Year of the Golden Fire Pig
Best wishes to everyone for the year of the pig, which starts on February 18. Not just any old pig either, but a Golden Fire Pig, something that only occurs once every 600 years in the Chinese zodiac. Apparently children born under this sign will live in comfort with wealth and luck always nearby, and as a result hospitals and clinics across China and Korea are seeing a 20-50% increase in pregnant women registering as patients. I was skeptical about this but it turns out that two of Ethan’s Chinese staff are planning to have babies this year! Interestingly, it is a very black year in the Tibetan calendar, one in which they predict terrible things will happen, leading to some discussion between Ethan’s Tibetan and Chinese staff. One of the Tibetans said, “what’s so lucky about pigs anyway? They just get fattened up to be eaten!” You can read more if you care to at www.firepig.com.
Perhaps because it’s a special year, or just because pigs are such a popular animal over here, China has really gone to town with the pig-themed decorations. The whole city is full of pigs: pink fluffy pigs, brassy golden pigs, 20 foot high inflatable pigs - there’s no danger of forgetting what year it is. But at least there are no actual livestock, so far. Two years ago many of our neighbours bought roosters to celebrate the year of the chicken, resulting in a dawn chorus of crowing that gradually diminished as the birds went into the pot. Last year the number of pet dogs around town seemed to increase as well, some no doubt ending up in the same place as the roosters. This year we are assuming the process will not be repeated with pigs as they are not so easy to keep in an apartment, not to mention the possibility of swine fever. Although, that is one of these health scares which, like bird flu, seems to have faded away without becoming the world-wide epidemic it was predicted to be. Fingers crossed. But I do see a pattern emerging here: perhaps these health scares are actually linked not to Chinese farming methods but to the Chinese zodiac? If so, be on the look-out for a rat-related health scare next year …..bubonic plague perhaps?
We are staying here in Chengdu for the holiday and it will be nice to have a quiet week at home. Very quiet in fact as many people leave the city and go home to the countryside. However, the people who do stay in the city will be setting off a lot of fireworks, so when it's noisy, it's really noisy. The streets are already noticeably emptier, especially compared to the hectic bustle of the past few weeks, when everyone was frantically shopping for gifts and new clothes to take home. It's traditional for everyone to have a new outfit for the new year, although Xiao Long's daughter is only having new sneakers this year because she did not do as well as usual in her end of term exams. She only scored 85% on her mathematics exam, which is apparently bordering on disgraceful.
Xiao Long has gone home for two weeks. At the beginning of the week I felt a bit overwhelmed to be back in full-time housework and childcare mode, but I am really enjoying hanging out with the boys. They are still getting along great guns, despite the odd territorial skirmish. Sam has just started walking and staggers along with both hands held out in front like a miniature Egyptian Mummy in a horror film. Isaac has taught him to respond to the question “where’s Mama?” by sticking his finger up his nose, which Isaac thinks is the funniest thing on the planet, and that makes Sam scream with laughter as well. Of course he responds to “where’s Dada?” or Isaac or Ayi by pointing at the correct person.
Right now Sam can say about equal numbers of English and Chinese words, a handful of each, to the immense pride of our housekeeper or “ayi”, Xiao Long, who gives him intensive coaching on the Chinese side. He can’t pronounce ‘m’ so he calls me baba instead of mama and this confuses the heck out of everyone because it is Chinese for Daddy. So we get a lot of conversations like these:
Xiao Long: "Sam, say Mama"
Sam: "Baba"
XL: "No, not Baba, Baba's not here, say Mama"
Sam: "Baba!"
Isaac: "Sam, where's Mama?"
Sam sticks finger up nose. General hilarity.
It’s interesting to see how the first words differ in the two languages. Leaving aside mama and dada, in English Sam can say dog, bee, apple, moo and Buddha (see below!). In Chinese he can say ayi (aunty), che (car), yu (fish), ge-ge (older brother) and jie-jie (older sister). Note that three out of the 5 are terms of address for people. This is important because from birth children here learn to address other children by one of four terms: ge-ge (older brother), jie-jie (older sister), di-di (younger brother) or mei-mei (younger sister). This is not just for family members but for every child: friend or stranger. When your child meets another child you are supposed to say “call her mei-mei” or “call him ge-ge” and the child learns to dutifully pipe up “mei-mei” or whatever. The same applies to adults: you teach your child to address them as aunty, uncle, grandma, grandpa etc. But I find the terms of address for children especially interesting because they require the child to look at the other person and decide whether he or she is older or younger, and that determines the nature of the relationship. You have to think: is this person an “older brother” who is going to look after me and I have to show some respect to, or a “younger sister” whom I have to look after? It’s all part of the Confucian social hierarchy and you carry on doing it all your life, to some extent. Although of course rules are made to be broken, even in China.
You may be wondering why one of Sam’s first words is “Buddha”. We are as well to be honest. He says it many times a day: “booo-daaaa”, grinning and staring up at the bronze Buddha statue on top of the bookshelf. Now, there are two interpretations of this. One is that it is an easy word to say and he enjoys the enthusiastic reaction it gets from us. The other is that sometime soon a big Tibetan Lama is going to walk in here and declare him the reincarnation of another big Tibetan Lama and whisk him off to a monastery for the rest of his days. I’ll keep you posted.
Perhaps because it’s a special year, or just because pigs are such a popular animal over here, China has really gone to town with the pig-themed decorations. The whole city is full of pigs: pink fluffy pigs, brassy golden pigs, 20 foot high inflatable pigs - there’s no danger of forgetting what year it is. But at least there are no actual livestock, so far. Two years ago many of our neighbours bought roosters to celebrate the year of the chicken, resulting in a dawn chorus of crowing that gradually diminished as the birds went into the pot. Last year the number of pet dogs around town seemed to increase as well, some no doubt ending up in the same place as the roosters. This year we are assuming the process will not be repeated with pigs as they are not so easy to keep in an apartment, not to mention the possibility of swine fever. Although, that is one of these health scares which, like bird flu, seems to have faded away without becoming the world-wide epidemic it was predicted to be. Fingers crossed. But I do see a pattern emerging here: perhaps these health scares are actually linked not to Chinese farming methods but to the Chinese zodiac? If so, be on the look-out for a rat-related health scare next year …..bubonic plague perhaps?
We are staying here in Chengdu for the holiday and it will be nice to have a quiet week at home. Very quiet in fact as many people leave the city and go home to the countryside. However, the people who do stay in the city will be setting off a lot of fireworks, so when it's noisy, it's really noisy. The streets are already noticeably emptier, especially compared to the hectic bustle of the past few weeks, when everyone was frantically shopping for gifts and new clothes to take home. It's traditional for everyone to have a new outfit for the new year, although Xiao Long's daughter is only having new sneakers this year because she did not do as well as usual in her end of term exams. She only scored 85% on her mathematics exam, which is apparently bordering on disgraceful.
Xiao Long has gone home for two weeks. At the beginning of the week I felt a bit overwhelmed to be back in full-time housework and childcare mode, but I am really enjoying hanging out with the boys. They are still getting along great guns, despite the odd territorial skirmish. Sam has just started walking and staggers along with both hands held out in front like a miniature Egyptian Mummy in a horror film. Isaac has taught him to respond to the question “where’s Mama?” by sticking his finger up his nose, which Isaac thinks is the funniest thing on the planet, and that makes Sam scream with laughter as well. Of course he responds to “where’s Dada?” or Isaac or Ayi by pointing at the correct person.
Right now Sam can say about equal numbers of English and Chinese words, a handful of each, to the immense pride of our housekeeper or “ayi”, Xiao Long, who gives him intensive coaching on the Chinese side. He can’t pronounce ‘m’ so he calls me baba instead of mama and this confuses the heck out of everyone because it is Chinese for Daddy. So we get a lot of conversations like these:
Xiao Long: "Sam, say Mama"
Sam: "Baba"
XL: "No, not Baba, Baba's not here, say Mama"
Sam: "Baba!"
Isaac: "Sam, where's Mama?"
Sam sticks finger up nose. General hilarity.
It’s interesting to see how the first words differ in the two languages. Leaving aside mama and dada, in English Sam can say dog, bee, apple, moo and Buddha (see below!). In Chinese he can say ayi (aunty), che (car), yu (fish), ge-ge (older brother) and jie-jie (older sister). Note that three out of the 5 are terms of address for people. This is important because from birth children here learn to address other children by one of four terms: ge-ge (older brother), jie-jie (older sister), di-di (younger brother) or mei-mei (younger sister). This is not just for family members but for every child: friend or stranger. When your child meets another child you are supposed to say “call her mei-mei” or “call him ge-ge” and the child learns to dutifully pipe up “mei-mei” or whatever. The same applies to adults: you teach your child to address them as aunty, uncle, grandma, grandpa etc. But I find the terms of address for children especially interesting because they require the child to look at the other person and decide whether he or she is older or younger, and that determines the nature of the relationship. You have to think: is this person an “older brother” who is going to look after me and I have to show some respect to, or a “younger sister” whom I have to look after? It’s all part of the Confucian social hierarchy and you carry on doing it all your life, to some extent. Although of course rules are made to be broken, even in China.
You may be wondering why one of Sam’s first words is “Buddha”. We are as well to be honest. He says it many times a day: “booo-daaaa”, grinning and staring up at the bronze Buddha statue on top of the bookshelf. Now, there are two interpretations of this. One is that it is an easy word to say and he enjoys the enthusiastic reaction it gets from us. The other is that sometime soon a big Tibetan Lama is going to walk in here and declare him the reincarnation of another big Tibetan Lama and whisk him off to a monastery for the rest of his days. I’ll keep you posted.
posted by Cat Platt at 10:55 pm
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