Chapters 61-62 - Birthdays and Cakes

Chapter 61

Birthdays

People enjoy birthday cakes in China just like in the US. They are decorated very pretty. You can also buy very small ones. It can be used for a couple of people or for just one person as a snack. It is about the size of three cupcakes. If you are by yourself and want to celebrate your birthday alone, you can buy a little one. Every now and then I would get the urge for cake and I would buy one. They can be bought at bakeries or grocery stores. You can get the big ones with writing on them, same as here. They are decorated differently than how we do it here. One thing that I saw there that I have not seen in the US for our cakes is that sometimes they will put fruit on a cake. That is quite common there.

Not everyone celebrated their birthday. Some of the teachers that I knew and other friends didn’t care to celebrate their birthdays. Probably the same as here in the US, some do and some don't.

I went to many birthday parties. I had my 53rd birthday in the summer of 2003 in Luoyang. I actually had a few parties with my friends. I had taken them out for their birthdays so they had parties for me.

Chapter 62

Birthdays and Cakes

Not all Chinese people celebrate their birthdays. Some of my Chinese friends would celebrate and some would not. I guess it is just an individual decision for anyone. Some of the teachers that came to La Crosse celebrated and some didn’t. Some celebrate it every year. A couple of teachers told me that they celebrate it every year and their husbands would get them a nice gift.

Birthdays for children are celebrated by the parents and grandparents. They usually go to a restaurant to eat, a cake is brought and maybe some gifts also.

There are a lot of traditions and taboos that go along with Chinese birthdays. I am not going to list them, there are too many. These started a long time ago just like many things that started over time in any culture. If someone is interested, they can just look up “Chinese birthday traditions” online.

As you can see in the pictures, there all kinds of cakes and how they are decorated. They are different than the ones that we have in the US. Sometimes fruit is put on the cakes. You will also notice in a couple of the pictures that chopsticks are used when eating the birthday cake. When you buy a cake, there are tiny-I do mean tiny-plastic forks that are included but they are so small that it would take forever to eat the cake so chopsticks are used.


The name of this restaurant is Da Qing Hua. Its specialty is different kinds of dumplings and they have other food also. The tables look like they are made from knotty pine boards. It’s a pretty restaurant. This is the first floor.


The second floor has the knotty pine tables also plus this piece of furniture where people will sit and take pictures. As you can see, the carvings are very detailed and beautiful.




My student (Wang Yao) is on the right, the other two girls are her cousins. My birthday is July 5th and hers is the 7th. This is six years after she had graduated from high school.




The lady on the left, Ma Qingyan, was one of my aerobic instructors at the gym. I met the other lady, Meng Dan, in class, she could speak English. The three of us would celebrate our birthdays together.




Jill (Zhai Wenbin) on the left, was my student and this is her 18th birthday party. The lady on the right is her mother. Several friends of Jill’s were also invited.






This was a birthday party for my colleague Mary when we were at the Number 19 High School. She is from the Philippines.











This is a birthday party for Xiao Dan, the girl in the middle. She is 23 years old.






This is July 4, 2004, the day before I went home on my 54th birthday after being in Luoyang the first time for two years. On my birthday, I flew from one side of the world to the other.

The following pictures are of my birthday party in July, 2011, with some of the English teachers at the Number 19 High School. I was 61 years old.

Daisy (Peng Ye); Victor and his wife Vicki (Zhao Fei); Alan (Wu Jingbing); Vivian
(Zhang Xiaoli); Emily (Bai Li); Coco; Jessie (Niu Jia); Mr. Li-the school’s driver.






This was the owner of the restaurant. She came to sing Happy Birthday to me in Chinese.




The lady on the right is Huang Guoqin. She was not in the group picture.


To the right of me is Guan Jigang. He was taking taking some of the group pictures above. He was my boss and friend during my years in Luoyang. When I was at the Number One Foreign Language School, he was the Foreign Affairs person. At the Number 19 High School, he was one of the Associate Principals. In the previous picture, is his wife Huang Guoqin. Both of them came to La Crosse and taught Chinese for one year.