Twelve months ago, as I was driving home from work in Vancouver, my wife phoned me and asked me to stop at the local Chinese grocery store to pick up some additional packs of sliced beef. It was Chinese New Year 2020, and we were preparing to host a Spring Festival celebration at our home with some of our closest Chinese friends. My wife was born in Guangzhou, and although she spent most of her life growing up in Canada, she misses her home country tremendously during every Chinese national holiday, most especially during Spring Festival.
As I opened our front door, an immediate gush of warm air hit my cold cheeks. The distinct aroma of a spicy hotpot filled the air and my stomach suddenly became a little hungrier as I knew the amazing meal we were getting ready to enjoy. During the cold winter months, there isn’t a more comforting and inviting meal than hotpot. It remains one of my favorite Chinese meal experiences. Maybe because it was the very first meal I experienced when I arrived in China some 14 years ago.
My first meal in China (Cyrus in Red)….. Shanghai, January 13, 2007
One of the reasons I enjoy eating hotpot so much is the length of time it takes to consume the meal. During a hotpot dinner, it’s not uncommon for us to spend several hours, slowly eating and drinking and enjoying each other’s company. Growing up in America, I always remember the great efforts my mother put into preparing a Christmas dinner celebration. She would spend all day preparing a meal that within 30 minutes was finished. After living in China for 10 years, hotpot has become a staple meal for our family. We routinely eat hotpot at home at least once a week, even in the summertime, and find it the perfect meal to enjoy with friends for Chinese New Year, as Vancouver’s cold winter weather sets the perfect mood for spicy hotpot.
My wife and I enjoy hotpot at least once a week together in Vancouver
As we sat in comfortable chairs and drank Qingdao beer and Hai Di Lao hotpot, our happy conversation with friends suddenly shifted to an uncomfortable topic. All of us were concerned about a mysterious new virus in Wuhan. We thought about my wife’s family in Guangzhou, our dozens of expat friends in Shanghai and Beijing. We watched the news over the next few days and weeks as the city of Wuhan entered a lockdown which was then followed then by the entire country of China. We began to think to ourselves:
“Will this virus spread around the world? With international travel being so convenient these days, how could it not?”
A few days after that hotpot, my wife received a phone call from her parents in Guangzhou. There was a shortage of face masks in China, and they asked us to buy some in Vancouver and ship them to China. It was a great idea, however given the large Chinese population in Vancouver, we weren’t the only ones with this thought process. Seemingly overnight all of the facial masks in Vancouver were sold out. However, what if we could buy face masks from another city were there wasn’t a major Chinese population? What about my hometown, Orlando, Florida? I immediately called my father who went to the hardware store that afternoon and purchased 250 face masks. The next day my parents shipped those masks to my wife’s family in Guangzhou providing them some much needed protection and most importantly peace of mind.
Over the next couple of days, my parents went to other hardware stores and purchased an additional 250 face masks. They called me the next day and said:
“Let us know when our family in China needs more, and we will send them.”
However, things very quickly changed in China and the rest of the world. As China built hospitals, saved lives, and controlled the situation, it was now America’s turn to battle the virus. Within a few weeks America suffered a similar shortage of face masks. As everyone in Florida scrambled to purchase face masks, my parents had 250 new face masks waiting to be shipped to China. However, China didn’t need them anymore, my parents were one of the few that immediately had face masks for the upcoming pandemic in America.
The hotpot dinner we celebrated during last year’s Chinese New Year celebration was the last meal we enjoyed with friends in our home. It’s been over 12 months now and Canada is still working on beating the pandemic. These past twelve months have been extremely challenging, but optimism is starting to grow, as hopes for the vaccine and a return to normal give us all hope. As we celebrate Chinese New Year 2021 and the year of the Ox, we have found creative ways to enjoy the holiday from the comfort of our home in Vancouver.
The Chinese New Year Shirts my wife purchased for our twin boys
Like most women, my wife enjoys shopping and she was able to find some locally made Chinese New Year themed shirts for our three children to wear during the holiday. Our youngest children are twin boys who are 2.5 years old now. The twins speak mostly English at home but are learning new Chinese words every day. This past week we taught them to put their hands together, slightly bow and proudly say, “Gong Xi Fa Cai!”. Although they won’t be able to receive any lucky red packets from friends and family during the holiday, my wife and I are preparing the red packets to give to our children for good luck and blessings in the New Year.
My wife’s family is currently in Guangzhou and my parents are in my hometown of Orlando, Florida. We are in Vancouver, literally in the middle between both sets of parents. My wife and I both miss our parents tremendously, however knowing that each of us is missing our parents has become a common bond and given us strength as we know we need to be strong for our children who also miss both sets of grandparents. My wife and I have realized how lucky we are to now be parents and have these 3 young lives to take care of every day.
M
My 5 year old daughter’s New Year’s Drawing, proudly hangs on our refrigerator
As we get ready to celebrate Chinese New Year 2021, we will continue our tradition and once again enjoy a delicious hotpot celebration at home. This year, my wife won’t be calling me to stop at the local Chinese grocery store and pick up an extra serving of meat. This year it will only be my wife and 3 children joining me for the meal. At first, one could become discouraged and start focusing on the negative. Why is the world still suffering with this pandemic? Why can we still not see our friends and family? But we choose to look at the positive, which are 3 young children who love their parents as much as they love eating Chinese hotpot! Even during a pandemic there are many things to be thankful for, most importantly our family, which is the true meaning of Chinese New Year.
One Year After the Pandemic Began - How We are Celebrating Chinese New Year in Vancouver
Greetings from Vancouver! 恭祝你們闔家身體健康!萬事如意!I’m also from Guangzhou, I happened to read the article in Sina.com recommending your speech "why we need china" made in the university in Vancouver and watch the video in Youtube, I found that you are very objective and telling the truth which the western media never did it. I subscribe your channel and will support you as long as you keep doing it. I know you have a lot of work to do in order to produce good contents for the channel, I'm willing to help if you need volunteer.