Ling (pseudonym) was helping her mom prepare the reunion meal dishes, while checking the status of the oximeter she bought for her father from Taobao. In the morning she played mahjong with her aunts and uncles, and when evening came she sang karaoke with her closest friends online. Last second, she was editing the annual group text message to send New Year's greeting, and now she is sharing a 3D Chinese New Year virtual full-body portrait of herself on social platforms......
"It's not that we don't like the atmosphere of New Year, we just want to have a fulfilling reunion moment in the way we are most comfortable," Ling, a post-95s Chinese netizen told us. As Gen-Z youngsters are becoming the backbones of families, they are going hybrid in celebrating the upcoming Year of the Rabbit both online and offline. "We don't make choices. We want both!"
"Did you hear the sound of firecrackers? That's my family playing Gatling back home." Ling (@灵灵子子) spoke in a brisk tone on phone, with cheerful chitchat coming from her side now and then. She was born in 1996 and currently lives in Shenzhen with her boyfriend as a freelance artist, but during the Spring Festival every year, she returns to her birthplace of Jieyang city in East Guangdong to enjoy the Chinese New Year vibes. "From around ten days before the New Year to the 15th of the first lunar month, virtually every day there are distinctive New Year's traditions, extremely intriguing."
Jieyang has a particularly strong traditional cultural environment, various activities including dragon and lion dances, Yingge dance, lantern appreciation, singing opera, and so on are going on across the city. Every day, different folk rituals are staged in the market, attracting those away from home for a reunion back here. "I was accompanying my mother to make fish balls today when I asked her if she could tell me about Chaoshan's New Year traditions. She grinned and said that she wouldn't be able to finish even in three days and nights!" Ling remembered how, when she was a youngster, the sound of firecrackers and gongs in the streets and alleyways was constant. "I often slept asleep and awoke, pleading with my grandma to take me out to witness the pleasure."
The "red envelope distribution" is the most spectacular New Year's ceremony, according to Ling. "In Chaoshan, red envelopes with lucky money in them are used not only to transfer blessings between seniors and juniors but also to provide good fortune to neighbors and strangers." Ling told our reporter that she prepared more than a hundred little red envelopes and withdrew from the bank a big wad of ten-yuan notes as early as a month ago. "As I go down the street, whenever a kid comes over and sends me a New Year blessing, I will give out a packet along with the New Year's greeting."
"Cyber" New Year: Designing red envelope covers online
For those of us who grew up in the digital age, celebrating Chinese New Year isn't only about hanging out with loved ones and reliving fond memories of New Year's traditions from our youth, but also about partying it up with our cyber pals. Ling is a freelance illustrator, and she spent two days ahead of New Year's Eve drawing the cover patterns for the "electronic red packets" to be given out during the Chinese New Year. She also shared some covers she had designed on her social media accounts. "Shared happiness is far better than pleasure experienced alone," she said.
Our reporter was shown two red envelopes that Ling had designed, "Fancy Carp Bringing in Good Luck" and "Profits Coming from All Sides", both of which include her own intellectual property (IP) — "Little Girl" — and celebratory images. Both covers include distinctive Chaoshan Chinese New Year traditions, such as the depiction of four yellow tangerines which symbolize great fortune. "When we pay our New Year's visits to family and friends, we always take eight oranges with us to wish for prosperity in the coming year. They'll take them and send back four in exchange, signaling that they want to share the good fortune. It's for this reason that I decided to depict precisely four oranges on the envelopes."
In addition to the "little girl" holding a bubbling carp, other auspicious items such as plum blossoms, large red lanterns written with the word "fortune," lotus flowers that stand for purity and nobility, are found on the red envelope cover featuring the fancy carp. Ling said the design gives off a joyful, celebratory vibe. "Compared to the major city supermarkets, I like walking through my hometown New Year fair. Even if you do not make any purchases, you can just enjoy the festive vibe there. You can watch old calligraphers write the spring festival couplets on this side, while enjoying the taste of the freshly baked nuts and puffed food on the other, and then carry a pot of Malabar chestnut or orange tree home. Comfy"
Ling has made a lot of friends on the social media platform "Soul" as a long-time user for over 1,400 days. She got acquainted with her closest friend via the app - a bright girl from Chengdu - and they have met offline, visited each other's towns and chatted about everything. "You may not believe me when I say this, but I'm a little socially anxious in real life. Despite so, I've made over 100 excellent friends on Soul, and they've given me a lot of support on my road to being a freelance illustrator."
Upon the coming of the Lunar New Year, Ling sent out "e-envelopes" with her self-designed cover to her close friends on Soul, and attached a small essay expressing her care and gratitude for the friendships and blessings for the coming year. A lovely blend of tradition and new trends is spotted in this post-1995 illustrator's way of celebrating the Chinese New Year, where friends made on social media have become an integral part of the feeling of belonging for the traditional festival.
Creating new traditions for Spring Festival
Many young people still love traditional Chinese New Year customs, but unlike in the past, they are also giving Chinese New Year new meaning in their own way under the influence of the Internet, expressing their blessings in more innovative and creative ways online.
Another Chinese young man "Guitar Monster" @弹吉他的怪兽, like Ling, also enjoys interacting with his online friends. Nearly two thousand kilometers away from Jieyang, in Chengdu, he and his pals traveled to Longquan Mountain on New Year's Eve to embrace the new year. In addition to being an accomplished mountaineer, he is also a skilled guitarist. He recently released a video of himself playing the guitar as part of Soul's New Year campaign, in which he expresses a few straightforward New Year's resolutions and expresses his desire to share these joys with his good friends online.
As soon as the song began, with fingers racing across the guitar strings, he received a lot of positive comments. Guitar Monster says he seldom gets such open praise in real life. "The very nature of music lends itself to the creation of good vibes, and because there are so many music enthusiasts in the virtual world, we can all come together to share the delight." When our reporter asked him to pick a song suitable for playing on New Year's Eve, "It's a Beautiful Day" came out of the young man's mouth.
Many other young people establish their own New Year's Eve rituals in their own unique style. @Sept crammed onto the Jiuqu Bridge in Shanghai, and in the middle of the brilliant lights, he was teleported back to his boyhood, remembering the spectacle of fireworks in Shanghai alleys and blissful moments with his childhood pals. On the same day, he photographed the "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" themed lanterns at the Yu Garden and shared the photos with more people online, which became one of his new Chinese New Year routines.
On a night train to Henan in Central China, a 00s-era girl sent out the invitation letter for an online group party on New Year's Eve to celebrate the Chinese New Year with her online pals met on Soul, while live-streaming a local performance of "Iron flower show" and sending a bunch of "electronic fireworks" to her audience. "How romantic it is to watch fireworks together!" Unfortunately, many major cities prohibit the use of fireworks physically, according to the young live-streamer. "So I want to use my lens to help more 'urban folks' enjoy the tradition from the good old days. Sharing may quadruple the happiness."
Paying a New Year call online: Blessings travel beyond the distance
The custom of sending New Year's greetings via text message (SMS) has evolved into the more modern practice of using the messaging app WeChat in China, while for Generation Z, they are ushering in yet another shift. A Soul user may create a NAWA POP New Year's Eve video with a single click. Users may make a short video of New Year greetings, and share their personalized 3D Chinese New Year virtual full-body picture with friends and family simply by scanning via their phone's camera.
A post-00s girl Xiao Cheng and her boyfriend are both photographers, and they have three cats, which become their models for photo shooting. She was motivated to work on a lot of images of her cats after seeing the netizens showing photoshopped pictures of their cats to mimic a rabbit. She also meticulously developed and manufactured a set of "rabbit-cat" New Year's emoji packages. What she didn't expect was to get a lot of praise and a "request for pictures" craze on social media platforms. "It's actually very simple." According to Cheng, there are just three simple steps required to transform a normal cat into a rabbit cat: choose a picture of a cat; open the PS liquefaction tool and extend the ears; and last, save and export the image.
Cheng produced hundreds of rabbit-cat images, gearing up for the annual meme contest in chat groups. "The three of them are actually adopted by us. The first cat we adopted is named Tang Yuan, and it had a heart disease that has been cured." Cheng and his partner adopted two additional cats after Tangyuan, since Cheng is always so busy working, and they were worried about Tang Yuan being lonely. "It is my sincere wish that the proliferation of these rabbit cat emoticons would encourage more people who like cats to adopt them rather than shop for new ones. Adopted cats are just as likely to be docile and adorable as any other kind of cat bought from pet shops."
Cyber "wishing fountain": Making New Year's resolutions
Should you spend New Year's at home or away? How many red envelopes do you need to hand out? Are you prepared for a flood of emotional stress brought on by your annoying relatives? These are some common topics discussed among the younger generation. "#Chinese New Year" has been trending on Soul which has been seen more than 9 million times. Under the topic of "the greatest expectation of the New Year", "wishing for the health and safety of family and friends" is still the most popular one.
Social media sites are now serving as a "wishing fountain" for young people. The topics "New Year's Resolutions," "New Year's Most Wanted Good News," and "2023 Travel Plan" represent the various statuses, wishes and concerns of young people living in the same world. It turns out that everyone, from employees at their offices to students studying for the IELTS, has the same resolution for the new year: to be lucky like a fancy fish, get promoted, and make more money.
According to experts, the reason young people are increasingly depending on the online way of celebrating the Spring festival is due to the difference between the virtual and real world. "It's exactly the appropriate amount of space. There is no need to confront the social anxiety or embarrassment of physical meetings, and there is no need to answer questions from annoying relatives. A group of like-minded people may discuss a range of subjects of interest online; if you don't want to talk, you can simply listen or play a game. This is possibly the true underlying meaning of the Spring Festival vacation relaxation for our young people who are already too burdened by studies or work. The internet is where they can truly rest and relax."
Soul App Founder & CEO Zhang Lu said, "Every generation has its own way of celebrating Spring Festival, and the Soul platform has gathered a large group of Generation Z. We have observed that this group of young people who have grown up with the mobile broadband love traditional festivals and are using new ways to shape the New Year rituals and customs. They make New Year's resolutions, enjoy e-fireworks together, and exchange blessings with the AI mascot on 'Soul Square.' Through the platform's online NAWA POP campaign, on average, each young user generated more than two playful and cute 3D virtual image videos of blessings to share with friends and relatives."
(Reported by Yu Zhou in Hangzhou)
Comment