Chinese New Years

Let me say, it felt so good to be home again.
Being able to celebrate Chinese New Years in my hometown of Wafangdian (where I was born!!!) was one of my key reasons for studying in China this spring semester. And I'm so glad I did! Family is very important to me, but living in the US hasn't really reinforced our family cohesion. The Sun family clan that currently resides in the US consists of me, my mom, my dad, and my cousin--and we are probably as far away from each other as possible within the continental US. While I live in Connecticut, my mom is in Florida, my dad in California, and my cousin in Oregon. In contrast, my relatives still living in China all live within a few miles of each other. My parents excluded, the it's only in my generation that we've begun to learn, work, and live outside of our home base of Wafangdian.
Being a nuclear family in the US is hard during the holiday seasons, especially when in comparison family gatherings in Wafangdian are crazy fun and among the most 热闹 (festive/rowdy/lively) gathering I've ever attended. This Chinese New Years, I saw a few of my older cousins who I haven't seen since I immigrated to the US in 1998. It's so weird to see them again—especially when the last time I saw them, they were in their teens, and now they are in their 30s. With some cousins formerly living in Japan and others now working in other parts of the country, some of them haven't been able to see each other for a few years too. But despite how much time passes, family is family, and when we were together, I didn't feel any distance between us at all. We hung out at my uncle's house where we ate for at least three hours, and then in the spirit of 步步高升(rising to the next level—an auspicious saying during Chinese New Years), we then went hiking up the nearest hill/mountain (depending how you define the two).


cousins!

Among other things, we also had a family photo shoot in the snow in the mountains/valleys near my aunt's farm; watched my recently married cousin's wedding videos; listened to a lot of stories about our family's time during the Great Leap Forward when they moved to the countryside; and visited relatives of all sorts (including ones I didn't really know). My family is so good to me and I hope to be back for Chinese New Years as much as I can in the future.


My uncle cooking dumplings on New Year's morning. He is always attached to his cellphone :P


A small landmark on a nearby mountain that I used to frequent a lot


newly built suburb district. It makes me remember the song that we listened to in high school history class...little boxes, little boxes, little boxes made of ticky tacky...


newly married into the family!