Province live. “That’s why we celebrate the Chinese lunar New Year in the same way as Hainan people do, enjoying chicken rice, for example.” He joked then, “We usually visit relatives and friends in the new year, only to find our food and taste exactly alike. It shows our high degree of recognition for hometown food, doesn’t it?”
As the Chinese New Year coincides with the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the three overseas Chinese also shared their stories about the Olympic Games. Fu Yumeng told us that Yuzuru Hanyu, the figure skater, is the athlete who draws most attention from Japanese audiences. Besides, Bing Dwen Dwen, the mascot of the Games, is now the most popular in Japan. Lots of his friends told him “Bing Dwen Dwen is definitely cute and lovely!”
Wang Sichun, a Beijing native, expressed the thrill and excitement to see Winter Olympics being held in his hometown from far away. “Only with a strong motherland can we overseas Chinese have confidence in ourselves,” he concluded.
Han Bing told us that he had been particularly looking forward to watching the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, as he believed the chief director Zhang Yimou would make it another exceptional one after the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
Rewritten by Wang Shan and Xi Kun, Fudan University
