It was at these annual rituals that I learned about multiple wives, as some relatives brought all their concubines with them. If anyone had had conflicts during the year, they were expected to set aside their differences and start afresh. “My paternal grandmother Qinpo, who lived with us on Zhenning Road, was the matriarch of our extended family, so at Chinese New Year all our relatives came to pay respects to their ancestors and elders, while the elders took the time to cherish us children. George Wang, regaling the Historic Shanghai book club with stories of growing up in Shanghai. – Geor ge Wang, 96, describing his childhood in the Kaochangmiao neighborhood in the 1930s in Shanghai Boy, Shanghai Girl: Lives in Parallel, our January 2020 book club pick. We would put on whatever new clothes Mother and Grandma had managed to make for us, and go downstairs for breakfast.” It could not have been more than a few coppers, but we were never disappointed.

When I woke in the morning on New Year’s Day, the first thing I did was put my hand under my pillow and there, as if by magic, I would find a small packet of money wrapped in red paper, my yasuiqian. That was the only time in the whole year that we were able to enjoy such a treat before going to bed. Why? Because dust was considered wealth in this kind of ceremony and when a chicken scratches the ground for food, which way does the earth fly? After we had kowtowed to the gods and our ancestors, Mother boiled the chicken and used the water to make a delicious rice cake soup. The chicken had to be placed the other way around, with its head towards the door. The fish had to be facing into the house, with its tail towards the front door. George’s family’s offering table was probably similar to this, photographed in a lane on New Year’s Eve 2020. There had to be a big piece of pork (or pig’s head), a carp and a chicken. A table would be set up with all the food, amidst candles and incense, as a sacrifice to the gods and ancestors. “Before the end of the lunar year, families would prepare a xie nien ceremony, giving thanks for the year. Here are their memories of Shanghai Chinese New Years past, from the 1930s to the ‘70s. 新年快乐！ Xin Nian Kuai Le! As we welcome the Year of the Dragon in a world of WeChat hongbaos and electronic firecrackers, we wondered: what was Chinese New Year like in old Shanghai? So we went to the experts: the men and women who grew up here.

Memories of shanghai