20 Feb 2018
Greetings all and Happy Chinese New year! Out with the Chicken, in with the Dog.
Even After living here 7+ years, the spectacle of Chinese New Year never ceases to amaze me！ It generates gift exchanges, a mass migration to “home”, lots of eating and drinking, lots of fireworks being set off, in general, it’s called Spring Festival and all over a minimum of a week’s time, most of the time more... it’s the one time of year when everything comes to a halt in China.
We used to travel during this time because the plant is shutdown...no more...we take it as an opportunity to stay in Shenyang and relax, get caught up on my “to do list” (some personal, some professional), get the blog up to date, exercise, study Chinese and enjoy spending time with each other and some close friends.
Before New year, there is a always a spectacular light show to be ready for the Lantern festival.
This year I was invited to the opening night here in Shenyang and I went. It was cold. It was also beautiful in it's own way...lots of creative figures made of fabric over wire frames with lights inside...if you can imagine it, they can build it! The location of the show in Shenyang is the botanical garden...a nice
place in summer day time...and almost magical at night with all of the
lights.
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| The 2018 Shenyang lantern festival opening ceremony |
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| Shenyang city in lights |
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| Shenyang industry in lights |
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| Big baby light bearer! |
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| Sarah at the light festival |
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| Another version of the opening ceremony venue...huge! |
It has nothing to do with Chinese New year, but about the same time, I was honored to meet the US Ambassador to China here in Shenyang with the US consulate. His Excellency Terry Bronstad and his wife Christine are both nice people.
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| Rod got the picture of the US ambassador (used to be Gov of Iowa and old friends of China President Xi) and put it with the one of me with the US Ambassador (Terry Branstad)...it's not quite like shaking hands with the president...but funny all the same! |
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| Sarah Miller, His Excellency Terry Branstad, Consul General Greg May at the Consul General's home in Shenyang |
About a week prior to Chinese New Year, our company does the annual meeting where we share business results from last year and orientations for the new year. This is not your average boring “death by power point” meeting! Each department comes up with their own way of communicating their messages...sometimes homemade video, sometimes a skit, sometimes PowerPoint, you name it...and of course they all compete internally for the “best”. We rent a community hall (think large theater) with comfortable seats and a stage for the afternoon and invite a full house to this meeting. Its the one meeting a year that everyone looks forward to! I believe I have the best communications team in the world because they really do a great job organizing this event!
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| Sarah giving a small speech at the meeting |
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| One of the departments demonstrating teamwork |
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| One of the departments communicating their messages through super hero's costumes |
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| The venue of the Annual meeting |
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| Sarah telling the "Field of diamonds" story to the team |
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| One of the departments going "digital" and communicating the business challenges using apps on his phone |
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| East meets west with one of the departments |
After the business meeting, and on the same day there is the Union
show. Unlike anything I’ve ever experienced with a union in the US,
France or Romania! This is the annual custom in China that the
employees like to entertain each other! The union representatives
canvas all employees for volunteers to do something..sing, dance, magic,
you name it! The union pays for costume rentals and makeup artists,
and the employees rehearse on their own time to prepare the shows.
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| Magic shows at the union show |
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| Manly men putting on the show |
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| The children of our employees also get in on the act |
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| The come from everyone to get people on their feet! |
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| Strange things happen at the union show@ |
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| They come from near and far to put on the show |
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| All of our employees love a good show! |
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| Beautiful ladies from Shenyang |
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| Beautiful voices and singers in China |
One year someone asked me to dance with a small group...I said I can’t
dance, but I could sing....mistake! Cat was out of the bag and was not
going to be put back in. The personnel manager at the plant is about my
age and he picks out the song..with meaning and in my range, then gives
me the version with and without words and also give me the words in a
document...and whenever I have time, i practice it. The ladies with the
fans also practice it in their own time, then about a week before we do
a couple of versions together to get our movements synchronized. The
day before we did a rehearsal on stage and then yesterday was
showtime! These pictures/videos (If the videos come through) are the first time I’ve seen what was going on
behind me or how the Fan girls looked..they did a great job helping me
look good! Only in China!
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| Sarah Back stage before the show! |
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| Sarah surrounded by the beautiful women of Shenyang |
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| Sarah in the Shenyang Annual meeting Spring festival show..singing about Spring in Chinese |
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| Sarah singing about Spring |
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| Sun Flowers on a video and beautiful girls with fans. surrounding me..it's China! |
If you would like to see the show video of Sarah singing, please click the link below:
YouTube link to Sarah Singing at the 2018 Annual Show
During the vacation, as usual, we were invited to our previous driver’s
home for Dinner. He is planning to get remarried after his first wife
died, so this was the “welcome to our new home and meet the family”
dinner. They are a nice couple, and more and more, I am able to speak
and communicate...still have a long way to go! In addition to that we
invited some friends here to our hotel for breakfast and also my Chinese
teacher and her family invited us to lunch, our good friend Tom and his
mother came for a nice visit. The only ones we missed because was our
friend Daisy and she was caring for her father who has back trouble...we
are very grateful our Chinese families want to include us in their
circles!
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| Lunch with our previous driver (and excellent cook!) |
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| Rod with our driver and his new soon to be wife and Sarah |
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| Rod and Sarah at the new apartment patio of our old driver's house |
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| Our good friends Miles and his wife Biting at our hotel at Spring festival |
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| Miles and Biting having breakfast at our hotel restaurant with us for Spring festival |
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| Corn bread with green beans and some other things...all very good ! This is a specialty of the restaurant in Qi Pan Shan |
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My Chinese teacher Crystal and her husband Hanbin and their daughter Weilan invited us to have a nice lunch in the country...what a special afternoon this was!
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| After lunch, we were invited to the owners home and his son prepared tea...it is a beautiful, simple, art-filled house! |
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| I could live here! Good inspiration for a future home! Simple design, open floor plan, lots of natural light, most all wall space filled with art...ahhh! |
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| Rod and Sarah in the living room of the home |
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| Rod and Sarah with our new friend Paul |
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| Tom's Mother, Sarah, Rod and Tom at our hotel lobby for Spring Festival |
So, another year's Spring festival is coming to an end...tomorrow, I go back to work. It has been a delightful time off...enjoying time with Rod, getting 5/6 items on my list done and updating this blog was a bonus! The year of the chicken has come and gone...now onto the dog...next year will be the Pig..Rod's year...and they year after is the mouse...Sarah's year...will we be here to bring in those years? Who knows!
Until next time!
Rod and Sarah
Shenyang, China
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