0:01 oh [Music]
0:32 happy New Year everyone it is 2023 year
0:34 of the rabbit and I am back in my
0:38 beloved hometown of Nanjing and I'm
0:39 going to take you guys with me over
0:42 these couple of days as we experience
0:44 Chinese New Year in rural China even
0:46 though I live and work in Hangzhou I'm
0:48 spending Chinese New Year on a little
0:50 island in the Yangtze River with aunt
0:52 and uncle Zhao who you guys may have
0:55 seen in some of my previous videos I met
0:57 them in 2020 during a bike trip while I
0:58 was living in Nanjing getting my
1:00 master's degree and now they're like my
1:03 family here in China so let's celebrate
1:14 [Music]
1:17 great nephew and my main companion for
1:19 the next two days so get used to seeing
1:46 every year I noticed the fixation on red
1:48 things around Chinese New Year time but
1:51 I never questioned why and finally we
1:54 have the answer we also finally have the
1:55 answer to why this noise has been going
1:58 on Non-Stop in the background all day long
2:00 long [Music]
2:02 [Music] foreign
2:04 foreign
2:07 we've been listening to this noise all
2:09 afternoon and now it is time to make our
2:11 contribution There She Goes [Music]
2:17 [Music] [Applause]
2:31 foreign [Music]
2:45 still have about an hour until the New
2:47 Year's Eve dinner so we're gonna go pick
2:48 some strawberries [Music]
3:06 [Music] foreign
3:09 foreign [Music]
3:17 [Music]
3:19 the sound of fireworks just does not
3:22 stop they just go on and on and on
3:25 somebody is setting off fireworks at
3:26 every moment
3:37 all of these little shops are closed the
3:40 only thing that's open is the guy who's
3:42 selling fireworks because this is
3:44 definitely the night to rake it in if
3:46 you're selling those friends [Music]
4:10 [Music] laughs
4:12 laughs [Music]
4:17 [Music]
4:21 every time I come here I check on the
4:24 toilet flower pot and unfortunately it's
4:27 winter so she's looking a little bit dry
4:30 and crispy but that's fine I'll be back
5:13 you may be wondering why we've barely
5:15 seen our doll this entire video it's
5:16 because she's been busy in the kitchen
5:40 oh
5:43 so now that we've set up the fireworks
5:45 it is officially time for dinner it's
5:53 [Music]
5:55 it's a fish [Music]
6:04 so why does the fish get the honored
6:06 seat at the center of the table it
6:09 represents which means may we have
6:11 abundance year after year and the last
6:13 character you sounds the same as the
6:14 word for fish
6:17 as with every meal I have here at bagua
6:19 Island today I got to try something new
6:21 this thing is a similar texture and
6:23 flavor to a meatball but it's actually
6:32 percent
6:35 during the daytime the purpose of
6:37 setting off fireworks and firecrackers
6:40 is to make as much noise as possible but
6:41 at night it's not just about the noise
7:14 fireworks in China really are something else
7:15 else
7:49 every single year ever since I started
7:52 learning Chinese I've been watching the
7:54 Chinese New Year evening show it started
7:55 when I was in college and my Chinese
7:58 classmates and I would have dumplings on
8:00 Chinese New Year Eve and put this show
8:02 on in the background and it's been my
8:04 annual tradition ever since can't miss
8:06 it ironically this year I'm having the
8:09 most authentic Chinese New Year in rural
8:12 China but nobody wants to watch the
8:17 except me I'm just literally sitting in
8:19 here watching it alone because I'm a
8:22 very nostalgic type of person and
8:24 because this has been my tradition since
8:27 2016 so I am going to keep it going no
8:34 I'll do it um
8:47 [Music]
8:50 you may have noticed the pile of boxes
8:52 on the floor here these are Chinese New
8:54 Year gifts given to the hosts by the
8:56 visitors I brought two types of nuts
8:58 grown in Mountain Villages around honcho
9:01 most of the gifts are food and unlike
9:02 Christmas gifts they come cute little
9:04 boxes so you don't have to bother with
9:06 wrapping them which is nice but
9:08 tragically the downside is there's no
9:10 surprise for the gift receiver they
9:29 there probably would be a lot more
9:31 fireworks going off than this but it's
9:33 raining right now which kind of like
9:35 ruins the vibe of standing out in the
9:37 yard and setting off fireworks but the
9:55 [Music]
9:57 thank you [Music]
10:09 on our way to Uncle Joe's house for the
10:12 second Chinese New Year meal and the
10:14 whole way there we get to hear that little
10:15 little
10:18 pop sound he is obsessed with these
10:21 things these little guys are another way
10:23 to make as much noise as possible during
10:26 Chinese New Year minus the fire and smoke
10:27 smoke [Music]
10:30 [Music] um
10:47 Aunt y'all's sister got dami a massive
10:49 stockpile of these baby firecrackers and
10:51 he has been bringing little boxes of
11:05 here we can see the scraps from last
11:09 night's Shenanigans look at all the
11:24 the real adults are playing cards and
11:27 I'm hanging out with got me in this bomb shelter
11:47 [Music]
11:49 as lovely as this bomb shelter is we
11:51 can't spend our whole visit at Uncle
11:54 Joe's in here we have to check out his
11:55 constantly growing collection of
11:57 miscellaneous things it's a tradition
12:19 that thing that Uncle Joe was working on
12:23 a few months ago is finally complete [Music]
13:11 finally someone is watching the Chinese
13:13 New Year evening show with me there's a
13:15 rerun playing right now and dami and I
13:17 are watching it in Uncle Joe's living room
13:18 room [Music]
13:35 [Music] foreign
13:43 so we've seen the New Year's Eve Feast
13:46 we've seen firecrackers and fireworks
13:48 and this terrifying Contraption we've
13:50 seen tons of red decorations and
13:53 lanterns and even this look-alike plant
13:56 the star of Aunt Giles collection we've
13:58 seen the Chinese New Year evening show
14:01 twice there are New Year's gift boxes
14:04 and homemade dried pork and a lion dance
14:09 sort of anyway almost all the aspects of
14:11 Chinese New Year are here except one
14:14 thing why hasn't Aunt Giles family left
15:32 to see the Lantern Festival with my friends
15:45 hope you guys enjoyed this little glance
15:47 into Chinese New Year in rural than Jing
15:49 some traditions are a bit different
15:51 because of this place's unique historic
15:54 background but the core elements are the
15:56 same nevertheless spending time with
15:59 family eating lots of food putting out
16:01 cute decorations and watching explosions
16:04 lots of explosions that's all for today
16:07 everyone happy year of the rabbit and I
16:26 thank you [Music]
