Lao Nainai Explains
Fading Away
The slow disappearance of Beijing’s hutongs
When entering a Beijing hutong, it often feels more like the site of a temple fair. The narrow alleys are full of ringing bells from bicycles passing by, and all around there are hole-in-the-wall restaurants, fruit stands, tiny shops, snack vendors, barbers and peddlers of all sorts. It’s also common to see groups of elderly citizens playing mahjong or Chinese chess.
For many local residents, hutongs are more than clusters of intricate lanes and courtyards. They record the memories of the rapidly disappearing lao Beijing lifestyle.
Because of the close-knit way hutongs are laid out, with many families sharing the old siheyuan courtyard houses, neighbors tend to have strong relationships and bonds between each other. They help each other take care of their children, make collaborative renovations to their shared space and celebrate festivals together.
Peking Operatics
Colorful faces, dazzling costumes and kung fu acrobatics
Peking opera first surfaced in 1790 during the Qing dynasty, when the four largest opera troupes from Anhui province entered the capital. When the famous Hubei troupes began arriving in the north during the 18th century, they would often perform with these Anhui ensembles as well, and after 50 or 60 years they gradually combined to form the styles of what are now Peking Opera’s main melodies. Even if you are not a big fan of opera, you will be entertained by the visual spectacle of Peking opera!
Tomb Sweeping
The Qingming Festival (清明节) is a time when families gather together to visit the graves of ancestors and sweep their tombs. To some, this may seem like a strange tradition, but for the Chinese, it is a very important custom. It’s held on the 104th day after the winter solstice, and falls this year on April 4. The festival began over 2,500 years ago during the Zhou dynasty (roughly 1046-221 BC) as a day to remember and give thanks to past generations. Young and old alike pray before the graves, sweep them and offer food, tea, wine, chopsticks and paper money to ancestors. Qingming (清明), which means “clear” and “bright,” is considered to be the best time to begin the springtime farming; hence many Chinese farming idioms often refer to the festival as well. For example: “Come Qingming, plant melons and beans” (清明前后, 种瓜种豆), and “For planting trees in the forest, don’t miss Qingming” (植树造林, 莫过清明).
Climbing the Imperial Ladder
The origin of the China’s historic examination system
For thousands of years, a select few in China would spend their entire life struggling to do one thing: pass the Imperial Examination (科举, keju). Organized by the imperial government, this exam could open key doors for those wanting to enter the state’s bureaucracy, especially for those who lacked wealth and high-level contacts.
New Mom Soups
Two recipes for break milk boosting broths
For thousands of years, Chinese people have believed in the benefits of using food as a medicinal substance, and for thousands of years, they’ve been sipping up medicinal soups. If you have a headache, the Chinese say, drink some soup; if you can’t fall asleep, drink some soup; if you want to enjoy a longer life, just drink some soup. Most of all, if you have recently had a baby and you want to promote lactation, drink some soup!
Lots of different foods are considered helpful for milk production, including fermented glutinous rice, octopus and fish tails. Two foods most widely believed to help with a quick recovery from childbirth, and, most importantly, to increase breast milk, are papaya and pig feet. Below are two popular recipes featuring these ingredients.
Spring Festival Customs
Monsters, Firecrackers & Red Envelopes
Almost everyone has heard about Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year (chunjie), the most important holiday in China. Traditionally, festivities begin on layue 24 (the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month), and finish on zhengyue 15 (the 15th day of the first lunar month), and preparations for this celebration begin several days or even weeks in advance. The festival dates back over 4,000 years, and Chinese people still follow traditions passed down through the generations, though most of the present-day customs have been simplified. Here are some examples of a few practices that have survived and are still widely celebrated in China.
The Zhua Zhou Way
A traditional look at how the Chinese predict a child’s future
While most Chinese people no longer believe in it, zhuā zhōu (抓周) – an ancient method for predicting an infant’s future career – has been delicately preserved as a traditional custom. Many Chinese parents still hold the event on their child’s first birthday. Zhua, or “to pick,” and zhou, meaning “first anniversary,” is a ceremony at which parents place a variety of objects, each symbolic of a future career path, on a plate and then have the child pick one. Supposedly, the object the child selects will not only reveal their future career but also certain personality traits and interests.
Chinese Baby Showers
A party for the baby, with unusual presents
Though it has the same name as the Western practice of throwing a party for a mother-to-be, Chinese baby “showers” are actual baths given to newborn babies. It is an ancient Chinese ceremony held on the third day after a baby’s birth – as Chinese people regard three as a lucky number – and was once one of the most important traditional Chinese customs surrounding early childhood. Called “xi san” (洗三) or “third wash,” the practice is believed to help dispel any bad luck which might follow a baby into the world, so that a baby’s life can begin afresh.
Tiger Heads and Rabbit Fur
The origin of traditional Chinese shoes
Traditional Chinese children's shoes are believed to have their roots in the Warring States Period, approximately 2,600 years ago. It was then that the head of the Jin Kingdom, an area roughly outlined by present-day Shanxi province, ordered all the maids in his palace to embroider ten kinds of fruits and flowers on their shoes in remembrance of the great deeds he had performed. This practice eventually made its way to the people and it became a tradition for mothers to make similar shoes for their children.
Among the most common shoes made for toddlers were "tiger head shoes," usually sewn from cotton with tiger heads embroidered on the toes. To make them appear more vivid and lifelike, rabbit fur would sometimes be attached to the mouth and ears, so it would flutter in the wind like the fur of a tiger.
What Will It Be?
Can you predict your baby’s gender?
Long before there were sonograms, expecting parents still placed bets on the gender of their unborn children. In China, there’s lots of folklore about how to predict a baby’s sex based on the nature of the mother’s pregnancy. Recently, a new mom (known as “Tiantian Mama”) gathered the most popular predicting traditions and posted a list of them on her blog.
Perhaps because Chinese doctors are not permitted to tell parents what gender their child will be, Tiantian Mama’s list gained instant popularity, quickly making its way on to a number of Chinese child-rearing websites and forums. The general consensus in the Chinese blogosphere is that some of the listed clues actually have predictive merit, while others are useless but amusing. Here’s our summary of the popular post.
