Folk traditions and customs of the New Year meal vary across China: Northerners eat dumplings, Southerners eat rice dumpling, Nian-Gao; In Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and other places, people eat Tangyuan, either deep-fried or broiled. In one word, “Customs are different from area to area even if they are located only more than 50 kilometers away from one another.”

Here, I will show you some examples how Chinese people in different regions start their New Year with the first meal.

According to Chinese calendar, this year, Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) is on February 14th, the same date for western Valentine’s Day. Theoretically, these co-incidences should happen every 19 years on average, but the next Spring Festival/V-Day won’t come until 2048, which is 38 years later.

Now Chinese people especially young lovers are facing a dilemma.

President’s Artwork
Can you imagine President Bush singing a Texas folk song or President Sarcozy carving a sculpture of Venus? mmm, it must be interesting to see that happen. Here, as the photo above shown, it is a traditional Chinese papercut artwork cut by Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2007. During the Chinese New Year time of 2007, he visited a village in Gansu Province and made this papercut to share the happiness of New Year with the host family.

Storyteller: According to Chinese lunar calender, the Chinese new year is coming soon. In 2009, Jan 25th is the new year eve; Jan 26th is new year’s day.We are going to say goodbye to the awful 2008 (the year of rat) and hello to a brand new 2009 (the year of ox).  If you have some impression about Chinese zodiac 12 animals, probably you have a question in your mind: where is cat, why is cat not on the list?  Don’t Chinese people love cat?  Yes, we do.  Since the …