Thursday, January 26, 2017

The spring festival survival guide - a humorous song about going home for Chinese New Year

Tomorrow the year of the rooster begins, and China is in full Spring Festival mode. The doors have spring couplets pasted around them, much business has finally come to a halt, the sound of fireworks is everywhere, and China's bigger cities have emptied out as hundreds of millions of people go back to the places where they grew up to visit their families.

For a lot of young Chinese, going back home to see their parents for the spring festival isn't entirely something to look forward to. It means spending a week listening to their parents and other relatives prod them about not being married yet, criticising their life choices, or comparing them to others. 

A Shanghai amateur choir, known as the Rainbow Chamber Singers, have now come up with an entertaining and creative piece of music on what it's like to go home for the spring festival. The song is called 春节自救指南 (spring festival survival guide). The phrase 都是为你好 (it's all for your own good), which often recurs, is exactly what many Chinese parents will say to their children while pushing them to get married, change jobs, not go abroad etc...

The same Shanghai choir had already attracted attention with a humorous song about working overtime, but this one's much better. The video below has English subtitles.


Happy year of the rooster and have a good spring festival!

4 comments:

aandrejpe said...

Karestimata Jixiang (mi uzas vian nomon el la diskuto sub la artikolo en Libera Folio, pri "REU aneksis Krimeon")!

Mi volas esprimi min ĝojon ke troviĝas sobraj mensoj inter la Esperantistaro - vi :-) kiu trovis tempon por refutadi la fiajn kaj trompajn pensojn de samlingvano Vlado Romanov, kiu subtenas tiranion (de Stalin kaj iu ajn) kaj pretas akcepti kaj misuzi ajnan propagandan mensogon. Mi ne menciu aliajn partoprenintojn en tiu diskuto, pri iuj el ili mi nun devas travivi mian ĉagrenon.

Mi ĝojos plu koni vin. Saluton al Pekino! Ĉu vi hazarde ne faras ion por ĈRI?

Andrej Peĉënkin, Ruslando.

aandrejpe said...
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Ji Xiang said...

Saluton Andrej!

Fakte Jixiang estas mia Cxina nomo. Estas plezuro vidi ke ne cxiuj Rusaj esperantistoj kunsentas kun Vlado. De la diskutoj en libera Foljo, oni povus dubi :)

Mi interviuigxis kun cxina radio kelkfoje, sed mi ne laboras por ili. Mi havas tro da fortaj opinioj. :)) Kie vi logxas en Rusio? Se vi vizitos Pekino-n, bonvolu sciigi min.

Zahid Hamidi said...
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