農曆新年 Lunar New Year

This is the last week of my monthlong winter break, which in Asia centers around the Lunar New Year instead of Christmas.  It was exciting to be here for the single most important holiday of the Asian world.  The world’s largest annual human migration occurs as city-dwellers go home to visit their families, sometimes for the only time that year.  This is why domestic travel bans have such a big impact on migrant workers in China, who often have no other opportunity to see their children and parents in their smaller hometowns.

While the anticipatory air leading up to the new year was special, it was also nerve-racking knowing that most businesses would be shutting down for a full week, and Taipei was about to become a dead city with few places to find food.

Fun fact: if you go to MacDonald’s on the 31st,
they will give you a red envelope

1/30: Considered the last day of this lunar year.  Everyone cleans their house to prepare for 除夕 New Year’s Eve.  I swept my dorm in comradeship with the other 2 billion people doing it that day to welcome in a new year.  Then, I went with friends to the traditional new year’s market on the historical 地話 Dihua Street.

People often gift oranges in the New Year season

The historic LNY market was full of Taiwanese treats and nuts

1/31: 除夕 New Year’s Eve Everyone has a 團圓飯 or a big reunion meal with their whole family, then they 守歲 or stay up all night to see out the old year and ring in the new.  I went on a run through the neighborhoods this morning and saw so many people burning joss paper in tiny portable fire pits on the street in front of their apartments.  Joss paper is sheets of gold and red set aflame to honor those who've died.

2/1: 大年初一 First Day of the New Year This is the day when younger people will 拜年 or pay their respects to elders.  In practice, children will spend time with their grandparents, and their grandparents will give them 紅包, red envelopes filled with money.  Red envelopes are very symbolic of the holiday; bosses will use them to give bonuses to their employees, and friends will exchange them with cards inside.

2/2: 大年初二 Second Day of the New Year Traffic is especially busy on this day, because traditionally women will 回娘家, or go back to their families, while they were with the man’s family earlier in the week.

2/3: 大年初三 Third Day of the New Year Children have been running around wild with their cousins for the past week, so parents tell them today is 老鼠娶親, when the rats are getting married, so everyone needs to be quiet and go to bed early.

2/4: 大年初四 Fourth Day of the New Year

2/5: 大年初五 Fifth Day of the New Year A few businesses will start to 開市, reopen, on this day, so everyone is celebrating prosperity in the new year and setting off even more firecrackers.  There were firecrackers every day for a week straight; I have never seen so many in my life.

To use a Chinese karaoke book: first you find your language,
then the number of characters in the name of the song,
then the number of strokes in the first character

One Steamed Bun for 25
The phrase tells you how to pose for each photo

I attended a lunar new year party at my high school Chinese teacher’s sister’s house.  Her friends all brought home-cooked dishes and traditional sweets.  For the second time this holiday, I found myself at a Chinese karaoke party.  I sang 月亮代表我的心，which I keep on standby because all the Taiwanese aunties love it.  We played Rummikub, which is similar to mahjong.  Everyone took photos holding red envelopes and other decorations, and we took endless group photos.  They all told me about their single sons who were close, or not, to my age.  The atmosphere was so festive; it made me realize this is what I was missing during the Christmas season.

2/15: 元宵節 Lantern Festival Say the first week of the Lunar New Year is the NFL Playoffs, then the Lantern Festival is like the Super Bowl--which I regrettably didn't watch this year because it aired at 7:30 am and no one Taiwanese was remotely interested.  Various cities around Taiwan host light shows and release lanterns to celebrate (the Lantern Festival, not the Super Bowl).  I watched the lantern release ceremony in 平溪 Pingxi, a township outside of Taipei famous for their lanterns.  It is also traditional to eat 湯圓, glutinous rice balls, on this day.  They can have sweet or salty filling, and are served in a warm broth such as ginger tea, red bean soup, peanut soup or fermented rice soup.  I happily took part by eating my favorite which are filled with black sesame.

都蘭 Dulan

Over the Lunar New Year, a new friend and I visited my old friend in Dulan, where he lives.  Dulan is a small town near Taidong known for woodcarving, music, indigenous culture, and big surfing waves.  We were in the ocean every single day, whereas it was cold and rainy back in Taipei.  My friend took us around on his motorcycle and showed us a lovely time--including raucous karaoke with all of his Amis friends, which is what Taiwanese people love to do when they all gather together for the holiday.  There were fireworks constantly the four days we were there, and we had a beautiful view from our tent pitched on the roof of the hostel.

花蓮 Hualien

Over winter break, I took an intensive course called Cultural Competence in Global Health, where we traveled to Hualien to visit indigenous communities, discuss readings, and participate in conversations about culture and health.

About 2% of Taiwan is indigenous--descended from the Austronesian language family speaking peoples who walked across the Taiwan Strait back when it was grassy plains about 4000 years ago.  Back then Taiwan was the mountainous southeastern coast of continent, whereas now the island is separated from mainland China by the Taiwan Strait.  Many distinct cultures and languages exists, but only about one tenth of indigenous Taiwanese can speak their ancestral language.

貓公 Fakong tribal community

Elders of the community preparing betel nut,
a chewable plant that's carcinogenic but important culturally

A traditional gathering place for the Amis community

Visiting the Wild Vegetable School,
where indigenous foraging is taught to youth 

The class was led by an NTU professor and three local indigenous professors.  I visited places that I would not otherwise have been able to see, and I learned so much that I could never have gotten from a class anywhere else in the world.  The most worthwhile part for me was bonding with Taiwanese classmates.  My Masters of Global Health program is all internationals and mostly Americans, but the class was cross listed with the Masters of Health Policy program, which is all Taiwanese.   As non-indigenous Taiwanese natives they had very different perspectives about the class topics than the Americans did.    I loved laughing and talking in Chinese with them as we got ready for bed together, walked around the night market, and whispered during lectures.  They taught me that before you enter an empty hotel room, you should knock on the door politely to warn any ghosts within that you're entering.  I once again shocked Taiwanese friends by showering in the morning instead of at night and not blow drying my hair.

My friends and I posing with our snacks

Post by a Taiwanese friend on the trip

Lunch break between classes

The American Global Health Program students on the trip