China Decode: What the Fire Horse Reveals About China’s Past and Future

China is entering the Year of the Fire Horse — a zodiac pairing that comes around just once every 60 years. The last time was 1966, the year the Cultural Revolution began. So is this simply symbolism… or could it hint at something more? In this special Lunar New Year episode of China Decode, Alice Han is joined by writer and commentator Lijia Zhang to unpack the meaning — and the mythology — behind the Fire Horse. They explore how astrology, politics, and economics intersect at a pivotal moment for China. From falling birth rates and zodiac baby booms to record-breaking Spring Festival travel, what does this year reveal about where China may be headed next? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• 1:39Alice Han?

  Welcome to China Decode. I'm Alice Han. On today's special edition of China Decode, we are marking the Lunar New Year as China enters the Year of the Fire Horse. From astrology and political upheaval to birth rates and record-breaking travel, this festival isn't just about symbolism. It could say a lot about where China is headed next. Today, we're joined by writer and commentator Li Jia Zhang to help us break it all down. Li Jia, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Let's get right into it. The fire horse only comes around once every 60 years. The last time was 1966, the year China's Cultural Revolution began. In Chinese astrology, the horse represents speed, action, boldness.

• 2:24Alice Han?

  And when you add fire, you get intensity, even volatility. Some astrologers say this is a year for dramatic change. Others point out that historically, fire horse years have coincided with periods of mass upheaval. So Li Jia, thanks so much for spending time with us. Walk us through the Chinese zodiac. There are 12 animals, there are five elements. What makes the fire horse year so special as well?

• 2:49Speaker 05

  Right, okay. The Chinese zodiac runs on a 12-year lunar cycle, with each year associated with animal like rat, ox, dragon. So I think what makes the Chinese zodiac more interesting and richer, it is that it combines with five elements, the five essential elements like wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. This creates a six-year cycle. So this year is the fire horse, known as Bing. It appears, as I said, every 60 years.

• 3:29Alice Han?

  And what are the characteristics of the fire horse year? You know, I'm doing some reading. You know, you read a lot about how it's a year of volatility, turbulence, but also boldness and action. How would you characterize fire horse years and babies that are born in the year of the fire horse?

• 3:45Speaker 05

  So according to the Chinese traditional belief, the fire horse has long been associated with turbulence and dramatic change. You know, fire can mean energy renewal, but also it can mean destruction. So quite a lot of people now in China now are in breath for some turbulence ahead and hopefully some drastic, dramatic changes.

• 4:12Alice Han?

  It's very interesting. I have more questions related to that, but I want to take it back to everyday Chinese people. You know, growing up Chinese in Australia, my parents would put up the upside down four sign, the prosperity sign, and they'd have the chunlian as well, the spring couplets.

• 4:28Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 4:28Alice Han?

  But maybe tell us how everyday Chinese people celebrate the New Year and what will make this New Year different, do you think?

• 4:36Speaker 05

  I should, first of all, I should say that the Chinese New Year is the most important festival in the whole year, especially the reunion dinner on the New Year's Eve. So that's the time for the family have dinner together, which is why people will travel all of, you know, many Chinese people now don't leave their hometowns. They will, before the Chinese New Year, they will try to rush back home to have this. So, yes, so it's the most important festival and it's a festival for the family, family reunion. So when I was young, I really lived for the Chinese New Year.

• 5:19Speaker 05

  As you said, you mentioned about the, the symbol is, the symbol is the character fu, which it means both happiness and fortune. So you put it outside down, which it means the fudou, the happiness has arrived, yeah.

• 5:34Alice Han?

  And related to that, I'm seeing in social media, people have pictures of Draco Malfoy, the Harry Potter character, because in Chinese, his name is Ma Fu, which is, you know, good fortune and horse, those characters. I've seen pictures of, it quite viral in China of upside down Malfoys on people's doors, which is, I think, a contemporary interpretation of, of the Chinese New Year.

• 5:57Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 5:58Alice Han?

  I wanted to ask you, you know, for the Chinese who live outside of China, are there different ways in which they celebrate the New Year?

• 6:07Speaker 05

  Are there different ways? Our fundamental ways are the, are the same, you know, the reunion dinner, the cooking, the feast. Yes, I think fundamentally, things are the same, except that when you live abroad, it's a little bit harder to get the ingredients. When I was growing up, I really lived for the Chinese New Year, because that was the only time we as children could have enjoyed the meat and other good food without restriction. And Alice, I guess you are too young. And as I was growing up in China, China was still very, very poor. And everything was rationed, all the basic goods.

• 6:52Speaker 05

  For example, meat, rice, eggs, cooking oil, everything was rationed.

• 6:57Alice Han?

  Um hum.

• 6:58Speaker 05

  We could probably eat um uh meat three or four times every month. And each time we could have only tiny amount. But the before the Chinese New Year, the work unit,单位, my mother worked for state or enterprise, would allocate some good food like ham, eggs to workers. So

• 7:21Alice Han?

  Yes.

• 7:21Speaker 05

  That was the time we could have enjoyed lots of good food. So I always, always looked forward to the Chinese New Year.

• 7:30Alice Han?

  It's interesting you say that. My mother has similar memories. Um you know, when she was nine years old, she would line up uh the rationing queues to get your little apportionment or ration of of meat and rice for the day. And I and I just remember her being only just nine years old by herself uh going to and queuing up for food. This is a time, I believe, it would have been still the seventies, uh but that shows you how much China has changed.

• 7:55Speaker 05

  Yes, when I think of the New Year, the Spring Festival, the Spring Festival was so enjoyable. We're all so looking forward to it, but also because we have to make a contribution. And I was a child, I remember since I was very young, my parents would send me to go out to queuing up for hours.

• 8:15Alice Han?

  Yeah.

• 8:15Speaker 05

  We had to get up really early and queue up for hours just for a few vegetables.

• 8:22Alice Han?

  Yeah.

• 8:23Speaker 05

  So you see how China has changed.

• 8:26Alice Han?

  Yeah, uh my mother would guilt trip me anytime I didn't wake up on time. She said as a nine year old, she'd have to wake up at four AM or five AM and queue for hours to to even get access to food.

• 8:36Speaker 05

  Yes, same same here, yeah.

• 8:38Alice Han?

  Yeah, so times have changed. Uh let's take it a little bit in the direction of of superstitions.

• 8:44Speaker 05

  Um hum, um hum.

• 8:44Alice Han?

  You know, I think people in the West uh look at the Zodiac and and wonder to what extent they're like horoscopes, you know, in in Western culture.

• 8:52Speaker 05

  Um hum.

• 8:52Alice Han?

  Do everyday people in China believe that this is superstition or is it part of the cultural tradition? Does it influence the way in which they make financial decisions or getting to marriages or have babies?

• 9:04Speaker 05

  Um, I think it's an interesting question. Other Chinese would say, 不可不信，不可全信. Don't believe it, you cannot believe it totally. Yeah, so I think when people making financial decisions, they will probably take into into consideration. For example, for me, if I want to have a risky investment, thinking this year, fire horse, maybe a turbulent year, probably I wouldn't do that.

• 9:30Alice Han?

  Yeah, some people who are investing will probably listen to that and maybe take that into account. But it's good to know. What what about in terms of marriage and having children? Is this a good year to be getting into both endeavors?

• 9:42Speaker 05

  Uh, probably not the best year.

• 9:45Alice Han?

  And why is that?

• 9:46Speaker 05

  Yes, because this year is, I think some people will try to, not everybody, but some people will probably will try to avoid wedding and such. Because these things are unpredictable.

• 10:04Speaker 05

  Marriage is already a difficult enterprise to run, so you want to have a good, stable starting point.

• 10:11Alice Han?

  But then the next year, the goat year, is also considered unlucky as well, right?

• 10:15Speaker 05

  Uh, a little bit, but for the fire horse, if something happens, supposedly quite dramatic.

• 10:21Alice Han?

  Mm hmm.

• 10:21Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 10:22Alice Han?

  Very interesting. Let's talk about history. What I found so interesting is nineteen sixty six was the last time we had a fire horse year. This was the start of the Cultural Revolution, which was one of the most turbulent periods in Chinese history, lasted almost a decade. Tell us a little bit about how Chinese history has been impacted by the fire horse years and whether or not people in China believe there is a connection between historical political instability and the fire horse years.

• 10:49Speaker 05

  I've noticed that there have been quite a lot of discussion on the social media about this upcoming year of fire horse. And quite a lot of people have pointed out that, you know, sixty years ago, you know, the comes around the fire horse. 丙午年 comes around every sixty years. Last time was the Cultural Revolution, a mad political movement launched by Chairman Mao. It lasted for ten years during that time, millions of people have injured, some many died and the family broken up. And the economy was pushed to the brink of collapse, so it was a total disaster.

• 11:29Speaker 05

  And then the six years before that, nineteen oh six just happened to be another extremely turbulent year. That was end of the Qing Dynasty was standing on its last leg. And in that year, apart from the political tension and China suffered terrible floods, some twenty five million people were believed to have died. So I'm taking this into consideration. So quite a lot of people now feel a bit wary about this coming year.

• 12:05Alice Han?

  Very, very interesting. Well, we're going to take a quick break to stay with us.

• 12:15Scott Galloway?

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• 15:51Alice Han?

  Welcome back. China's birth rate has been in decline for years despite the end of the one-child policy and government incentives to have more children. But zodiac years do matter. Some years see baby booms, especially dragon years. The horse is associated with strength and prosperity and the firehorse with ambition and dynamism. Now, Li Jia, we talked briefly about whether or not it was a good time to marry or have children in the year of the firehorse. But what's interesting to me is the way in which, and I certainly experienced it growing up, parents engineer the births of their children based around auspicious years. And I know, growing up, that a dragon is considered to be very lucky and fortunate.

• 16:33Speaker 05

  I was born in a dragon year, I'm a dragon lady.

• 16:36Alice Han?

  You are a dragon lady. That's, yeah, I'm sure that that wasn't a coincidence and certainly it's part of your success. But tell us a little bit about why parents in China care so much about auspicious zodiac years and which years are considered auspicious.

• 16:53Speaker 05

  Well, just simply because the older generation, they take the traditional bit more seriously and the younger generation are less so, I guess. And also, I think in China, family, you know, is extremely important. And parents always, they bring up the children, they also feel they are entitled to have a say in their children's life. And in the West, it's much less so. Now, I live in London, I certainly wouldn't dare to tell my children to do this or that,

• 17:35Speaker 05

  like the way my mother was, you know, used to hustle me to get married and so.

• 17:41Alice Han?

  And which years do you think are considered lucky years? We obviously established that dragon year is a very lucky year, you're a dragon. Are there other years? I'm a rooster personally. Uh I feel like that's a mixed bag. But are there other years that are particularly lucky?

• 17:55Speaker 05

  Yes, then I I think all the animal years are mixed bag. For example, the dragon year, it can be really powerful. This person very strong, powerful, but they also can be destructive.

• 18:09Speaker 05

  I hope that's not my case.

• 18:10Alice Han?

  Yeah.

• 18:10Speaker 05

  I I think, yeah, dragon year probably is the is the best one. But people always find something positive to say part of the uh each animal year. People born in different animal year.

• 18:22Alice Han?

  So I I'm consuming a lot of Chinese zodiac information through social media. I have to admit through Douyin and Instagram. And what's interesting to me is that the sort of conflicting narratives about whether or not firehorse years are good for women. So some people say that daughters who are born in the firehorse year is considered too strong and unlucky in marriage. Other people are saying that firehorse years are good for females' career development. Women really progress in firehorse years. I've been sharing this a lot with my female friends to encourage them in their careers. Tell me about the stigma or or the stereotypes of of firehorse women and whether or not firehorse years are in fact good for women.

• 19:00Speaker 05

  I think in China, as in the rest of the world, some men just don't like a woman with a strong personality.

• 19:10Alice Han?

  It's a universal thing, unfortunately.

• 19:11Speaker 05

  Yeah, so a a woman born firehorse, a year of dragons, supposed to have strong personality. That can potentially put some people off.

• 19:22Speaker 05

  Put some men off.

• 19:23Alice Han?

  So one other thing related to the government's incentives to try to have, you know, women to have more children. We've talked about this previously. You know, you grew up in China and you probably witnessed some of the one child policy. But you've also grown up in the West. How do you think about this birth issue in China? You know, there's so many different ways to look at it. Marriage rates are declining, fertility rates are declining. How do you see this issue?

• 19:48Speaker 05

  I'm glad you asked the question because that's the issue I'm very interested. In fact, when I went to China last year, I interviewed tons of people with the idea to write a book about a changing attitude towards marriage and motherhood. As you know, that the birth rate is a decline. The rate of marriage is decline and divorce is rising. I think that pattern actually fits into the pattern of the developed country. Generally speaking, when a society develops, when women get a good education, good jobs, the fertility rate goes down because the women want to live their lives. They want to live life on their own terms.

• 20:32Speaker 05

  And I think this is particularly driven by urban educated women. They do not see marriage or motherhood as the necessary ingredients for a happy, fulfilling life. They want to do their own things. They want to travel. They want to be free. And they want to pursue their careers. So and particularly in China, as you know, China is not particularly for married women. There are still lots of discrimination against the married women in workplace, which is why you see that, you know, the birth rate is decline. I think in many ways, the economy is the best contraception.

• 21:12Alice Han?

  The economy is the best contraception. I'm gonna have to use that line. That's a great line.

• 21:15Speaker 05

  Feel free.

• 21:17Alice Han?

  Uh, well, yeah, on that note, you know, I think people in the West are very curious about what feminism looks like or female empowerment looks like. Can you tell us a little bit about how that's evolved over time? Certainly, women have gotten richer. They're having better careers. But I also think that what's interesting to me to see when I look at the trajectories of women in business in China compared to, say, Korea or Japan. In China, we see the highest number of female self-made billionaires. Now, obviously, you have to factor in the size of the population, but it seems like there's a lot of social-cultural support for females in business.

• 21:55Speaker 05

  Yes, absolutely. Half of the world's self-made women, the top 10, half of them come from China. So that's the area that women can. Show their strengths because that's the area depends less on other people. So I think Chinese women are brilliant, very enterprising. I think today's young women, they are far more assertive compared to the older generation. They want to live their life to the full, they want to live the life on their own terms. And they're also willing to put down their feet. And sometimes they flatly reject their parents' request for them to get married. Sometimes they found some tricks.

• 22:37Speaker 05

  For example, um, have you heard this new business of renting boyfriend or girlfriend?

• 22:44Alice Han?

  I've heard about this, yes.

• 22:47Speaker 05

  So the Chinese New Year time, so anyway, children were, they, they live in Beijing, big cities in Beijing, Shanghai. And then they go to their hometown for the Spring Festival. And they are supposed to bring their girlfriends or boyfriends.

• 23:03Alice Han?

  Yeah.

• 23:04Speaker 05

  So they don't have one, so sometimes to fool their parents, they will rent, they will rent a girlfriend, a boyfriend. To go home, to show their parents.

• 23:13Alice Han?

  Oh, wow, yeah, I could see that happening and in a way that can't be disrupted by A I. Because they physically need to bring back somebody to their hometown.

• 23:21Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 23:21Alice Han?

  That's very interesting. And you also see this trope in Chinese social media, and I also hear this amongst my guimy, my friends, my good friends in China.

• 23:30Speaker 05

  Um, um.

• 23:30Alice Han?

  Of successful older women professionally dating much younger men.

• 23:35Speaker 05

  Yeah, xiao xie rou, yes.

• 23:36Alice Han?

  Yes, exactly. And have you been following this?

• 23:40Speaker 05

  Yes, so, you know, the, and some young men, they, um, older women as more experienced, the more interesting, they have a lot more to offer. And also they probably have more money, the, the guys don't have all the pressure to pay for them.

• 23:58Alice Han?

  Hmm.

• 23:58Speaker 05

  Some of them probably will enjoy some free meals.

• 24:02Alice Han?

  Yes, it certainly changes this culture of Dahanzhu ye in China, you know, chauvinism.

• 24:07Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 24:08Alice Han?

  Which did exist if you look back to a really pre-revolutionary, pre-CCP China. Chinese culture was very patriarchal, and yet I feel now it's there's quite a strong female element to Chinese society, at least I see this personally.

• 24:24Speaker 05

  Yes, I have found the whole thing so interesting. So officially, feminist movement has died supposedly, you know, because all the online media forums, I I used to have lots of, I still do have lots of feminist friends, and there were feminist school, I went to the China's first feminist school, I was graduate of China's first feminist school, and then Li Qianzhi Sen, Voice of Feminist, the online platform was shut down, lots of feminist-related NGOs were shut down. So the Chinese authorities really don't allow, don't like feminist movement, and they blame the Western influence.

• 25:09Speaker 05

  But the the daily feminism exists everywhere, and it is growing. Women found interesting ways to push for gender equality, they form informal discussion groups, and they help each other. So, yes, so ultimately feminist movements has not died in China, it is growing.

• 25:32Alice Han?

  Well, that that just reminds me so much of of how in China, there's always a way to go around regulations, you know, when people had the private tutor in crackdown, I heard stories that wealthy families were bringing in PhD nannies, PhD bommel.

• 25:47Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 25:47Alice Han?

  To to come and teach their children and be effectively governess or a home tutor.

• 25:52Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 25:52Alice Han?

  And similarly with the gaming crackdown, young underage kids were just using their grandparents' ID on their faces to log into the gaming console. You know, people think that top-down is and regulatory crackdown can be quite harsh, but oftentimes, there is a way in which people obviate the rules.

• 26:10Speaker 05

  Yes, that's China for you, there's always a way to get around it.

• 26:14Alice Han?

  Interesting. All right, we're going to take one last quick break, so stay with us.

• 26:21Speaker 00

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• 26:31Speaker 01

  I remember telling my boss, it'll be good for the brand when leads were slow. Yeah, it wasn't.

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• 28:30Alice Han?

  Welcome back. The Chinese New Year is the largest annual human migration on Earth. This year, China expects a record 9.5 billion passenger trips during the 40-day Spring Festival period, higher than last year's 9.02 billion. Rail travel alone is expected to hit 540 million trips, aviation 95 million. And for the first time, the official holiday has been extended to nine days, in part to boost domestic consumption. Li Jia, have you actually been in one of these, you know, huge trips to go back to your hometown? Where did you grow up in China?

• 29:06Speaker 05

  I grew up in Nanjing, not far from your hometown Shanghai. Yes, I grew up there, on the banks of Yangtze River.

• 29:13Alice Han?

  So did you have to commute at all to go back? Or did you live where your parents lived to go back to New Year's Festival?

• 29:20Speaker 05

  Later, I lived in Beijing and I did once, yes, a couple of times I joined the train route.

• 29:29Speaker 05

  Yeah, it was regarded as the largest annual human migration, as millions of people who lived where from the hometown rushed back. Yeah, it was just packed. And I had friends who helped me to buy tickets, otherwise they're very, very difficult to secure a seat.

• 29:48Alice Han?

  Yeah.

• 29:49Speaker 05

  And the people, they ride the motorbikes for 10 hours or something.

• 29:53Alice Han?

  Just to get home?

• 29:54Speaker 05

  Yes, get home, yes. That still happens, yeah. But also people now team up. There are different apps, they can team up. You can, I need to go home from Beijing to Nanjing, for example, anybody wants to join me, so they will take a chance to drive.

• 30:10Alice Han?

  It's a ride-sharing economy.

• 30:12Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 30:12Alice Han?

  That's great. And so Chinese New Year is always about returning home, spending time with family. How do you think about this idea of massive amounts of Chinese people migrating long distances to go back home? You know, what does that say about the way in which China has urbanized and changed? Because historically, you would live closer to home. Really, from the 80s onwards, people start proliferating, moving for university, for jobs. How do you think about that sociological movement, really, from the 80s onwards?

• 30:44Speaker 05

  So ever since the reform opening up, people were allowed to move from one place to another. So there's no democracy as such, but the personal freedom has increased a great deal. So people were allowed to move away from their hometown and settle whenever where they could find opportunity. So, yes, so China has become more mobile. When the reform started, seventy percent of the Chinese lived in the countryside. Now it's about, you know, just through a few generations, industrialization has taken place, urbanization.

• 31:25Speaker 05

  Now probably seventy percent of people live in the city.

• 31:30Alice Han?

  You know, I've been following this idea of, you know, the new generation in China, Gen Z, wanting to take it easier. You know, you hear a lot, even in the West, this concept of tamping, you know, lying flat.

• 31:41Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 31:41Alice Han?

  And some people are deciding they want to move back to the lower tier cities where their parents or grandparents are from and live an easier life where rent and house prices are a little bit lower.

• 31:51Speaker 05

  Hmm.

• 31:51Alice Han?

  And they can do local jobs as opposed to really struggling and working hard in the tier one cities. Is that something that you've noticed in your travels back and forth to China?

• 32:01Speaker 05

  Of course, it's difficult not to notice that in the tamping. A character played by the famous actor Gao Yu, he just lies flat there. And the reason for that is that social mobility has stagnated. When the reform opening up happened, you know, suddenly, you know, there's lots, huge amount of opportunity. If you work hard, you're willing to try, start a big new business, more likely you'll be successful. But today, if you even go to university, it's not guaranteed, you may find a job. The youth unemployment is very, very high.

• 32:43Speaker 05

  So the social mobility has narrowed a great deal and almost stagnated. So no matter how hard you try, you're probably not going to go far. So that's why some people just decided they had enough. They're just tamping, just lying flat, just decide not to try hard. Some of them move back home or some just move back with their parents. Even there are some extreme cases that. Have you heard this term called rat? Rat, this rat clan, right? Um, people live like a rat, they they don't stay up late and watching, playing computer game, playing on their phone, and they sleep during the day.

• 33:28Speaker 05

  They rent a tiny, tiny place. Uh, one woman even um kind of documented her life as a as a rat.

• 33:38Alice Han?

  So they're living sort of nocturnal lives and in small confined spaces, not working.

• 33:44Speaker 05

  Yeah, sometimes in the basement, just a tiny space, yeah.

• 33:47Alice Han?

  Interesting.

• 33:48Speaker 05

  So life can be really hard for some young today's young people. But overall, I would say that life has become a great deal easier. Like, for example, I remember the Chinese New Year fondly and my grandma chopping mince, making mince, minced pork.

• 34:06Alice Han?

  Hmm.

• 34:07Speaker 05

  But today you can just buy ready-made mince, you can buy ready-made dumpling wraps.

• 34:13Alice Han?

  Yeah.

• 34:14Speaker 05

  It's easier if you want to make dumpling. But unfortunately, so many families don't bother to make the uh reunion dinner anymore. They go to restaurant, like my sister.

• 34:25Alice Han?

  They are going to restaurant.

• 34:26Speaker 05

  They go to restaurant, they book a restaurant, they have a ten-course feast or whatever.

• 34:34Alice Han?

  That's interesting to me because culturally, at least growing up, it was always something you had at home, the New Year's feast. And they, my mother would always sort of judge, uh, I shouldn't say this, but my mother would always judge non-Chinese people for going out and eating out in restaurants. She didn't consider that to be very familial.

• 34:51Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 34:51Alice Han?

  So I, she always said that it's better to do it at home. So that's interesting, it's changed, the culture's changed.

• 34:57Speaker 05

  Um, it's also a family time, you make the effort, each person, you know, like we're kids, we helped, we got up and buy vegetables. My grandmother stayed up a whole night to to cook all the dishes. And you sit down and you enjoy the food together. But that tradition is now dying, it seems. And particularly in big cities, and people cannot be bothered anymore, just go to. And also, another factor is that I I I mentioned, I lived for the Chinese New Year because it's the only time we could eat, and also we could have a hongbao, the Chinese lucky money.

• 35:34Alice Han?

  Hmm.

• 35:34Speaker 05

  And also there will be fireworks.

• 35:38Alice Han?

  Well, tell us a little bit about that because maybe not everyone knows. But there are a lot of traditions related to New Year's. I remember as a kid, it was one of my favorite times of the year because I would get money from all my relatives. I'd get cash in the little hongbao, the red envelope.

• 35:52Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 35:53Alice Han?

  And as a kid, that's kind of what you live for, you to replenish your piggy bank. What are some of the traditions in Chinese New Year that are very unique to China?

• 36:01Speaker 05

  So that's the hongbao, the New Year money, New Year lucky money. So often, parents will stuff a few coins and put in a red envelope. Because red is a very auspicious color in China. It can supposedly drive away the evil spirit. So the parents will put the New Year lucky money in a red envelope and stuff it under the children's pillow, bring the children good luck. I, I loved it. I mean, it was not very much, it just a little one or two coins, but it just made me so happy. And, and also there's fireworks. So on, on the New Year's Eve, that's the time for the Chinese New Year reunion dinner.

• 36:45Speaker 05

  At twelve midnight, that's the time to set off fireworks and firecrackers. Oh my goodness, you should have seen, have you ever seen it, Alice?

• 36:56Alice Han?

  Not in person, no, actually. I mean, in Australia, we'd never really, I, I think our neighbors would be annoyed if we launched firecrackers. But I've seen firecrackers in China.

• 37:04Speaker 05

  Yeah, as we were growing up, so every year we looked forward to it. And that was just so dramatic. Just imagine millions of family set off firecrackers, fireworks, same time. The noise was deafening, the sky was on fire. And we just thought as children, we just thought of something immense, monumental was happening, like in the New Year, was blasted into existence. It was so exciting.

• 37:34Alice Han?

  So what was the meaning of the firecrackers in Chinese culture? Why?

• 37:38Speaker 05

  Yes, so the firecrackers, so according into the legend, you set off firecrackers to welcome the new year. And the loud noise is to drive away the evil spirit. The mythical monster called Nian as the year, Nian. So that's, that's why you let off fireworks to drive away the evil spirit and welcome the arrival of a new year. So if I think about the Chinese New Year, I remember two sounds. One is the fireworks. Another one is my grandmother chopping with her.

• 38:11Alice Han?

  Meat.

• 38:12Speaker 05

  Meat.

• 38:13Alice Han?

  For the dumplings?

• 38:15Speaker 05

  For the dumplings, yeah.

• 38:16Alice Han?

  And what other foods do you have on your menu? I know, I know, growing up, there were a lot of noodles. There was always a fish dish.

• 38:22Speaker 05

  Yes, there's always a fish dish because fish in Chinese is yu, which means surplus. Then hoping that everything will be in abundance. There will be surplus left over. So that's the fish, yes. So if you actually don't eat the fish during the New Year dinner. So my grandmother would bring the dish. So see, there's this fish and then she'll put away for later. So if you eat it, there won't be any surplus. So that's a fish dish, but not eaten immediately. And then there are always dumplings, jiaozi, because the shape of dumpling vaguely resembles the goat in gods of the olden days.

• 39:06Speaker 05

  So the dumpling resembles, represents wealth. And also, there's another essential food is tangyuan, the sweet dumpling filled with sweet sesame or with red bean paste. So those are the essentials.

• 39:23Alice Han?

  That was my favorite, the tangyuan is always my favorite. You can also have savory ones with meat, pork meat is also very good.

• 39:30Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 39:30Alice Han?

  And then there's another, a nian gao, nian nian you gao. My mother used to always say is like, every year you're growing.

• 39:35Speaker 05

  Yes, the sticky, the sticky, um.

• 39:38Alice Han?

  Rice cake.

• 39:39Speaker 05

  Rice cake.

• 39:39Alice Han?

  Sticky rice cake. Yeah, so much, so much delicious food to have, I think, in the coming days, certainly as we celebrate the Lunar New Year. Well, thank you so much, Li Jia, for your time. And certainly, I know you'll be making delicious food and dumplings. I certainly will be, but thank you so much for your time.

• 39:54Speaker 05

  My pleasure.

• 39:56Alice Han?

  All right, that's all for this very special episode to celebrate the China Lunar New Year. Thank you for listening to China Decode. This is a production of Prof G Media. Our producers are David Toledo, Eric Janikas, and Ness Smith-Savadoff. Thank you to Catherine Dillon, Drew Burrows, Billy Bennett, Dan Shalan, William Flynn, Jessie Millwood, Gil Espinoza, James Patton, and Isabel Kinsel for production help every week. Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss an episode. Talk to you again next week.

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