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2019 in Photos on Speaking of China

As we’re days from bidding farewell to 2019, I thought it might be fun this year to share a sampling of some of my favorite photos on the blog from this past year.

No matter where you are in the world, I’ll be wishing you a very Happy New Year. Cheers to 2020!

As many of you know, my husband’s Jun’s case went to trial this year and we were there. Seated at front is our main lawyer Ron Coulter; behind him in a white suit is our second chair lawyer Holly Sutherland, and next to her is our paralegal Crystal Anderson.

Earlier this year, I got my first video assignment when China Daily sent me to Hangzhou. We shot scenes by the West Lake in my favorite corner — Qu Yuan Feng He (曲院风荷) — as well as one critical shot on Su Causeway, with a view of Lou Wai Lou on Bai Causeway.

During the summer, China Daily later sent me to Suzhou and Shandong province for another video shoot. On my first day of shooting in Suzhou, we came to Canglang Pavilion, one of the city’s classical gardens which also happens to host a Kunqu Opera troupe. I spent over two hours getting a “makeover” to look like an opera performer. While I could never match the professional moves of the veteran actors, the whole experience proved unforgettable (right down to removing the makeup, which required multiple washes!).

In the afternoon, we traveled to the Humble Administrator’s Garden, the largest classical garden in Suzhou, for a shoot.

In September, I was part of a video shoot for China Daily in Beijing. We shot some scenes right here in this spectacular hall, and also in one of the theaters as well, during a rehearsal.

Our last day of shooting in Beijing brought us to the Qianmen area just south of Tian’anmen Square, and its lively pedestrian shopping streets.

China Daily sent me to Shanghai in November to cover the China International Import Expo as a video reporter. On my first morning at the expo, I introduced the cultural heritage on display at the Meet Shanghai booth. Behind me is a selection of folk paintings done by rural painters from Shanghai.

That’s a wrap! Here I am after finishing the second live broadcast on Nov 7 (my final assignment at the expo), along with my colleagues from work.

Wishing everyone the best in 2020!

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Photo Essay: ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas in China

Twas the night before Christmas in China, which in China proved tough.

Because we’d work the following morning, without a day off.

But in a small corner of Beijing, there lived Jocelyn and Jun,

Determined to dance to a Christmas-y tune.

Dazzling lights and ornaments on the tiny tree

Made it, despite the size, a sight to see.

And while live carolers would have been fine,

WKSU streamed their favorite songs online.

But most of all was the holiday spirit within

Which burned brightly in both, and made them grin.

Holidays abroad don’t equal a lump of coal

As long as you keep the spirit in your heart and soul.

So wherever you are, hope your holidays delight.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

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4 Last-Minute Holiday Gift Ideas for Chinese Loved Ones

If you’ve saved your holiday shopping for the last minute and wonder what to buy for Chinese loved ones on your list, we’ve got you covered on this blog. Here are four last-minute holiday gift ideas to consider:

#4: Hats, gloves, scarves

People love getting new clothes for the holidays in China (so they can dress in a completely new outfit from head to toe), so winter clothing is always in season as a gift.

Hats, gloves and scarves offer the easiest options — you don’t need to know sizes to buy the perfect gift. Still, quality counts here and, if you’re buying for someone younger, style as well. To play it safe, opt for major brands such as Esprit, Gap, Uniqlo or Zara.

#3: Jewelry

Quality watches, earrings and necklaces in classic styles also shine as gifts for Chinese — and if you’re buying outside China, you can often find those with precious stones at better prices too. Unless you know the recipient well, stick to the most traditional pieces and settings from established brands or jewelers. Watches work well for men, while women will love earrings or necklaces.

#2: Foreign wines

Top-shelf wines from abroad bring great holiday cheer — and easy gift ideas as well, particularly for men. French wines remain favorites, but almost anything from Europe will make a splash. Learn more about buying foreign wines in this post.

#1: Fruit baskets and gourmet food baskets

If you’ve read every suggestion on this list and still feel stumped, then repeat after me — get a fruit basket or gourmet food basket. For more specific advice on this, see 4 Tips for Giving Gift Baskets in China.

Need more last-minute holiday gift ideas for your Chinese loved ones? I’ve written extensively on the subject of gift-giving and recommend the following posts:

What did I miss? What other last-minute gift ideas would you recommend for Chinese loved ones?

P.S.: If you’re shopping this holiday season on Amazon.com, you can actually support Speaking of China — at no additional cost to you — by making a purchase through one of my affiliate links. Thanks!

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Is It Truly the Holidays if Only You’re Celebrating?

Last month, on the evening of Nov 28, Thanksgiving Day in the US, I sat down with friends to a home-cooked feast with all the usual trimmings — baked poultry, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole and gravy. And in the corner of the room, several sumptuous desserts — including a two-layer chocolate cake — tempted us all to leave a little space to enjoy them as well.

And yet, as we all tucked into this American-style Thanksgiving dinner, I knew we remained largely alone in the community surrounding us. After all, Thanksgiving is not a holiday in China. That I could take the time off at all felt like a miracle itself.

Unlike the US, Thanksgiving only thrived on the menus of a handful of restaurants and hotels dishing up traditional fare in Beijing. In the local supermarkets here, Thanksgiving really didn’t exist. No towering displays of stuffing mix, pumpkin puree, fried onions and cream of mushroom soup, or ready-made gravy. No pre-baked pumpkin or pecan pies to cut and serve for guests. Not even a gigantic freezer section loaded with huge turkeys.

I had to work extra-hard to make it a memorable holiday, which meant preparing from scratch ingredients and dishes most Americans take for granted, with a vegan twist. Things like vegetable broth, gravy, cream of mushroom soup, bread crumbs for stuffing, and even those sinfully delicious fried onions you sprinkle all over your green bean casserole. That resulted in a marathon day of cooking prior to the big day — and one that left me with a newfound respect for what goes into this traditional holiday banquet.

But as I recognized that few in Beijing, or China for that matter, would be raising their glasses on the fourth Thursday of November for this feast, it got me thinking — is it really the holidays if you’re the only one celebrating in your community? What exactly is it that makes a holiday a true holiday when you don’t have the momentum of an entire nation behind you, along with all the holiday trappings in stores?

Here’s what I think, in the wake of my Thanksgiving experience.

What makes a holiday is ultimately the effort and care you put into it. And holidays can exist even just one small apartment in an entire complex, and still be holidays. It’s all about the love you bring to the day — and sharing that love with the people who matter most to you, whoever they might be.

Yes, my modest Thanksgiving feast could never possibly replicate those traditional dinners at my aunt and uncle’s place, or the ways we used to entertain the whole family at my childhood home. But it had the most important ingredient of all, which left everyone at the table feeling satisfied: heart.

Wishing everyone out there a happy holiday season!

What do you think?

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Oh, Maqiu: Mistaking a Winter Solstice Treat for Tangyuan – Pub’d on China Daily

Last week, China Daily just published my latest column titled Oh, maqiu: Mistaking a winter solstice treat for tangyuan. Here’s an excerpt from that column:

All those years, I had it all wrong about maqiu, a traditional winter solstice food for my husband Jun’s family in rural Zhejiang province.

Whenever Jun mentioned the sesame balls he had eaten for the holiday while growing up, I had always imagined a version of tangyuan, those delicious glutinous rice balls stuffed with sweet sesame or red bean paste typically enjoyed in southern China. Except, he called them sesame balls or maqiu, not tangyuan. So I thought, maybe maqiu was just another name for tangyuan in the local dialect?

But then years ago, one night before winter solstice with Jun’s family, I watched my mother-in-law prepare maqiu in her kitchen and did a double take. She dropped inch-sized balls of glutinous rice dough, made from glutinous rice flour and cold water, straight into a wok of boiling water without tucking anything inside. Had she lost her mind? Where was the muss and fuss of filling the dough with sesame paste that I’d had to slog through all those years before, when Jun and I used to live in the United States?

Once the rice balls floated to the top, which took only a few minutes, she fished them out of the boiling water and then rolled them in a sweet mixture of toasted black sesame seeds and white sugar that coated every inch of the dough. That’s when I realized it－it was my mistake, not hers.

Read the full column here. And if you like it, share it!

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Christmas on Taobao: 5 Most Popular Online Holiday Goods in China – Pub’d on WWAM BAM

The group blog WWAM BAM just published my post Christmas on Taobao: 5 Most Popular Online Holiday Goods in China. Here’s an excerpt:

When you live in a country that doesn’t officially celebrate Christmas, people are bound to interpret the holiday in both familiar and fascinating new ways. That includes the goods people associate with Christmas.

Alibaba’s Taobao, one of the most popular online shopping platforms, can offer a unique window into how Christmas looks and feels here in China, through online products. And since I’m a frequent Taobao user, I’d like to share the top 5 best-selling online holiday goods in China that come up when you search for 圣诞 (shèngdàn), the Chinese word for Christmas.

To read the full post and discover those 5 most popular online holiday goods, head on over to WWAM BAM. And if you like it, share it!

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The Huotong: A Seat of Warmth and Ingenuity at the Table – Pub’d on China Daily

Last week China Daily just published my latest column — The huotong: A seat of warmth and ingenuity at the table. Here’s an excerpt from the piece:

Late autumn, in the days I lived with my in-laws in rural Zhejiang province, meant the arrival of one of the warmest companions I ever had at the dinner table－the huotong.

Imagine a wooden, thimble-shaped stool that’s half-enclosed, with one side open like a stage, cradling a metal receptacle built to hold burning embers, and you have an idea of what this traditional piece of dining room furniture looks like. Whenever the first chilling winds of the season would sweep through the village, my in-laws would fill one with a generous helping of warm cinders from their fire-powered wok, and place it near the table, usually right where I used to sit.

They were no strangers to my aversion to the cold of winter in a province that didn’t enjoy the steam heat typical of northern parts of China, nor the heating vents I relished at home growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, where almost every school year saw at least a handful of snow days or times that proved too frigid for us to attend classes. As a child, I would rush home from school in January and February and immediately ensconce myself in front of the heater.

Who would have imagined I would marry into a family accustomed to winters of wearing multiple layers of clothing and your jacket at all times, even at home.

Not surprisingly, my winter strategy at their home involved heavy use of an electric mattress pad and excessive layers of blankets. I felt loathe to leave the cocoon of warmth I had built for myself in the bedroom, including when mealtimes arrived. For me, that made the huotong such a welcome addition around the table.

Read the full piece right here — and if you like it, share it! Also, you can listen to an audio recording of me reading the essay here.

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6 Tips and Tricks for Making an Amazing Thanksgiving Dinner in China

2019 marks a sort of milestone for my husband Jun and me — the year that we will finally make an authentic American-style Thanksgiving dinner here in China. We’ve got a whole bird on the menu (for my carnivorous husband!), baked tofu for me, the vegan, and loads of comfort foods with a vegan twist — from stuffing and green bean casserole to gravy and dessert.

Thankfully, in the era of online shopping, powered by Taobao and JD, it’s never been easier to pull together the ingredients for a meal just like your mother or grandma used to make.

Still, bringing it all together requires flexibility and sometimes a little ingenuity too. As we gear up to make this our best Thanksgiving ever in China, I’d like to share a few tips and tricks for anyone else hoping to cook up an amazing and authentic Thanksgiving dinner in China.

#1: Aim for more local poultry

While a traditional Thanksgiving dinner revolves around turkey (so much so that in the US people even refer to Thanksgiving as “Turkey Day”), this poultry isn’t native to China and won’t easily be found at your local supermarket or fresh market. On top of it, most of us here only have toaster ovens that couldn’t possibly accommodate such a huge bird.

So if you don’t own a super-huge oven and you’re not keen on splurging on a restaurant’s ready-made turkey, then simply aim for a more local poultry option, period. For example, whole chicken and duck are both readily available in fresh markets in most cities, and either could make for a wonderful culinary centerpiece for your meal. Besides, it really all comes down to the seasoning — just spice up the bird as you usually would at home, and you’ll still find it delivers that nostalgic flavor you remember from past dinners.

This year, I’m planning on adapting my favorite turkey recipe — soy-sauce and honey-glazed turkey — with a chicken instead.

#2 Cranberries don’t need to be in a sauce

While cranberry lovers have rejoiced over their rising abundance in China (Ocean Spray Craisins, I’m looking at you), good luck finding fresh cranberries. But who says you absolutely must serve your cranberries as a sauce? I’m planning on providing a small bowl of my favorite dried cranberries to represent this must-have at the table.

#3 Adapt your recipes to the stovetop or rice cooker

While much of Thanksgiving cooking relies heavily on baking in the oven, for those of us in China, that puts extra pressure on your toaster oven, which is often much smaller and less accommodating than the ovens most Americans use. But lots of things that normally get baked could also go on the stovetop, such as stuffing and green bean casserole. Or you could even use your rice cooker to make some of the dinner (such as rice cooker stuffing).

#4 No poultry seasoning? No sage? No problem!

The beloved American poultry seasoning that appears in seemingly every Thanksgiving recipe you’ll find online is pretty much missing in action here in China. Same for sage, which features in just about every single poultry seasoning substitute. Never fear — first off, consider any of these substitutes for sage. And then use those as you build a poultry seasoning substitute.

#5 Make your own “canned” pumpkin puree

You’ll strain to find canned pumpkin puree outside of supermarkets that cater to foreigners, and even then those cans come at a premium. But sweet, hearty pumpkins much like those used to make pumpkin pie are plentiful at markets, for much less, so why not make your own puree instead? Here’s an easy recipe for pumpkin puree.

#6 Lettuce not a must for salads

Growing up, Thanksgiving always included at least one salad at the table, with plenty of fresh lettuce. But here in China, I can’t always find my favorite lettuce in a pinch, especially at the last minute. So my plan is to make a salad that doesn’t need any lettuce, such as this Middle Eastern chickpea salad or Israeli salad. (Even better, salads without lettuce can often be made ahead of time to simplify your preparation for Thanksgiving.)

Wherever you are in the world, here’s wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!

If you’ve ever prepared a Thanksgiving dinner in China, what tips and tricks would you recommend?

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Gift Ideas for Chinese Loved Ones from Singles Day Shopping Trends

As the holiday shopping season is fast approaching, gifts once again emerge as that perennial to-do on many of our lists. But with Singles Day kicking things off in China, it offers a great opportunity to sift through the data and get some gift inspiration for your Chinese loved ones this holiday season. Here are some major trends to consider, based on purchases Chinese consumers made during or around Singles Day in 2019:

Travel a hot ticket this year

This year, a growing number of Chinese have opted for experiences over things by choosing travel products on Singles Day, as China Daily reported in the Nov 14 article Chinese buying more travel products:

In the past five years, the number of travel product orders on Nov 11 has seen a compound annual growth rate of nearly 60 percent. Each year, the number of new consumers who bought travel products grew by more than 30 percent over the previous year, according to Fliggy, the online travel arm of internet giant Alibaba Group.

On Monday, more than 5 million people booked overseas trips on Fliggy. The total transaction volume of international flight tickets jumped 50 percent over last year. The platform has also seen over 900,000 visa orders and 1 million nights of hotel bookings, the travel arm of Alibaba added.

So for your holiday gift-giving, why not hop on that bandwagon and opt for a little traveling fun this holiday season or in the coming year?

Besides splurging on planes, trains or automobiles and hotel and resort stays, think about those travel must-haves or comfort items that make the journey even more pleasant. Suitcases and luggage sets, bag tags, comfy pillows, luggage trackers, travel-friendly apparel and much more could go on your list.

Services surging

In a China where lightning-fast shopping delivery services and takeout reign, it’s no surprise then that many shoppers this year gravitated toward more service-oriented purchases, as the China Daily article Shifting trends behind China’s record shopping spree notes:

Services consumption is also rising. Door-to-door beauty care, luxury product maintenance and other services were popular on e-commerce platforms during this period.

So why not order your special someone some good service this year? Or consider providing a little something yourself (hint, hint)? 😉

The latest electronics still shine

A recent report from China Daily on 5G handset sales — 5G phone shipments quadrupled in Oct – delivered some eye-popping numbers, and the fact that it came ahead of Singles Day makes it even more astounding:

Shipments of 5G mobile phones in China witnessed a sharp 401.81 percent surge month-on-month in October, according to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology on Monday.

Overall domestic mobile phone shipments in China reached 35.97 million units in October, down 6.7 percent year-on-year and 0.7 percent compared with September. 5G mobile phone shipments sent out 2.49 million units, compared with 497,000 units a month earlier, data showed.

As 5G networks emerge around the world, you can bet 5G devices – and other trendy electronics – will certainly light up this holiday season, and make for great gifts for your loved ones as well.

P.S.: Looking for more gift ideas for your loved ones? Peruse all my advice on holiday gift-giving at the Holiday Gift Roundup post, which includes 7 Great Chinese New Year Gifts Sure to Impress Friends, Family and Coworkers, Giving Gifts to Your Chinese Family – A Modest Guide, 4 Tips for Giving Gift Baskets in China and Gifts to Buy Abroad for Chinese Family and Relatives.

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What It’s Like to Shop Singles Day in China – Pub’d on WWAM BAM

The group blog WWAM BAM just published my post What It’s Like to Shop Singles Day in China. Here’s an excerpt from the post:

Ever since I’ve moved back to China, Singles Day — or Double 11 — has been a part of my yearly shopping routine. And this year was no exception. Once again I was among the millions who participated in the global shopping gala, from buying presale items to even staying up until midnight to be the first to snap up a coveted scarf in short supply (yes, I got it!).

Since I’ve participated year after year on Alibaba’s Tmall platform, it has given me a unique perspective on what has become the world’s largest shopping event (generating more sales than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined). So I’d like to share a few takeaways from my experience, and also some tips for anyone who wants to dig into this event:

Head on over to WWAM BAM to read the full article — and if you like it, share it!

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