这是她最近杜撰的关于中国新年的小小说,妈妈看着还过得去. 贴子长了点, 哎.
There are some names/places need to be update, but just post as is.
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A Chinese New Year Disaster
It was February 14, 1972, in Jintang County, almost the Year of the Rat. I woke up and heard Mama’s voice calling, “Liqing!” I groaned and reluctantly climbed out of my bed.
Then I remembered what day it was. New Year’s Eve!
“Coming!” I shouted. I ran out of my room and saw Mama cooking rice porridge.
I knew what she was going to say even before the words came out of her mouth. “Happy New Year’s Eve! How does it feel to be almost eleven years old?”
I didn’t say anything until I ate breakfast. I was about to reply when I heard something.
Thump, went a something in Mama and Baba’s room. I knew it was Baba’s big box of decorations. Xiaoming, my thirteen-year-old brother, stuck his head out of his room. “What was that?” he asked sleepily.
Mama shook her head. “You two are the sleepiest kids on the planet.” She turned around again and said, “Well, if you have nothing else to do, run to the tailor’s and get some thread. Your Baba’s coat’s full of holes.” She handed me a bag and some money.
I ran out of the apartment, running down the stairs. Xiaoming followed me, yelling for me to wait for him, but I didn’t. We zigzagged through the streets, dodging peddler’s carts and the bikes and cars dotted here and there on the road. The winter air was sharp and cold, and I breathed it in to keep me awake.
As we got nearer to the tailor’s shop, which was right across from the marketplace, we nearly crashed into other people who were shopping. China is a country that likes fresh food, so we go to the marketplace for our meals, every day, and since it was New Year’s Eve, today the streets were especially clogged with people, walking and biking and driving.
I stopped when I got to the tailor’s. Xiaoming, breathless, finally caught up with me. We crossed when we were sure there weren’t any cars zooming toward us, and went into the small shop. The tailor, Huiliang, smiled and winked as he dropped the thread spools, plus one extra, into our bag and said, “Happy New Year!”
I hurried out of the shop, dragging Xiaoming with me as he tried to admire the different fabrics. Huiliang was a good friend, and for some weird reason, Xiaoming had always wanted to be a tailor. I still don’t know how sewing in a dusty shop all day is fascinating.
We ran up the apartment stairs and knocked on our door, and Mama opened it. She let us in, and we started helping her with the New Year decorations.
By the time we were done, the house was completely transformed. It was swept clean, so that all possibilities of bad luck were banished from the apartment. There were festoons of lanterns and the upside-down fu, the symbol for good luck. Everything was red, the color of good luck. Baba smiled. “It looks perfect!”
“Now let’s hang up the chun lian,” said Mama. She took out three red banners with gold lettering on them, and we went out into the hallway. Mama and Baba hung up the top one, I taped up the one on the right, and Xiaoming did the same thing on the left. We stepped back and admired it for a few minutes.
Then we went out into the streets again. People were all over, just like before. They were all out to get the same things: New clothes, haircuts, food for the feast, and of course, lots and lots and lots of firecrackers!
We went into a shop and bought some clothes. I got a beautiful blue dress and shoes. Then we all went and got a haircut. Mama’s long hair was cut short, but I only let them trim mine.
We had a very busy day, sweeping and putting up decorations and shopping. Finally, we had a feast. Mama surprised us all when she put a roasted and stuffed duck on the table in front of us. We hadn’t seen her buy a duck! She must have bought it when we were out to get the thread, and hidden it. There were dumplings and soup and rice! When I was done eating, I sat back and listened as Baba told us the story of how the New Year began, just as he did every New Year.
“Long, long ago, there was a monster called Nian, the Chinese word for year. Every year, it came and ate livestock and people, destroying the villages. The people were forced to have an annual migration up the nearest mountain. They waited fifteen days before coming down again, just to be safe, and they were safe for many years.
“But one year, a woman was much too old to make the climb, so she stayed in the village where she would be eaten by Nian. The spirits felt sorry for her, so they told her that Nian was afraid of fire, loud noise, and the color red. She put chun lian and firecrackers in front of her door, so Nian couldn’t enter her house.
“The next day, Nian came. He destroyed the entire village, all except for the old woman’s hut. When the other villagers came back down again, they were amazed that she was still alive. Since then, every New Year we put chun lian and lanterns on our doors and light firecrackers.”
We rose from the table and went to bed.
The next morning, we woke up and dressed in our new clothes. We greeted each other with Happy New Years, joined the crowd in the streets, and watched the lion dance. Two people were under a lion puppet. The one in the back controlled the tail. The one in the front controlled the eyes and the mouth. The lion was supposed to ward off bad luck.
When we returned to our apartment, Mama and Baba opened a drawer and handed each of us a red envelope. We tore them open excitedly. It was traditional to give children money on New Year, because it was also our birthday. In China, people didn’t have separate birthdays. We all turned a year older on New Year.
Today was a day for visiting the oldest members of the family, so we had a party at Baba’s parents’ apartment. We sometimes visited Yeye and Nainai, but usually it was on New Year. Baba’s younger sister was there, too. She has three children: Ruolan, Qinsheng, and Xueqin. Qinsheng and Xueqin are both a year younger than Xiaoming. They’re the noisiest twin brothers on the face of the earth! Ruolan’s my best friend. She’s my age and nothing like her brothers.
We had another feast which was the same as yesterday’s, except instead of a duck there was an enormous fat pig. It was delicious! Yeye is a master storyteller. He can make a dragon eating lunch with you sound perfectly normal. This year he made up an adventure for us about finding gold in an evil spirit’s cave. Nainai mostly just sat in her rocking chair knitting, but once in a while she would laugh at Yeye’s crazy stories.
The first day’s always fantastic, but I knew there was more to come. There are fifteen official days of New Year, though most people only celebrate the first week and fifteenth day. The Lantern Festival.
On the second day, it’s traditional for mothers to visit their parents, so we all went to Mama’s parents’ apartment. Gongon and Popo hugged us as soon as they saw us. They never got to see us, except on New Year. Mama has a twin sister who was also there. She only had a son called Jianyu, a quiet boy who was seven years old, almost eight.
We had yet another feast. Gongon smoked his pipe and Popo told jokes and riddles. We had a very fun time.
The third and fourth days were spent visiting Jianyu and Ruolan’s families. Jianyu’s apartment was boring because he was so quiet, and Qinsheng was trying to throw apples at me. Ruolan had a little bit of a cold, so I didn’t have such a fun time, but I was too fast for my apple-throwing cousin.
On the fifth day, I woke up to the smell of pot stickers. I dressed and ran into the kitchen in my new clothes. We had a good breakfast of dumplings, and didn’t do anything else that day until after dinner. Then we ran outside and joined the small crowd of our neighbors and friends who were all lighting firecrackers. The bangs and shouts were deafening, but that was the point of lighting firecrackers.
The sixth day was the same. I lay in bed that night, thinking about the past few days and looking forward to the next. I fell asleep and had nice dreams about feasting on dumplings and lighting firecrackers.
Little did I know what would happen.
In the middle of the night, I was woken up by a rumbling sound, almost like thunder. I threw off my covers and sprinted across the apartment to my parents’ room, banging the door on the wall. “What’s that noise?” I asked.
Mama and Baba were already sitting up in bed. “We have to get out of here,” said Baba. “Pack as much as you can. Don’t worry about Xiaoming, we’ll wake him up.”
I hurried back to my room and picked up my school backpack on the floor, stuffing some clothes and blankets in. I took down the lanterns hanging in my room. Just in case we didn’t come back in time for the Lantern Festival.
We all gathered at the table in the main room. Baba and Mama both had old plastic shopping bags. Xiaoming was also using his school backpack. Each of us grabbed some of food from the cupboard: a loaf of bread, some of the left-over apples… It didn’t matter much what we were going to eat, it only mattered that we had something to eat.
The next few moments passed in a blur: leaving the apartment in the pitch dark, the rumbling sound growing louder every second, thousands of other families streaming out of apartments until we were in the middle of a massive throng. Some people seemed to know what was going on, and led us to the outskirts of the town and up a small hill.
We climbed a little bit. The fittest climbed higher, as if they were getting away from something. The sick or old climbed as far as they could go, which was pretty impressive, with the roaring sound spurring them on. The elders sat down, but most of us paced restlessly around.
We picked a level spot for camping, then Mama and Baba went down to take care of our grandparents. After a lot of searching, I found Ruolan. “What’s happening?” I asked.
“I don’t really know,” she said. “My parents whisper to each other, but what I could make was that there’s going to be some sort of disaster. They can feel it, and I can too.”
A disaster. A New Year disaster. That was what I was thinking when the rumbling got even louder, and suddenly the sound broke and there was a huge crash. We all watched as water flooded through part of the city. It rumbled and growled. It was the monster of the New Year. Just like Nian.
Everyone was stunned. How were we going to celebrate New Year now? We sat there and grieved, but soon we became sleepy and finally closed our eyes.
The next morning I woke up and stretched, frowning. My mattress was harder than normal and bumpy, and the air seemed fresher than normal. Then I remembered what had happened last night and scrambled up, looking at the water below. The seventh day of New Year was our birthday. What a great birthday present.
People started to get up around me. We were all in our pajamas, so we looked kind of funny, if it hadn’t been for the sight below. I wondered what would happen to all of us.
“I guess there’s nothing to do except to wait for the water level to go down,” said Ruolan. Her family was camping right next to us. “Thank god it’s just a minor flood. But meanwhile, we still have to celebrate the seventh day! Happy eleventh birthday!”
We went around saying “Happy birthday!” to a lot of people, most of who we didn’t know. There was nothing to do but wait.
The eighth day was the day when our family stopped celebrating Chinese New Year, since this was the day that school and businesses would reopen. But since there’d been a flood, and the people on the hill were getting really bored, we celebrated anyway. Traditionally we were supposed to have a family dinner, so that’s what we did. We all gathered down with Gongon and Popo and Nainai and Yeye. There was also Mama and Baba’s sisters, Ruolan, Qinsheng, Xueqin, and Jianyu, and another pair of grandparents. Luckily my uncles were single children, or else our family dinner would take over the whole hill.
It was a cheerful family reunion, although it wasn’t exactly a feast. We all brought some food. Yeye told stories, Popo told riddles, Nainai laughed, Gongon chuckled. The other pairs of grandparents were shaking hands with the rest of us as if they’d never met before, which was a complete lie, since they met us every New Year. They pretended to forget all about us after the eighth night, because they hated us so much.
The next five days were resting days to prepare for the Lantern Festival. We did nothing except talk and eat and run around the hill. Somehow we managed to not starve, but we were always a little hungry. On the thirteenth day, I looked down at the water that had been going down all week. Now it looked like it was get about the right level for us to wade in it. After lots of begging, we finally got to test it out. We ran down the hill and jumped into the water. Bits of wreckage were floating around, but nothing seemed to be seriously damaged. The water was knee high now, so we guessed that it would go down before the Lantern Festival.
When everyone heard the news, they were really happy. Every family had at least one lantern, just in case they didn’t come back in time for the Lantern Festival. We had a giant meeting and agreed that the day of the Lantern Festival we would all go down the hill and get ready for the parade through the streets.
The next day everyone was excited and began preparing for the Lantern Festival. People found candles and matches. People who had them gave some to the people who didn’t, and in the end all of us would have enough only for one night. To save up the candles, we agreed we wouldn’t use any until the night of the Lantern Festival.
We begged and pleaded, but Mama refused to have us go down the hill again without someone with us, and no one wanted to go down that day. All we could do was run away from Qinsheng. He was still throwing apples at us, but he still couldn’t get us.
The fifteenth day arrived. I woke up at sunrise and saw Xueqin sneaking down the hill. I decided that it wouldn’t be disobeying Mama if I went with him, because she only said I wasn’t allowed down the hill alone.
I followed Xueqin down the hill to the water. Now the water was retreating a bit, so it didn’t lap at the edges anymore, but when we waded a little farther, it was as deep as before. I didn’t think it would be a good idea to have the Lantern Festival while wading through water. I wondered what would happen.
“Water’s supposed to be good luck,” Xueqin said bitterly. “It’s supposed to make farmers rich. But too much water is bad luck, too.”
We went sadly back to the hill. I told Ruolan about it, and she said, “Well, I don’t know, Liqing. Maybe there won’t be a Lantern Festival this year.”
No Lantern Festival? There had to be a Lantern Festival! It’s part of our culture, of who we are. No matter what, we had to have a Lantern Festival!
Soon everyone gathered at the top of the hill, which was our meeting place. “Let’s head down the hill now and prepare for the parade,” said Huiliang. His apartment had been flooded too. “We were supposed to have it all ready by now. We’d better hurry.”
We all went down the hill and waded into the water. I knew there was no point in trying, so I just watched. Everyone was disappointed when they realized that the water was still too high. Soon they gave up. As we were walking back up Xiaoming saw me and whispered, “Liqing, will you help me prove that the Lantern Festival’s important?”
“We don’t need to prove that the Lantern Festival’s important,” I said. “We just have to prove how important it is. But Xiaoming, elders parading through the streets in knee-high water? I don’t know if we can convince many people. I know it’s important, but how important is it to other people?”
“You have a point, but please? Liqing, you’re my sister.”
“No.” I turned around and raced away.
That day, everyone was downtrodden. Even Qinsheng didn’t feel like throwing apples at us. I was silently cheering for Xiaoming’s motivation to celebrate the Lantern Festival, but that didn’t mean I wanted to help hi.
The day passed by without any mention of the Lantern Festival. The next day was the same. I woke up on the seventeenth day and felt hungry. I searched around in my backpack to see if there was any food left. There was none, so I searched Xiaoming’s bag. His was empty too. And so were Mama’s and Baba’s, except for three mooncakes.
I was worried. How much longer could we last on this hill? Maybe if we all helped out each other and controlled how much we ate every day, we might survive a few more days, but would the water clear up by then?
I walked down the hill, thinking that I would just take a few steps into the water, when I saw Xiaoming. I looked at him and thought, Well, since he’s so motivated, I might as well just help him with the Lantern Festival.
I walked over. “Hey, Xiaoming,” I said. “Do you want some help?”
He turned around. “You can try out the water.”
“Okay, but since Mama won’t let me go alone, will you come with me?”
“Sure.” Xiaoming followed me down the hill. I started running, and this time he had no trouble keeping up with me. We raced down and splashed into the water. I blinked in surprise when I felt the cold water surrounding my ankles– not my knees, my ankles. The water level had gone down so much over the past few days, and I hadn’t even noticed it, I was so busy being mad at Xiaoming.
We raced up the hill again, yelling, “The water’s gone! The water’s gone!” Everyone who heard us were excited. Soon everyone was packed and rushing down to the water. When they realized that they could walk through it easily, they all pulled out their lanterns and ran into the streets. Every family had a lighted lantern. The parade started and went through all the streets.
We were really happy to see that the Lantern Festival had been celebrated after all, but we had lost Mama and Baba. Suddenly there was a hand on my shoulder and I looked up to see them. Huiliang was with them too. “I’ve been talking to your parents, Xiaoming,” he said to my brother. “We agree that you can be my apprentice in the tailor shop.”
“Really? Thanks so much! When do I start?”
“Tomorrow, if the flood hasn’t damaged anything.” Huiliang smiled.
Ruolan and her brothers came up to us with lanterns. We paraded through the streets and finally got home again, taking off our soaked shoes and socks, and dropping into bed, still in our pajamas.
Everyone ends up safe and happy, except for Ruolan and her family. It turns out that her apartment was one of the few that got entirely wrecked, so they had to move in with us. Ruolan shares a bed with me, Xueqin and Qinsheng moved in with Xiaoming, and their parents have the guest room.
Days are slowly getting back to normal. The water’s gone completely now, and we spend our time running through the streets and eating. It’s great to have enough food again.
Suddenly, something hard and round hits me in the back of the head. I nearly fall over and look at the apple at my feet, then look around at a grinning Qinsheng, holding up ten more apples. I don’t like to admit that he finally caught me off guard, so I just roll my eyes and walk away.
Even though the New Year was a little spoiled by my annoying cousins and the flood, they did add a little more excitement. Enough excitement to make this a New Year that I’ll never forget.
Glossary
Baba: In Chinese, this means “dad.”
Chun lian: red banners to hang on doors. They have couplets in gold lettering on them to ensure good luck and protection. There are three of them: the shortest, reading left to right, goes on top, the longer ones, reading from the top down, to the left and right. Traditionally they’re prayers to the men shen.
Fu: A character. It means fortune and good luck. Turned upside-down, it’s a pun in Chinese that means “luck has come.”
Gongon: In Chinese, this means “maternal grandpa.”
Jintang County: A county in the eastern part of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, China. It covers 1,154 square kilometers and has a population of about 870,000. Its name in Chinese means “gold room.”
Mama: In Chinese, this means “mom.”
Nainai: In Chinese, this means “paternal grandma.”
Nian: The monster. Its name literally means “year.” Every time Nian came to a village, the people would go up the nearest mountain and stay there for fifteen days. One day a woman was too old and tired to make the trip, so she scared Nian away with red and firecrackers.
Popo: In Chinese, this means “maternal grandma.”
Yeye: In Chinese, this means “paternal grandpa.”
