Jinji wishes
(Ying holding our lantern and our lantern in the air at Jinji Lake: Suzhou, China)
I’d like to offer genuine and sincere apologies to you if you have been religiously checking for new posts here since Friday. I know my mum needs her daily news fix so I appreciate how irresponsible I am. I have been completely snowed under with a sudden influx of work, would you believe. I was offered some freelance drawing work and I just couldn’t turn it down – it’s a pleasant feeling to be earning money again so consequently I have neglected ‘china meets rosie’ somewhat.
Yesterday was the fifteenth and final day of CNY celebrations; from now the New Year is officially inaugurated and the incessant firework and cracker noise should finally cease. For the past fortnight, it feels like every man, woman and child in Suzhou has been setting off an amassed private collection of gunpowder rich toys. Last night provided a new benchmark for friendly fire as firecrackers were set at every entranceway to every housing area.
Here you can see our lantern being lit. We attracted a fair bit of attention from onlookers as well, I’m white, but also that our lighter sheared in two after a few flicks. A gentleman out of shot on the right lent us a lighter and that granted he and his family front row privileges to our lantern lighting. They gave us tips on how to hold and light it, craning their necks under us like curious flamingoes to assess our progress. Finally after much manual billowing and shaking of creases, it pulled away and drifted up into the darkness, carrying a wish with it. The tradition is to make a wish with these lanterns and to let your wish go, sending it into the New Year. You can see the firefly red of other lanterns in the right hand image, already bobbing on the air currents above.
