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Once again I spent this Chinese New Year with Zoe and her family–on both the eve of the New Year (大年夜) and the second day of the New Year (初二), the family met at the home of Zoe’s youngest uncle (youngest of 6 children that is) at about noon and stayed until after dinner. Actually, I’m not sure that the eating ever stops from lunch through dinner … it’s sort of like a uni-meal where everyone stays happily stuffed throughout the day.

The closeness of Zoe’s family on these occasions is really wonderful. This year I got a picture of the group, all 24 family members who came over that day, representing four generations. Pretty amazing!



Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous Dragon New Year!

龙年行大运！

After taking a break from running for the better part of the 1.5 months post Beijing Marathon, my friend Oliver and I decided last minute to do the Shanghai Half Marathon (for the hell of it). And so we went out for the 21km run on this clear and very cool day in Shanghai. Perhaps because of the lack of training (or maybe it was the heavy meal I ate the night before), I got a nasty side cramp at about the 14km mark and had to push through it almost to the end. Nevertheless, I still managed to break 1 hour and 50 minutes (barely). Oliver was in better form and finished about four minutes earlier. The greatest highlights of the race were starting on The Bund (with 26,000 others) and running over the Nanpu Bridge. Perhaps I’ll do the full marathon next year.



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Boys’ Night had a nostalgic twist this week. The Eagles (including Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh and Timothy Schmit), the top-selling US rock band of the 1970s that proved it could still produce Grammy award winning hits as recently as 2007, made its China debut at the new Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai. And Shanghai welcomed them with open arms, packing the arena with about 15,000 fans, most of them Chinese, and many if not most of them born long after the band was formed in 1971. Not counting the migrant worker population, that number represents about 1 person in every 1,000 in Shanghai.


So, why such enthusiasm for these 60-something rockers? My best guess is that at least in part it’s because “Hotel California” remains one of the most popular English-language karaoke songs in China. Whatever the reason, the reality is that Eagles tickets sold for about 50% more than tickets to see Usher (a 32-year-old R&B superstar) at the same arena this weekend. Go figure.


In any case, it was a great show. As the band played Desperado for their last encore, we knew that this night would go down in the annals of our Shanghai adventures …



If one didn’t know better they might believe that WW3 had started in Shanghai, but the reality is that this was only the usual turn of events on the eve of day five (大年初五) of the Chinese New Year. It is believed that the fifth day is the birthday of the God of Wealth and the best way to get his attention (and good favor in the coming year) is to welcome him with fireworks … LOTS OF FIREWORKS!!! This year I captured the deafening scene on video from the balcony of my apartment (see below).



Imagine a beautiful collage of musical genres (both Western and Chinese) performed on a contemporary Bauhaus-inspired water-permeated stage with a centuries old Chinese village (replete with chanting monks) as a backdrop.  Difficult to imagine?  Well, this is the show (Water Heavens 水乐堂) that Academy Award winning composer Tan Dun (of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Hero fame) created and brought to life in Shanghai’s ZhuJiaJiao (朱家角) ancient water town.  It was a truly magical experience!  And, thanks to my friends Corbett & Irene, we were able to see the premier.  :-)


While I don’t have any music clips to share here (too bad), these pictures will at least give you some sense of just how unique and inspired Tan Dun’s work is …



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… Well, not really, but it almost looked that way. On the eve of the opening of the Shanghai Expo, we were down at the Bund waiting to see a huge fireworks display (or at least that’s what we thought). Unfortunately, the bulk of the fireworks were shot off all around the city (and out of our site) … it seems that the best seats for viewing were in living rooms with TVs. Nevertheless, we did see first hand the spectacular display from the Oriental Pearl Tower.

Here are a few pics from this Chinese New Year’s Eve (2010), the first one that I have spent in Shanghai. As expected, there were fireworks everywhere (including the ones that we were lighting) as soon as the sun went down. We got a reprieve from the typical all-night-until-the-sun-comes-up barrage, however, due to the unusually heavy snow (particularly for Shanghai) that was coming down by about 2am.

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I’ve attended some wonderful destination weddings in Asia, but my friends Henry and Michelle took theme weddings to a new level when they hosted a full-fledged “Imperial Wedding” in Zhuhai, Guangdong Provence.  The event was at a park that houses a complete replica of the Summer Palace in Beijing.  There were hundreds in the cast (affordable labor in China helps) and all of the guests came in appropriate attire.  This wedding was a bit more elaborate than most.  ;-)

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