(Not) Celebrating Chinese New Year
Just as we were unsuccessful in not celebrating Xmas, we were also unable to avoid "celebrating" Spring Festival - which in case you didn't already know is today, February 18th. It is now the year of the Golden Pig (or Boar if you prefer something a little more intimidating sounding).
Wear some red, eat some Chinese food, and send lots of funny, punny text messages. Text messages are apparently a far more important part of the holiday than even last year - most of which I've been told I won't "understand" because they are very "Mandarin" or "Chinese Language".
Because of the impending doom of my dissertation, The Boy and I had axed our original plans to head out to the Phillippines for a period of 3 weeks or so which would have bracketed the holiday nicely. Instead, we agreed that we would try to hibernate from the world, as if we were out of town, and attempt to engage in a week or so of intense creative work and couple interaction. Accordingly I canceled my Open House (which because of others' vacations plans wouldn't have pulled in many anyway) and have been trying to be diligent about writing. Lam has been spending lots of time on the computer attempting to assess and organize the vast amounts of video, music, and written material he's downloaded from the internet. Officially he's "thinking" about drawing, but so far no results that I can see - but then who knows what goes on in an artist's head as they watch TV?
The hibernation has been successful in shutting out most of my friends and acquaintainces and much less so with Lam's. This situation occurs because Lam's family, friend, and work worlds overlap and coincide to a remarkable degree (not unusual in China). His family's architecture firm, he and his best friends' software company and the teaching position at Shantou University (that he got as a combined result of friendship, family ties and qualifications), all guarantee that, as long as he's in town, a certain amount of end of the year contact is unavoidable if one wants to avoid future social conflicts. He had end of the year wrap-up, planning and reorganization meetings for the two smaller companies all this last week. Since these are also the meetings where shareowners and employess receive end of the year bonuses and profit sharing, it behooves one to show up for the whole process.
These annual meetings are also either proceeded or followed by an annual company dinner of some sort. The University, as a very large organization which had to feed many, rented out a buffet restaurant for the dinner. Lam and his closest colleagues all decided the food was below par and went off to eat at one of their favorite places instead. This was only possible, of course, because there was very little personal face involved. Although their skipping out on dinner could possibly have been read as a complaint about the miserliness of the food. In the case of the architecture firm and the software company, where the shareowners and decision-makers are friends and family, one must show up for face reasons. In the case of the software firm where things are mostly copacetic, this usually means that the head dudes (which includes The Boy as a shareholder, despite the fact that his only real job is to be the CEO's best friend and occasionally design powerpoint presentations and namecards) talk through most of a morning and afternoon and in the evening there is a party for all and sundry. This year it was a BBQ. I was invited but didn't go because of the dissertation and the fact that I had had a less than fun experience at the annual dinner for the architecture firm. Apparently the BBQ, which was also attended by many of the architects and designers, was a blast so I missed out. Ah well.
The dinner for the architecture firm was a study in the power of face and form to overlay and attempt to reconstruct content. The firm, which mostly runs according to the inclinations of Lam's middle brother, the head architect, is in the process of splintering due to differences of opinion over administration and future direction, not to mention personal conflicts between the head shareholders: husbands, wives, friends and brothers. The head architect, for reasons known only to himself (apparently), won't allocate firm resources to search out projects. In this vacumn, the husband of one of the head designers has been funneling projects to the firm on the basis of his guanxi ties - which means that guanxi guy will probably end up with an undetermined amount of money for the favor of mentioning the firm while smoking and drinking with his mates. This results in the firm being in debt to someone not formally connected to it and whose kickbacks are neither formally negotiated, nor formally accounted for. This tends to piss The Boy off (and perhaps others as well but I have no access to them). Using guanxi as "marketing" also tends to result in a somewhat arbitrary and diffuse collection of projects based more on guanxi guy's connections rather than pitching projects according to their size, prestige and fitness for the firm. According to another of the shareholders (who is on her way out and plans to move to Shanghai to join a different firm) this "marketing" has resulted in the firm wasting its time on a lot of small, time-consuming projects that bring in little money. Despite these consequences, however, guanxi marketing means that guanxi guy gets invited to all formal functions, like the annual dinner, not only in the role of designer's husband, but also in his unofficial role as liasion.
As mentioned before, the adminstration of the firm is also one of the causes of contention. In The Boy's and the female architect's accounts, apportioning work on projects, like the coice of projects, is similarly not prioritized according to cost-benefit criteria, nor is compensation proportioned along strictly "market-style" lines. Instead, in following family-style "accounting" methods and old-fashioned, Communist-style, "iron rice bowl" practices, the head architect has created a situation in which the more expert, hard-working, and effective members of the firm carry other members (related through affinal and kinship ties). These issues and the resulting current lack of money in the firm, have caused divisions amongst the shareholders and, not coincidentally, greatly attenuated and negatively affected their non-work relationships. Despite these personal and work conflicts, however, everyone showed up to the dinner with a smile which had been organized by the very shareholder who will be leaving within the year.
The architecture and design firm has often had an uneasy cooperation with a local construction and engineering firm. The pairing of their expertise is very necessary, as are the excellent guanxi connections that the construction and engineering form has (especially since one of the head engineers is actual a low-level cadre). Still, there have been a few projects in which the cooperative work of the two firms had been awarded recognition but only the construction and engineering firm got named. Hence the presence of the main engineers of that firm at the dinner ensured that friendly relations are maintained and was simultaneouly, an attempt to bring the two companies' priorities closer in alignment.
I was perhaps the only person who didn't have a real claim to belong there - that is, the only one who wasn't included in the social construction of work unity. Nevertheless, as "girlfriend" (not my phrase, but at least they've stopped using the word "wife" as is common in Shantou) of one of the designer/shareholders, my inclusion probably helped to give the occasion an air of sociality beyond work. Even if my role as foreign anthropologist muddies that sociality claim up a bit since I had run an Engish class for them; and leaned on them for fieldwork connections. Nevertheless, according to The Boy and the female shareholder, I had also given them a cosmopolitan air when they went to give reports to clients like the city of Chaozhou so the final score (even if guanxi is about refusing to recognize one) was about even.
So there we all were, the firms' designers, guanxi guy (also designer's husband), construction firm engineers and moi. Actually it took quite a long time for all of us to get there since the engineers, The Boy and I were there on time and most of the design firm and guanxi guy showed up in stages thereafter. The long wait for everyone to arrive was really not adaptive for unity construction. The reason that eating together creates sociality isn't because people are actually talking with each other, it's because they can shut up and stuff their faces and then, in those moments when they need to rest from that, talk about how great the food is and make toasts. Accidentally or not, the lateness of arrival was nearly exactly proportional to the centrality of the people. The last carload to come in, of course, was that of the head architect so everyone was hungry edgy by the time he did. During the time before they all got there, The Boy and I attempted to make small talk with the engineers - made more difficult by my dislike of one of them. Luckily (or not), guanxi guy showed up soon after and took it upon himself to maintain the "party" atmosphere. This he accomplished by making jokes with the guys and lighting up a cigarette to show how relaxed he was. He was the only one who didn't appear awkward, but then that's basically his "job" so it's not surprise he pulls it off well. Next carload included his wife and a few of the younger designers then the Shanghai-bound designer and her carload. She had just decided to order the food anyway when the head architect and his load of the last of the younger members showed up.
Thank all the deities for food. Small talk was accomplished by those who needed to engage in it. The rest of us could shut up and chew.
Despite the meal being at one of the better restaurants in town, it was not one I could say that I enjoyed. The atmosphere, to me, was just too awkward and the contrast with what I knew was happening to the company outside of the dining room just made it a little too alienating. As a result, I went into theorization mode. If you can't talk, might as well think. This is not always a good thing, but when living in one's fieldsite tends to happen more than might otherwise be the case.
So that's one way of celebrating Chinese New Year - at least for the "work" circle. As for the family circle, that dinner was eerily similar in awkwardness and form, as well as in the need to give face through one's presence. There was also a significant overlap in the population at the table, although the addition of some members of the parental generation and some kids who helped to make it a little more chaotic. Since the family dinner was held at the same restaurant, the similarity was perhaps even more apparent. The symbolism of the dinner, that of family unity, was, once again, in direct contrast the nature of the interactions at the table. A large amount of time was spent in private interaction with cell phones focusing on sending and receiving text messages for the new year. Equally large amounts of time were spent watching the TV that was conveniently located at my and The Boy's back. And the food wasn't even as good as the first time. The Boy and I left the restaurant after the dinner was over swearing to be out of the country next year. Apparently my desire to escape the ruckus of Christmas is equalled by his to escape the ruckus of Spring Festival.
Hence, our "celebration" of the first day of the Chinese year by seeing no one else but ourselves - in contrast to the more common custom of hanging out with relatives all day. We got up late, had wine, cheese, and fruit for brunch, apricated naked, had sex in the garden and the fell asleep for much of the afternoon. Actually, the sunbathing naked and sex part echoes our Christmas celebration as does the dinner we had at the Thai restaurant - which was delicious. On the walk home, we got to see people setting off fireworks.
So there you have it, that's how The Boy and I failed to not celebrate Chinese New Year. Maybe next year we'll do a better job.
Wear some red, eat some Chinese food, and send lots of funny, punny text messages. Text messages are apparently a far more important part of the holiday than even last year - most of which I've been told I won't "understand" because they are very "Mandarin" or "Chinese Language".
Because of the impending doom of my dissertation, The Boy and I had axed our original plans to head out to the Phillippines for a period of 3 weeks or so which would have bracketed the holiday nicely. Instead, we agreed that we would try to hibernate from the world, as if we were out of town, and attempt to engage in a week or so of intense creative work and couple interaction. Accordingly I canceled my Open House (which because of others' vacations plans wouldn't have pulled in many anyway) and have been trying to be diligent about writing. Lam has been spending lots of time on the computer attempting to assess and organize the vast amounts of video, music, and written material he's downloaded from the internet. Officially he's "thinking" about drawing, but so far no results that I can see - but then who knows what goes on in an artist's head as they watch TV?
The hibernation has been successful in shutting out most of my friends and acquaintainces and much less so with Lam's. This situation occurs because Lam's family, friend, and work worlds overlap and coincide to a remarkable degree (not unusual in China). His family's architecture firm, he and his best friends' software company and the teaching position at Shantou University (that he got as a combined result of friendship, family ties and qualifications), all guarantee that, as long as he's in town, a certain amount of end of the year contact is unavoidable if one wants to avoid future social conflicts. He had end of the year wrap-up, planning and reorganization meetings for the two smaller companies all this last week. Since these are also the meetings where shareowners and employess receive end of the year bonuses and profit sharing, it behooves one to show up for the whole process.
These annual meetings are also either proceeded or followed by an annual company dinner of some sort. The University, as a very large organization which had to feed many, rented out a buffet restaurant for the dinner. Lam and his closest colleagues all decided the food was below par and went off to eat at one of their favorite places instead. This was only possible, of course, because there was very little personal face involved. Although their skipping out on dinner could possibly have been read as a complaint about the miserliness of the food. In the case of the architecture firm and the software company, where the shareowners and decision-makers are friends and family, one must show up for face reasons. In the case of the software firm where things are mostly copacetic, this usually means that the head dudes (which includes The Boy as a shareholder, despite the fact that his only real job is to be the CEO's best friend and occasionally design powerpoint presentations and namecards) talk through most of a morning and afternoon and in the evening there is a party for all and sundry. This year it was a BBQ. I was invited but didn't go because of the dissertation and the fact that I had had a less than fun experience at the annual dinner for the architecture firm. Apparently the BBQ, which was also attended by many of the architects and designers, was a blast so I missed out. Ah well.
The dinner for the architecture firm was a study in the power of face and form to overlay and attempt to reconstruct content. The firm, which mostly runs according to the inclinations of Lam's middle brother, the head architect, is in the process of splintering due to differences of opinion over administration and future direction, not to mention personal conflicts between the head shareholders: husbands, wives, friends and brothers. The head architect, for reasons known only to himself (apparently), won't allocate firm resources to search out projects. In this vacumn, the husband of one of the head designers has been funneling projects to the firm on the basis of his guanxi ties - which means that guanxi guy will probably end up with an undetermined amount of money for the favor of mentioning the firm while smoking and drinking with his mates. This results in the firm being in debt to someone not formally connected to it and whose kickbacks are neither formally negotiated, nor formally accounted for. This tends to piss The Boy off (and perhaps others as well but I have no access to them). Using guanxi as "marketing" also tends to result in a somewhat arbitrary and diffuse collection of projects based more on guanxi guy's connections rather than pitching projects according to their size, prestige and fitness for the firm. According to another of the shareholders (who is on her way out and plans to move to Shanghai to join a different firm) this "marketing" has resulted in the firm wasting its time on a lot of small, time-consuming projects that bring in little money. Despite these consequences, however, guanxi marketing means that guanxi guy gets invited to all formal functions, like the annual dinner, not only in the role of designer's husband, but also in his unofficial role as liasion.
As mentioned before, the adminstration of the firm is also one of the causes of contention. In The Boy's and the female architect's accounts, apportioning work on projects, like the coice of projects, is similarly not prioritized according to cost-benefit criteria, nor is compensation proportioned along strictly "market-style" lines. Instead, in following family-style "accounting" methods and old-fashioned, Communist-style, "iron rice bowl" practices, the head architect has created a situation in which the more expert, hard-working, and effective members of the firm carry other members (related through affinal and kinship ties). These issues and the resulting current lack of money in the firm, have caused divisions amongst the shareholders and, not coincidentally, greatly attenuated and negatively affected their non-work relationships. Despite these personal and work conflicts, however, everyone showed up to the dinner with a smile which had been organized by the very shareholder who will be leaving within the year.
The architecture and design firm has often had an uneasy cooperation with a local construction and engineering firm. The pairing of their expertise is very necessary, as are the excellent guanxi connections that the construction and engineering form has (especially since one of the head engineers is actual a low-level cadre). Still, there have been a few projects in which the cooperative work of the two firms had been awarded recognition but only the construction and engineering firm got named. Hence the presence of the main engineers of that firm at the dinner ensured that friendly relations are maintained and was simultaneouly, an attempt to bring the two companies' priorities closer in alignment.
I was perhaps the only person who didn't have a real claim to belong there - that is, the only one who wasn't included in the social construction of work unity. Nevertheless, as "girlfriend" (not my phrase, but at least they've stopped using the word "wife" as is common in Shantou) of one of the designer/shareholders, my inclusion probably helped to give the occasion an air of sociality beyond work. Even if my role as foreign anthropologist muddies that sociality claim up a bit since I had run an Engish class for them; and leaned on them for fieldwork connections. Nevertheless, according to The Boy and the female shareholder, I had also given them a cosmopolitan air when they went to give reports to clients like the city of Chaozhou so the final score (even if guanxi is about refusing to recognize one) was about even.
So there we all were, the firms' designers, guanxi guy (also designer's husband), construction firm engineers and moi. Actually it took quite a long time for all of us to get there since the engineers, The Boy and I were there on time and most of the design firm and guanxi guy showed up in stages thereafter. The long wait for everyone to arrive was really not adaptive for unity construction. The reason that eating together creates sociality isn't because people are actually talking with each other, it's because they can shut up and stuff their faces and then, in those moments when they need to rest from that, talk about how great the food is and make toasts. Accidentally or not, the lateness of arrival was nearly exactly proportional to the centrality of the people. The last carload to come in, of course, was that of the head architect so everyone was hungry edgy by the time he did. During the time before they all got there, The Boy and I attempted to make small talk with the engineers - made more difficult by my dislike of one of them. Luckily (or not), guanxi guy showed up soon after and took it upon himself to maintain the "party" atmosphere. This he accomplished by making jokes with the guys and lighting up a cigarette to show how relaxed he was. He was the only one who didn't appear awkward, but then that's basically his "job" so it's not surprise he pulls it off well. Next carload included his wife and a few of the younger designers then the Shanghai-bound designer and her carload. She had just decided to order the food anyway when the head architect and his load of the last of the younger members showed up.
Thank all the deities for food. Small talk was accomplished by those who needed to engage in it. The rest of us could shut up and chew.
Despite the meal being at one of the better restaurants in town, it was not one I could say that I enjoyed. The atmosphere, to me, was just too awkward and the contrast with what I knew was happening to the company outside of the dining room just made it a little too alienating. As a result, I went into theorization mode. If you can't talk, might as well think. This is not always a good thing, but when living in one's fieldsite tends to happen more than might otherwise be the case.
So that's one way of celebrating Chinese New Year - at least for the "work" circle. As for the family circle, that dinner was eerily similar in awkwardness and form, as well as in the need to give face through one's presence. There was also a significant overlap in the population at the table, although the addition of some members of the parental generation and some kids who helped to make it a little more chaotic. Since the family dinner was held at the same restaurant, the similarity was perhaps even more apparent. The symbolism of the dinner, that of family unity, was, once again, in direct contrast the nature of the interactions at the table. A large amount of time was spent in private interaction with cell phones focusing on sending and receiving text messages for the new year. Equally large amounts of time were spent watching the TV that was conveniently located at my and The Boy's back. And the food wasn't even as good as the first time. The Boy and I left the restaurant after the dinner was over swearing to be out of the country next year. Apparently my desire to escape the ruckus of Christmas is equalled by his to escape the ruckus of Spring Festival.
Hence, our "celebration" of the first day of the Chinese year by seeing no one else but ourselves - in contrast to the more common custom of hanging out with relatives all day. We got up late, had wine, cheese, and fruit for brunch, apricated naked, had sex in the garden and the fell asleep for much of the afternoon. Actually, the sunbathing naked and sex part echoes our Christmas celebration as does the dinner we had at the Thai restaurant - which was delicious. On the walk home, we got to see people setting off fireworks.
So there you have it, that's how The Boy and I failed to not celebrate Chinese New Year. Maybe next year we'll do a better job.