China Archives - Page 4 of 112 - understand-culture

Celebrate Where You Are

In January 2021, during the pandemic, the General Offices of the Party Central Committee and the State Council issued a notice on 就地过年, celebrating the New Year where one is. People in low-risk areas were “encouraged to celebrate where they are, and not to travel unless necessary.” The notice offered subsidies to employers who kept migrant workers, and encouraged red envelopes for those who stayed at their posts.

The Spring Festival travel season of 2021 was expected to see 870 million trips, 70.9 percent fewer than in 2019.

The Vocabulary of Feeling

Ganqing (感情) Feeling. The Handian dictionary gives one of its senses as the friendship between people, with the example: “The two of them have always been in close contact, and their feeling is very good.” Jiaoqing (交情) The friendly feeling that grows out of dealing with each other. Handian’s example is lao jiaoqing, an old friendship. Lianluo ganqing (联络感情) To cultivate feelings. Handian lists it as an example of lianluo in the sense of cultivating connections and dealing with people.

Gone Without Returning

In March 2015, after the Spring Festival, a survey by the Guangzhou human resources service center found that the city’s companies were short of 123,300 workers. Some companies in Guangdong reported that fewer than 60 percent of their workers had come back. The report used the phrase 有去无回, gone without returning, for workers who did not come back.

A Hand Across the Ocean

On February 21, 1972, Richard Nixon arrived in Beijing. A Chinese account gives Zhou Enlai’s words of welcome: “You have reached your hand across the widest ocean in the world to shake mine. We have had no contact for 25 years.”

In his memoirs, Nixon wrote that he knew Zhou had been “deeply insulted” when John Foster Dulles refused to shake his hand at the Geneva Conference in 1954. “When I reached the bottom step, therefore, I made a point of extending my hand as I walked toward him.”

The Geneva story itself is disputed. Zhou told it to Edgar Snow in 1960 and raised it with Henry Kissinger in 1971. As quoted by the writer John Tkacik, the Chinese diplomat Wang Bingnan wrote in a 1984 memoir that nothing of the sort ever happened.

Sayings on Broken Trust

Po jing chong yuan (破镜重圆) The broken mirror is made whole again. The Handian dictionary tells the story behind it. When war separated Xu Deyan of the Chen dynasty and his wife, Princess Lechang, each kept half of a mirror as a token, and through it they were reunited. The idiom means a couple reunited after separation, or two people reconciled after their feelings broke. Fu shui nan shou (覆水难收) Spilled water is hard to gather. Handian lists it as the opposite. What is done cannot be undone. Hao shi bu chu men, e shi chuan qian li (好事不出门，恶事传千里) Good deeds do not leave the door, bad deeds travel a thousand li. The saying appears in the Water Margin and in Journey to the West.

The Waiting Hall Before Dawn

The Song official Wang Yucheng wrote an essay on the dailou yuan (待漏院), the hall where the chancellor waited before the morning audience. “The northern gate faces the dawn, and the east is not yet light. The chancellor sets out.” The golden gate is still shut, and the water clock still drips. He steps down from his carriage and rests in the hall.

The essay explains why the hall was built: “to show diligence in government.” Even ministers, it says, rise early and sleep late “to serve one man.” The text was later included in the Guwen guanzhi, the classic anthology of prose.

Summoned to Mao’s Study

Richard Nixon arrived in Beijing on February 21, 1972. That afternoon, Zhou Enlai came to the Diaoyutai guesthouse, where Nixon and Henry Kissinger were staying. He said directly that Chairman Mao wanted to see the president. The president, he said, needed to go at once.

Nixon and Kissinger left quickly, without telling Secretary of State William Rogers. The meeting in Mao’s study at Zhongnanhai began at 2:40 p.m. and ran longer than planned.

When the Leader Leaves

In June 2016, a Guangming Daily commentary by Chen Fang noted that one reason for overtime had again set off heated discussion online: lingdao mei zou shei gan xian zou, “the leader has not left, so who dares to leave first?”

In March 2025, Zhao Lei, a vice president of the appliance maker Midea, described the same scene to the business paper Yicai. “After work, the leader does not leave, so the employees do not leave. But the employees sit there with nothing to do.” Midea said it had issued no notice barring overtime after 6:20 p.m. It said it encourages staff to leave on time.

The Duke of Zhou’s Meal

In the Records of the Grand Historian, the Duke of Zhou warns his son before the son leaves to rule the state of Lu. “I am the son of King Wen, the brother of King Wu and the uncle of King Cheng. In the realm I am not of low rank. Yet in one bath I hold up my hair three times, and in one meal I spit out my food three times, to rise and receive worthy men. Even so, I fear losing the able men of the realm.”

Centuries later, Cao Cao’s poem Short Song includes the line: “The Duke of Zhou spat out his food, and the realm turned its heart to him.”

Juniors Go First

At the Lunar New Year, the visits follow a fixed direction. A Spring Festival guide in The Paper states the rule: “When paying New Year calls, the younger generation must first pay New Year calls to their elders and wish them long life and good health.” The elders may then give the younger ones yasuiqian, the lucky money prepared in advance.