I don’t carry my camera around nearly enough these days, a bad habit to be fixed, but I do get around a fair bit and tonight’s Lantern Festival was one for the albums. Thanks to Flickr for the Beijing (?) based pic of tonight’s festivities.
The experience was noteworthy not because it was a dazzling display of romantic Chinese tradition, but because we paid RMB50 to leave the throngs of sparkler vendors and children pulling lit-from-within, rolling, plastic bunnies to join the crush of humanity squeezed into Yu Yuan Market, which was very much open for business hawking a more absurd than usual range of cheap, flashing baubles and where there was no “attraction” per se but rather 10,000 lanterns sponsored by Coca Cola, a floating mish mash of Disneyfied frogs and Aladdins, and a static parade of glowing dogs perched on top of an over-sized money pile.
While walking the Lantern beat, a blend of babies hammocked between jostled parents, couples attending to a lost tradition and passive wares flaunters (comme grandmere qui brille partout) Tongshi Mathieu relayed an apropos story of a colleague who recently asked how he would celebrate Valentine’s Day. When Mathieu explained his family didn’t tend to celebrate this holiday the coworker was at first shocked, but then came to ponder how a western Hallmark holiday had established itself as such a widespread (consumer) event in China. “Perhaps we are losing something” he said. I think perhaps they are.
