When we asked him what brought him to Beijing, Daniel Mulroy answered “my wife”! He met Ge Qian in Canada, and they moved to the capital 18 years ago. Currently they run Instaphoto, a luxury photo booth rental company, for northern China. They have two children, Arabella, who is 3, and 10-month-old Sebastian.
Did you celebrate Chunjie as a child? What are your memories of it?
No, I never really heard of it until I came here the first time in 2001.
How did your wife celebrate Chunjie as a child?
Probably the same as most Chinese people: with lots of family dinners, temple fairs, red packets, and of course, loads of fireworks!
Where do you go for Chunjie? Do you visit relatives or stay home?
My wife’s family all live in Beijing, so we always stay here during Spring Festival. The city is deserted, which is a nice change. Also, traveling during the holidays is always a huge pain.
What do you eat at Chunjie? What’s your favorite and least favorite traditional food?
I love pretty much everything, and I’m not picky. Things like trotters and chicken feet used to make me cringe, but I’ve slowly acquired a taste for them. The first time I celebrated Spring Festival in China. my wife’s family cooked up a huge batch of stewed duck tongues – that kind of creeped me out at first. Probably the foods I look forward to now the most are (my wife’s) 븐흄 (hongshaorou) or 첨꽉왱흄 (meicaikourou). They take lots of effort but are so worth it.
Is there anything your in-laws do to celebrate Chunjie which seems strange to you, or which you don’t like?
I never liked the temple fairs. They like to go because its nostalgic for them, but I didn’t grow up with it, so for me it’s just an overcrowded park with overpriced street-food-style snacks and food wrappers everywhere. Now that we have two small kids it’s a perfect excuse not to go.
How do your kids feel about Chunjie? What do they like about it? Is there anything they don’t like?
I’m not sure they understand what’s going on yet. My 3-year-old enjoys the family time and the hongbaos, but the fireworks frighten her. I hope that in the future our family can form some holiday routines and rituals they can look forward to. I definitely don’t want my kids to see it only as time to be given money by relatives.
What’s your children’s favorite holiday, and why?
My daughter probably likes Halloween the most; she loves dressing up, and obviously she likes being given candy! We did like seven parties this year.
How is celebrating the holiday as a parent different to how it was when you were younger?
Not much has changed yet, the kids are still pretty young.
What do you hope your children will remember about Chunjie when they grow up?
Mostly the gratitude of being able to spend time with family. I really like getting together and spending all day prepping the feasts, and as soon as they’re old enough we’ll get them to start helping out.
Yang Zheng is a piano player who studied at the China Central Conservatoire of Music and graduated from the London Guildhall School of Music and Drama, becoming a professional performer and teacher. She married British academic Simon Spooner, and they moved to Beijing from Cambridge in 2008. Spooner was involved in a joint project between China and Europe to harness the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, and is also an honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo Campus. Their two children, Jasmin and Gabriel, both studied at Dulwich College Beijing (DCB). Now Jasmin has graduated from Oxford University, and is studying at the London School of Economics (LSE) for a two-year double degree master program in international relations (her first year was at Peking University). Gabriel returned to England to study at Charterhouse School for two years of high school, and this October he has also gone up to study at Oxford University.
How did you celebrate Chunjie as a child? What are your memories of it?
When I was a child, our small family gathered together, made dumplings, and watched TV on New Year’s Eve. My memory is that I watch fireworks with my family in our backyard. My parents would take my sister and me to visit my grandparents, who would make a lot of delicious treats for us. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, there would be neighbors coming to visit, or we we’d go out to visit friends. I only remember one or two Spring Festivals when my father, Yang Yong, was the group leader of the creation room of the Spring Festival gala, and my whole family spent the time with him in the hotel.
How did your husband celebrate Christmas as a child?
My husband’s mother would make a big turkey and ham with a lot of vegetables and potatoes. Oh! and Christmas pudding. The entire holiday lasts about a week before the family can finish the huge turkey and ham in various ways.
Where do you go for Christmas/Chunjie? Do you visit relatives or stay home?
When the children were younger we tried to spend as much time as possible with my in-laws at Christmas. It is as if time is frozen when I recall the fun we had playing games with each other beside the warmth of the fireplace, the lights of the Christmas tree (which my father-in-law would cut from his garden) and, of course, together with all the delicious homemade food! These memories are unforgettable and very precious.
What do you eat on Christmas? What’s your favorite and least favorite traditional food?
At Christmas I usually have turkey, ham, Christmas pudding, and so on. During Spring Festival there will be dumplings and a variety of foods and snacks. Everything is delicious, but there are just some things you’d like more – like dumplings! As a Chinese, I must have a predilection for dumplings.
Is there anything your in-laws do to celebrate Christmas which seems strange to you, or which you don’t enjoy?
My British parents-in-law pay more attention to the sense of ceremony. They have a clear schedule before and after the work on Christmas Day, such as what time to eat and so on. It’s just a matter of different cultures.
How do your kids feel about Christmas? What do they like about it? Is there anything they don’t like?
They enjoy both Christmas and Spring Festival. Especially in the UK for Christmas, the city streets in early December are decorated with beautiful lights. In the primary school, there are all kinds of performances about Christmas stories and legends. We walk down Piccadilly in London and enjoy the atmosphere of people, lights and colors, listening to Christmas songs, and daydream about what the Christmas presents will be. Chinese New Year is another lively atmosphere! How can you not like wearing traditional Chinese clothes, eating steaming hot dumplings, and getting hongbao from your elders?
What’s your children’s favorite holiday, and why?
My children like both Christmas and Spring Festival.
How is celebrating the holiday as a parent different to how it was when you were younger?
In recent years, our children have gone to high school and university in the UK, so they can only come back to China to visit their grandparents and families during the Christmas holiday. This holiday is not only a time for us to reunite with our children in China, but also a good time for our family to go to the surrounding Asian countries for holidays. For Spring Festival, because it is in the middle of the semester, the children have no holidays, so we take this opportunity to go back to the UK and use the weekend to celebrate the Chinese New Year! The children come home and make dumplings and Chinese food with their friends and neighbors. They can share their experience of living in China with their friends in Britain. Everyone enjoys making dumplings together!
What do you hope your children will remember about Christmas when they grow up?
Of course, I hope my children can serve as envoys of Chinese and western culture to share and pass on the two distinct cultural customs of Christmas and Spring Festival so that more people can understand and enjoy them!
This article appeared in the beijingkids December 2019 Giving Back issue
