Dumplings For Breakfast

"If you're quiet, you're not living. You've got to be noisy and colorful and lively."
--Mel Brooks, American filmmaker

My uncle knew Mel Brooks from his acting days in NYC long, long ago, and the stories he's told us about him are perfectly exemplified by this quote - according to Arnie, Mr. Brooks was all of these things - noisy, colorful and lively - and more! Today is the kick-off to Memorial Day Weekend in the States; it's not a holiday here in China, but we'll celebrate it quietly here in Zhongshan just the same. The sun was out today, and these fish sort of spoke to the holiday mood; although they're forever suspended in stone, their eternal happiness certainly puts Mel's words into action!

The major Chinese holidays are not so different than those we celebrate in America, but their timing and duration is sometimes hard to understand. There are three major holidays throughout the year: Spring Festival or Chinese New Year, a 7-10 day holiday decided by the lunar calendar in late January or early February; Labor Day, a 3-5 day holiday in early May; and National Day, a week-long holiday at the beginning of October. That's the easy part.

Beyond these three major holidays, there are several smaller holidays scattered throughout the year, most of which last at least two days. Otherwise, the Chinese don't take much vacation or personal time; in fact, in some cases we've found that if a worker wants or needs time off other than the designated national holidays, they will quit their job and take up employment elsewhere after they finish their desired leave.

Outside of the three major holidays mentioned above, which are fairly straightforward in terms of timing, the lesser Chinese holidays are all about 2-3 days in duration, seldom less, and there are a lot of them. After figuring out when these holidays occur and then determining how many days are designated to the observance of such holiday, the most confounding thing to a foreign employer is that Chinese companies, in order to give employees two, three or four days off in a row, will "switch around" the work week, requiring workers to come in on Saturday and Sunday and then giving them two consecutive working days off the following week. Example: If Tomb Sweeping Day, a one-day holiday in April, falls on a Wednesday, workers will be asked to work the Saturday and Sunday prior, so they can take Monday and Tuesday off. Add the holiday on Wednesday, and they have three days off in a row. To Americans, this seems to defy logic. Why not celebrate the holiday on Monday or Friday, add in Saturday and Sunday, and voila - three days off!

Although we have tried unsuccessfully to get to the bottom of this many times (you can imagine Chris' frustration when his entire workforce is off three weekdays and sitting around an empty office on Saturday and Sunday), the only explanation we've ever been given is that it's done "so people can have three days off in a row." Yes, understood, but instead of moving the weekend, why not move the holiday?

After much consideration, the only thing we can come up with is that because of the Chinese focus on numerology, the specific date of a holiday carries significant meaning; therefore, no matter which day of the week it falls on, the date of the holiday must not be changed or moved. Randomly changing the holiday to fit the work week would never be an acceptable solution; hence, since they can't move the holiday, they simply switch the weekend around. Very inventive! And from the standpoint of American thinking, about as foreign as having dumplings for breakfast (which, of course, is a blip for another day!)

The Labor Day holiday was earlier this month, so there won't be another holiday until the Dragon Boat holiday in June. No doubt it will involve some switching of days and weekends in order for there to be two or three days off in a row. But for this weekend we'll celebrate Memorial Day, a day American's honor their brave and their fallen, a day we celebrate the freedoms we enjoy because of the courage of our service men and women, a day we very much appreciate the simple fact that we are Americans, even while living on the other side of the world; even, maybe, while eating dumplings for breakfast.