Happy Halloween Everyone! I wore a rather frightening mask into my classes this week and scared most of the students. We had a lot of fun talking about this festival and they loved when I handed out the candy (even college students here still love candy). Most knew all about trick or treat from their middle school days.
Decoration is one of those culturally loaded words (words that are similar in primary meaning but different in connotation) in China . When I first came to China I was perplexed by the fact that many of my colleagues and friends seemed to be perpetually “decorating” their houses. In fact “house” itself is a culturally loaded word here since it usually refers to what we would call an apartment in the West. I soon came to realize that in fact they were actually building their apartment which explained why it took so long.
In China you buy a concrete shell with four walls and then pro
ceed to “decorate” it.
In other words you are starting from scratch. You must plumb it, wire it, tile it, etc. The average “decoration” period is four to six months. Some people just buy the shell and leave it for a year or so until they have enough money to complete the “decoration” much to the chagrin of those tenants who are already comfortably nestled in their new “homes”.
I recently had the opportunity to view first hand what this was all about. My colleague invited me to his “new home”. As you can see from the attached pics this “decoration” was in the preliminary stages with completion due sometime in mid December and when it’s all done my colleague plans to marry. “In China nowadays”, he smiled and said “you need the nest before you can catch the phoenix”.
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