Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable.
Hello everybody, welcome to this special Spring Festival edition of Roundtable.
I'm Ha Young and I'm so excited to dive into today's discussion about one of the most heartwarming traditions of the Chinese New Year, family reunions.
Every year, two weeks before the Chinese New Year's Eve, the spring festival travel rush begins.
This year, an estimated 9 billion trips will see people scrambling for tickets on packed trains, planes, and buses, all heading to the same direction, home.
Whether it's the comforting aroma of homemade dumplings or the bright red lanterns lighting up the streets, Chinese New Year is more than just a holiday.
It's the largest family reunion for the Chinese people, a time to reconnect, recharge, and celebrate togetherness.
What makes family reunions during the Chinese New Year so special?
To help us dive deeper into what makes these moments so special, I'm thrilled to be joined by Steve Hatherley and Yuxian.
So Yuxian, let's start with you.
What spring festival to you, is it homecoming?
I mean, for me, I do have luxury of spending a lot of weekends with the majority of my family here in Beijing.
But I would say that for a lot of the Chinese people that's listening, it's definitely a homecoming season for many of us.
And when speaking of the spring festival, we just think about how, like you mentioned, He Yang, the lanterns, the decorations, the redness, color in the house, and also the dumplings, everything that's going to be shared with family members.
So it's definitely a homecoming season.
And, you know, I'm not sure if you would agree with this, Steve, because to me, it sounds a little bit similar to Christmas, that, you know, for us, the Chinese, the Spring Festival is usually seen as the time of reunion among family members and that it's really one of the most important annual gatherings
for a lot of the local families here yeah I think that's a fair assessment at its roots it's just a big holiday where people have the opportunity to go back and see their families when they haven't seen them for a long time so if we just look at it like that then it's similar to a lot of countries around
the world with a lot of different types of holidays right and you're right In Canada, it's the same thing.
We don't have a spring festival in Canada.
We don't have anything like that.
Our new year is celebrated at the end of December and the beginning of January.
But even the new year at that time is not really celebrated with the same, what's the word I'm looking for?
With the same kind of themes in mind.
The new year is just the new year.
People go out and party, and then it's January 1st, and then back to normal.
This is a different kind of celebration.
So yes, I do agree with you in the sense that it's similar to Christmas in family get -togethers, but there's still a whole lot more going on here in China with the spring festival holiday.
Yeah, you said it's one of the most important, I think it's the most important holiday for the Chinese people.
Yeah, and I wonder if this is something special to our culture, if it's being shared across the board in other cultures, that is the most important holiday for these people is surrounding the concept of family.
What do you think? In terms of the specific holidays, maybe, maybe not.
It's hard to say. I think that goes family to family on a family to family basis Because Thanksgiving in Canada and in America is very much family -oriented.
Christmas is very much family -oriented.
People travel just like during this holiday here in China.
People are traveling all over the country.
What was the number you mentioned, by the way?
Nine billion? Yes. Goodness gracious.
Well, that definitely doesn't happen in Canada.
But yeah, getting together with your family members is a really important thing.
thanksgiving in america it's famous every year in terms of trying to get flights to get back home so that hustle and bustle to finally get home to see your family i do think that's shared in other cultures it's just not for the new year yeah exactly yeah and also you mentioned the nine billion trips
that's including going home and coming back still yeah still for 40 days and And there's definitely that really busy transportation happening in China.
And also, I think even for the Chinese people, there are priorities in family reunions.
The reason why I mentioned it's one of the most important annual gatherings for family is because we also have the zhongqiuzhi, like the mid -autumn festival, where family also gets together.
But for the spring festival, it's more like it's not just your family, But extended family members as well.
There's this, oh, I'm working here, but I need to go back to my hometown and gather with everybody else in my family and meet them and be visited.
And with gift exchanges and life experience exchanges in the past year and all that.
So we're talking first cousins, second cousins, all the aunts, all the uncles.
Oh, yeah. Oh, just everybody.
Literally everybody.
Now I think I can say it might be a little bit different because now it's starting to sound like spring festival is almost like a true family reunion.
Whereas in Canada and other Western countries, Christmas and other holidays, not that sense.
We actually separate our family reunions into their own kind of thing that can happen at any time of the year.
And that might happen, oh, I don't know, once every 10 years or more, where all the family members will get together.
But here, based on your description, that sounds like Spring Festival to me.
Right. Things are changing in China as well.
What Yushin you just portrayed, I think that's quite the classic and typical image that people have in their minds when we speak of Spring Festival.
But in recent years, as we see, maybe there's the growing number of nuclear families, for example.
And also when, well, let's say your family patriarch or matriarch has passed away, when let's say grandma's no longer with us.
And then my family stopped going back to the family ancestral town.
and now it's just the three of us mom and dad and myself and we celebrate as a nuclear family and therefore I think some of the events or activities you do kind of changes and every year right before the spring festival period or even till this time you'll see all these social media posts with people venting
about their anxiety of going back to their family ancestral town and meeting up with first cousins or extended family or whatever.
And if you live in a big city, especially if for today's young people, a lot of them have migrated to a different city to live and work, and you kind of just mind your own business.
And then spring festival kind of reminds you of your life before that.
And it's really an interesting mindset for people.
I mentioned that to bring up the next question.
That is, do you think the way we deal with the spring festival family reunions has changed at all for different generations.
I mean on a personal level I would kind of disagree with the changing part because I was brought up in a rather traditional way so I tend to still believe in the fact that this is something almost ritual -like kind of a celebration that we need to go through as a family.
Yeah even like for extended families that I haven't been seeing for years this is the time to get a good excuse to visit each other or at least send a message of sort.
And apparently, I am agreed by a lot of young people out there as well, because I discovered that in February 2024.
So around this time last year, China Youth Daily actually conducted a survey on 1 ,333 Chinese youth that's born between 1980 to, well, post 2000, to discover if they still believe in the celebration of spring festival what it means to them.
So according to that survey, the majority of the young people nowadays, they still remain traditional.
And just like me, 94 % of the youth still follow the traditional customs of going back home and celebrating the spring festival in a good old ways as how they did it in the maybe in their childhood time.
And also over 76 % of them plays great importance on the sense of ritual like how i mentioned they like the whole decoration thing like working on how to celebrate together as part of the family and also some even mentioned the new year's eve dinner like we talked about in previous shows uh have been
regarded as the most significant expression of this ritualistic essence so for many of them having dinner together is kind of like the symbol of gathering together with their family, of this whole homecoming vibe.
I mean, I think you were right, what you said, though, Huyang, about, you know, the changing of the dynamic of the family will change the way that families celebrate, right?
And that makes sense, and it's inevitable, too, I would think.
It's nice to hear that 94 % of young people, uh they adhere to the traditional customs and 77 of them think it's still important uh that's that strikes me as a nice thing holding on to certain traditions particularly when they're family related um this is a survey right so clicking a or checking a box
on a piece of paper or on your smartphone to answer a survey question isn't necessarily a reflection of how you know people honestly feel about things.
And this is where I think, you know, these types of celebrations almost transcend culture in a sense where, yeah, I'm not talking about the specific culture of Spring Festival, but just the human aspect of it where family members who haven't seen each other get together.
Let me ask you this question.
Are there certain inappropriate questions from maybe your uncle that you haven't seen in a year?
If the answer is yes, sounds familiar.
Do people nag you about when you're going to have a kid or when you're going to get married or what happened with your past breakup?
Sounds familiar. So that's what I mean by transcending culture.
This is just humans being humans.
And as annoying as it might be at times for some people i still think that there's something poetically romantic about it do you know what i mean yeah and also that's a little um unexpected in china somehow we've been told that in western cultures people don't ask about each other's salary uh how much
you make um or relationship status or sexual orientation or a lot of that stuff is deemed too private.
But with family, there are no boundaries.
Are you saying that is true?
It depends on who you're speaking with and which family member.
I went to a family reunion.
There are people in my family that I didn't even know were in my family before.
During our family reunion, and i ask like who are you oh i'm this person's son or that person's daughter and it's just um western families can exist like that because your third cousin is probably not maybe that's not fair to say maybe not a part of your life at at all at all you never contact you never
never see each other um so for those people they're maybe unlikely to ask those types of questions because you're probably just getting to know each other anyway.
But yeah, of course, you can't control after a couple of glasses of wine, maybe, you know, auntie whoever is going to say something inappropriate and oh, this might lead to an argument.
I mean, this is represented in Hollywood films, too, where going home for the holidays can be a stressful, stressful time.
Well, that's good to know that, you know, this kind of inappropriate question asking can occur in these Western families as well.
But you mentioned third cousin.
For a lot of Chinese people, especially if you live maybe in the northern part of the country where families, in my personal observation, is not so closely connected, I don't even know who my third cousin is.
That's what I mean, yeah.
I don't even know who my second cousin is.
Oh, really? I don't know.
Who are these people?
I mean, right in to round table.
If you're listening and related to Huiong, please.
I mean, I share your future of being born and raised in northern China, but I know each and every one of them for some reason.
I mean, like ever since I was a kid, we all get together annually during the spring festival, both on my father's side and on my mom's side.
So I have two pairs of grandparents to meet for each year.
It's been like a ritual for me for so many years.
And for the past decade, I'll say people are starting to move around.
So it's not really that common but lately as all of my grandparents they're getting old and again I'm very much blessed with all four of them still um alive and very healthy at this point so at this point everybody just realized how important it is for us to commonly to usually get together and at least
ask each other and stay in contact and visit the elders and the family from time to time so that nowadays it's becoming just like how it used to be when i was younger so we're back to that mode of meeting each other during the spring festival again so yeah you kind of feel nice you know yeah there's
definitely the niceness to it and in the meantime i am being interrogated every single time that doesn't bother you i mean you kind of get used to it after a few rounds a few rounds yeah because when one family member leaves the other one approaches you and asks That's exactly the same question, sure.
And that's the time to bring up, so what's your level of your blood pressure?
Yeah, right. And, you know, isn't it a little bit high?
Oh, let's get you to some proper treatment or whatever it is that can divert their attention.
There's also something else that you said kind of bring up memories.
When I was a kid, when I was younger, I suppose, whenever the cousins meet up and nobody, I think, intentionally engage in this competition.
but it kind of just suddenly turns into one.
Here's what I'm doing, what are you doing?
Like when you were kids, it was like who got the highest grade in school.
And then when you got older, it was like, oh, so who's got the best job and who's got this and that or have moved on with life?
I think as I got older, psychologically, I've checked out from that competition.
But it's also easy to fall into that dynamic when you're back with all these folks yeah i i guess that's why you know do you do high school reunions in china is that a thing yeah maybe after we've graduated 20 years yeah right right right the graduating class will all get back together maybe that's
the reason some people might really look forward to the high school reunion if their career is going super well and they're living that stereotypical successful life married with a couple of kids or whatever but if things aren't going so well in your life well maybe you're not so much looking forward
to that high school reunion you might even skip it all together so that might be part of the anxiety that people feel there is like oh gosh I just broke up with my boyfriend and my girlfriend oh I didn't get that promotion at work and now I have to explain this to everybody that's just like oh please
no just I don't want to have these types of conversations but you inevitably have to with all that being said do you think it's possible that family reunions during the spring festival can actually help relieve the pressures of modern life i do believe yes nowadays a lot of young people especially for those
who is working in a different region or city that's away from their family that they're returning to during the spring festival season, they are living in a mindset that I'm fighting this year, that I'm working hard this year, that I want to achieve something this year.
So this whole year that's been going through under certain pressures or under certain mindset that I'm probably not backed by my family that I don't really see all the time.
But here during the spring festival season, and I believe many of you are listening to this at home, surrounded by your very family.
This is a time of just exchanging love and support.
And the very fact that you're surrounded by your family, by your mom and dad, even better, that's for me, at least that's very encouraging, you know, so on a spiritual side, you do feel supported, especially when you have physical contact and actual eye contact and in -depth face -to -face conversations
with your immediate family.
I think that matters.
I think it can be. And I think that what they said as a survey result indicates that it definitely can be.
They asked young people if they were looking forward to the opportunity to reconnect with their family members, asking about traveling home and meeting up during springtime, spring festival.
do you want to? And almost 60 % said yes.
So what I mean is if you have that mindset of oh I'm really looking forward to this then I think the opportunity to really enjoy it and relieve your stress from your daily work or study life I think that opportunity is there.
Conversely if you're in the minority in the 40 percent who are not so much looking forward to it then if you go into that thinking that then it might not it might not relieve your stress it might actually add to your stress there's no there's no one answer for this that applies to everyone right it
just depends on your situation and your family and a lot of different things And also bear in mind, some people don't get to go home.
You know, maybe you're working or maybe you're currently living, working or studying in a different country and you don't get to go back to home sweet home where mom and dad are.
Or maybe some people, for various reasons, don't decide to go down this path.
Yeah, I mean, the last time that I had an opportunity to be with my two sisters and my mom and dad at the same time was, oh, a good few years ago now.
And it was awesome because, you know, we don't get to do it that often.
If I lived in Nova Scotia or if I lived in Montreal, then I'd probably see my family all the time and it might not be that big a deal.
But, you know, I went to New York, for example, one time, and my sisters flew to New York from Canada, and my parents were in Florida, and they flew to New York, and we all had this fun little New York three, four -day family get -together.
Would I want to do that every weekend?
No. But every few years, for everyone to gather back together is fun.
It's fun. Yeah, that's interesting.
I think for a typical Chinese family, they would probably want to at least make it an annual thing maybe yeah but i'm not sure actually if i can use my family as another example nowadays yeah when we think about the chinese new year we think about okay maybe mom and dad and myself we'll go to a foreign
country to celebrate because everywhere is going to be congested in china it feels at least if you're on the go but if you're actually living in mega cities like Beijing then it's surprisingly empty because so everybody goes out yeah yeah it goes out so yeah for us it's become less of going home then
let's go somewhere together yeah right as long as the people you love are with you then anywhere can be called home doesn't matter where you are exactly and data do support you on that too because as Steve mentioned earlier the sick around 60 % of the young people nowadays in China, they're still doing
the homecoming thing.
But another almost 20 % would go traveling with their family and friends, here it mentions.
And that about 10 % would celebrate with their own immediate family.
And by that, I mean, just with their spouse or children, or even mom and dad, if they're in the same area or in the same city, but without the extended big family back home and some even like you mentioned just try to avoid going home or just simply celebrate the spring festival with friends I think
nowadays it's also an option and a lot of families they're becoming more open -minded that you know young people nowadays maybe this is also about having this period of time this holiday for themselves that they can And finally, just relax and don't think about answering emails or waking up early.
And this is a whole week of time to just figure something out for yourself for the new year as well.
So that might as well be a good chance.
Yeah, and that makes sense to me, too, if you choose to do that.
Because during this time of year, the traffic, if you're trying to drive somewhere, the traffic can be really bad.
Getting tickets and the train or the bus can be very difficult.
So you can visit during another weekend.
during another month, perhaps, if that works for your family, then that's great.
And if that works for you, like I said, there's no definitive answer.
Whatever works for your family is best.
And yeah, for Chinese people living outside of China, for them, the homecoming idea of sharing this very moment, sharing this very holiday with their family, it probably means even more, because I do have a friend who is currently living in Australia.
She and her husband just newly got married in Adelaide, and they're spending the whole year there, they're not planning to flying back.
But in the meantime, both of their parents, and also I think the guy's sister as well, they are flying to Australia to meet with them and meet with their immediate family and gather together during the Spring Festival in Australia.
Oh, cool. I think that's also a good way for people to get united and share the sense of being accompanied and supported and sharing the love with family members in warmer temperatures oh yeah in the end chinese new year is a reminder that no matter how far we go family is always the place we come back
to and it's not just about the tradition it's about the bonds that make us feel whole and loved
