Meeting the Mayor of Maizidian

Thursday night we were invited out to a New Year’s celebration at the Maizidian community centre. Maizidian is a sub-district of Beijing with about 35,000 people (although I suspect the actual number may be much more). The theme of the evening was, “The Olympics and Foreign Friends in Harmony for the Chinese New Year”. The stated intention was to introduce foreigners (of whom there are many in the area) to traditional Chinese culture and to help Maizidian citizens learn to speak English. We set off without any clear idea of what we were attending, but the evening turned out to be quite pleasant. We were directed to a table stacked with New Year’s treats and Chinese wine. Our tablemates were all Chinese and spoke very little English, but we smiled and gestured a lot. I exchanged business cards with several gentlemen. They seemed very concerned that I try as much of the food as possible. There were oranges, bananas, cooked sweet potatoes, odd tasting candy and what I would call sweet desserts but very strange. One was a coconut ball with bean curd inside, another was cold dough rolled around some sort of bitter spice and sticks of toffee fruits. I tried everything but didn’t have any seconds, except for the dumplings and wine! There were several traditional craftspeople making candy ornaments and also jianzhi (paper cuts).

Shortly after we arrived, the entertainment started. There was a juggler juggling a huge clay pot, a fashion show with middle-aged women in traditional dress, a dumpling-making competition, African and Greek folk dancers, a face-changer, a calligrapher and a magician. Eunice, one of our friends who teaches with us was called up by the magician to turn paper into money. You’ll see her in the pictures; she is wearing a white jacket. There was also a lot of media there, perhaps 12 or 15 professionals taking stills and video. Which explains how I came to be seated with the mayor. I was up taking pictures of the face-changing dancer and one of the mayor’s aides came and asked me if I liked dumplings. Next thing I knew I was eating dumplings at the head table next to the mayor. The accommodations at the head table were very nice – crystal, ivory chopsticks and gold edged plates. Anyway I ate several dumplings while the media clicked away, spoke with the mayor, toasted, exchanged cards, shook hands and smiled. I suspect I appeared on some morning news show – the white face with the mayor! Anyway, it was all very jolly; we had fun and were home around 10.

New Years celebrations are upon us in earnest; we have been hearing and seeing fireworks for about a week, but the pace is increasing. This morning we began hearing them at about 6 AM and they have been going off all morning. I feel a bit like I imagine our students felt at Christmas. I know there is a celebration, but I don’t know what to expect. We noticed some shops and restaurants closing earlier in the week as the owners and employees visit their families. I also noticed that there were more people in the streets with suitcases than usual. Most Chinese people we know are traveling home to their native village for the weekend. So it is just as well that we are leaving Beijing today as I think the whole town might close down for a day or two. We are leaving for the airport for a 5 PM flight to Hanoi. Xin Nian Kuaile, Happy Chinese New Year!