News & Event

The Chinese New Year is now popularly known as the Spring Festival because it starts from the Begining of Spring
（the first of the twenty-four terms in coodination with the changes of Nature）。 However, that the word Nian,
which in modern Chinese solely means year, was originally the name of a monster beast that started to prey on
people the night before the beginning of a new year.
 
One legend goes that the beast Nian had a very big mouth that would swallow a great many people with one bite.
People were very scared. After that, the old man disappeared riding the beast Nian. He turned out to be an immortal
god. Now that Nian is gone and other beasts of prey are also scared into forests, people begin to enjoy their peaceful
life. Before the old man left, he had told people to put up red paper decorations on their windows and doors at each
year's end to scare away Nian in case it sneaked back again, because red is the color the beast feared the most.
 
What I look forward to is the New Year Eve’s dinner. Usually are every family’s special home-made dishes. We will
enjoy the talks around the table and catch up on each other’s life. Also Nian Gao, as known as sticky rice cake, is one
of the must-have food on Chinese New Year. Because it has the symbolism of increasing prosperity every year.
On our reunion dinner, there must be one dish with a whole fish. Usually, we won’t finish the dish. Because the word
"fish" and "surplus" are homophones in Chinese - yú. We call it "Nián nián yǒuyú", which represents
"May there be surplus year after year."