Reporter Zhang Rui Editor Yang Baolu is still ten days away from the New Year, and Ira's "New Year's must-buy" list has been listed in a long list, and the first place on the list is the "red envelope". Followed, Spring Festival couplets, blessing characters, candies, snacks ......Each of them is a Chinese New Year necessity.
This list is not from parents who are worried about New Year's goods in their hometown and are waiting for their children to return home, but a "foreigner". The 26-year-old is a Russian girl who married in Harbin after graduating from university and has been living in China for 10 years. In addition to taking care of children, she likes to share her life in China on Kuaishou. In her tenth year in China, Ira has also had an addiction to "making short films for the Chinese New Year" - on the eve of the Spring Festival in 2024, Kuaishou invited 8 foreign creators on the platform to create an iron-flavored Chinese New Year short film called "Seeing No Foreigners for the Chinese New Year this Year". What does it mean to be "out of sight"? Ira thinks that "not seeing outside" is to sit with her family lively, wrapping dumplings and chatting, and tasting the taste of the New Year together in the "human touch". 
The beast of the year
"Nian Ira" heard that the "Year Beast" was still in elementary school, and she never thought that the Year Beast could become a funny element. Originally from Khabarovsk, Russia's Far East, Ila was a compulsory subject in Chinese when she went to school. Ira likes to listen to her teachers talk about China, including the story of the Chinese New Year, which is very memorable: "The teacher said that the Chinese New Year is very lively, the family gathers together, hangs lanterns, sticks couplets, sets off firecrackers, celebrates the New Year, and wears red clothes and socks. Ira said she was looking forward to the Chinese New Year at the time. The teacher also told them the story of the Nian Beast, "When the Chinese New Year is approaching, there are Nian Beasts who come to the village or home to scare people, so everyone has to wear red clothes, hang lanterns, and set off firecrackers, which in turn scare the Nian Beasts and scare them away." Ira also went to check the knowledge about the Year Beast. At that time, in little Ila's heart, the Nian Beast was a terrible creature, and when she encountered it, she had to run quickly. Sean from Nigeria told reporters that in his memory, when it comes to the "New Year Beast", it is also a terrible creature similar to a monster, and he never thought that in the Spring Festival of 2024, he would appear in the New Year's short film specially created by Kuaishou for the Spring Festival as the local New Year beast "New Year Rice" in the Northeast, and look for "New Year's flavor" with the foreign New Year beast "New Year Cake" from the south. Sean is 20 years old, and his parents have been doing business in Guangzhou. Born and raised in Guangzhou, Sean learned about Chinese culture from an early age. When he was a child, Sean's most anticipated holiday was the New Year, because he could not only eat a lot of delicious food during the New Year, but also collect New Year's money. It's just that I've heard too much about the "Year Beast", and Sean is very afraid of this creature. When he was a child, he believed that the Nian Beast was real, and he felt that this huge creature with horns on its head and a bloody mouth would "bite" itself away, so that he would never see his parents again. This perception was maintained until Sean was in high school, and he learned that the "Year Beast" was not real. On January 28, the day before the launch of "I Don't See You Outside for the New Year this Year", Sean posted a ** of "shouting fans to watch short films". , Sean, who was still fashionable and handsome one second, became a "cute" "Nianbud Rice" in the next second, squatting under the brick walls of rural houses in the Northeast, shouting in authentic Northeast dialect, "Who hasn't seen it yet?" I don't allow anyone who hasn't seen it! Come and see, come and see, come and see."
Reasons to fall in love with Chinese New Year
The role of the Russian girl Ilaila is quite similar to her own experience - in the film, she plays a northeastern girl wearing a floral cotton jacket and braiding braids, who had an awkward quarrel with her husband on the eve of the New Year, gambled and returned to her mother's home, and finally, at the urging of her parents, she returned to her home on Chinese New Year's Eve and spent a lively Spring Festival with her relatives. This feeling is that Ira plays it very well. Since she first stayed in China for Chinese New Year in 2015, she has witnessed and experienced the joy of every family reunion, and since then, she has fallen in love with the Chinese New Year. In the winter of 2007, 10-year-old Ira traveled to Harbin with her parents. As soon as she arrived in Harbin, Ira was drawn to the city and "felt very intimate. "I decided at that time that I would definitely come to China to study at university in the future. In 2014, when she was not yet 18 years old, she came to Harbin Institute of Technology from Russia to study international **, and a year later, she met her husband Junlong. During the winter vacation of 2015, Ira did not return to Russia, but returned home with Cytop, spending her first Lunar New Year after coming to China. Xu has loved and understood Chinese culture since she was a child, and Ira naturally integrated into the Cyctune family. She experienced a full set of "Spring Festival gift bags" that she wanted to try since she was a child - wearing red clothes, preparing New Year goods, pasting Spring Festival couplets, hanging lanterns, making dumplings, setting off firecrackers, eating Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, and watching the Spring Festival Gala, "It feels very good." "That Chinese New Year, Ira received a lot of red envelopes, and she was very happy, it was the first time she received a red envelope. "All the stories I heard when I was a kid came true, and it was really fun to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Ira said. Since that year, Ira has spent every Lunar New Year in China. When Grandma Junlong was still alive, every year in the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve, about 20 people rushed to Grandma's house from all over Harbin, and everyone began to work from noon, preparing Chinese New Year's Eve dinner and making sauerkraut stuffed dumplings together. Ira told reporters that after coming to China, she began to learn to make dumplings, and she felt that it was very good for relatives to make dumplings together. For Sean, the Spring Festival means longing and bonding. In 2015, because his parents were very busy, 9-year-old Sean and his aunt who took care of him went to his aunt's hometown of Hunan for the Chinese New Year, which was the first time he left Guangzhou. On the way, Sean saw the shock of the Chinese Spring Festival, and his aunt told him that this is a great migration of people from all over the country to go home for the New Year, and in China, going home for the New Year is one of the most anticipated things of the year for everyone who is wandering outside. Although his parents were not around, Sean had a very happy and fun time that Spring Festival. For the first time, he knew that the Chinese New Year could be so lively, and his relatives were all eating and chatting together. That Spring Festival, Sean experienced a lot of "firsts in his life" - the first time he made dumplings, and he succeeded in making more than 20 dumplings in a row; The first time I saw snow, I had a snowball fight, and I rolled in the snow to my heart's content; For the first time, I had dinner with dozens of relatives and friends of my aunt; The first time I received the New Year's money, I used it by myself, "800 yuan, recharged the game, and bought what I liked." Sean laughed. This is the most "humane" year in his life. These memories grew up with Sean and became the motivation for him to play the "Year Beast" in the film. is different from the "Year Beast" who was scared away by Spring Festival couplets, lanterns, and firecrackers, the "Year Beast" played by Sean stayed at the villagers' house, making dumplings and drinking melon seeds with his family and friends, as if he had forgotten the official "job" of "trick-or-treating and scaring people".
The taste of the year is the taste of humanity
Kuaishou gathered foreigners to shoot a "Chinese New Year short film" Today's Sean is a successful creator on Kuaishou, and netizens like him to share his life jokes. After starring in "Year Beast", he posted several related ** on Kuaishou one after another, including New Year short films, behind-the-scenes footage, and actors' gatherings, and he also specially released a joke created by himself, playing an old man who waited for his son to come home for the New Year and seriously prepared red envelopes and Chinese New Year's Eve dinner on Chinese New Year's Eve. The moment the doorbell rang, the joy and excitement burst out of his face, interpreting "the taste of the New Year is the taste of humanity" in a detailed and vivid way. Creation comes from life, and Ira told reporters that "human touch" is the reason why she stopped here. After coming to China to attend university, she never returned to Russia for the New Year. "The Russian New Year is on December 31, I can't go back when I go to school, and after I get married, I celebrate the New Year in China. In Russia, the New Year is also one of the most important holidays, and everyone will gather for dinner in the evening, and they must wait until the alarm clock goes off at 12 o'clock, and everyone will raise a glass and shout "Happy New Year" together. But in Russia, the New Year is only one day, while in China, it is a year before the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Ira's parents also love China, and after their daughter married a Chinese guy, they also learned a lot about Chinese culture and traditions, "Chinese New Year, my parents and younger brother would go to the restaurant to order Chinese food, have dinner at home, call us ** or **, and celebrate the New Year with us. After marrying Junlong, Ira, a foreign daughter-in-law, got along well with her Chinese mother-in-law, and the situation of "mother-in-law and daughter-in-law being natural enemies" did not exist between them at all, "Mother-in-law took me as a daughter." Ira said frankly that the past 10 years of living in China have been relatively smooth. Ila's parents have also gone from being worried about their daughter at the beginning to being completely relieved now. The only regret is that the three-year epidemic has caused Ira's parents to miss their daughter's pregnancy and childbirth. "When I was in school, I would go back to Russia as soon as I had a holiday. Since the epidemic, I haven't been back for three years. Ila said that in the spring of 2023, Ila took her children and went to Russia for seven months before returning to Harbin. "Mom was very happy to see the baby and was reluctant to let us go. Ira said. Homesickness is a common feeling of human beings. It is precisely because of this that in the eyes of foreigners, the "New Year's flavor" is a unique Chinese human touch. What is deeper than the New Year's ceremony of setting off firecrackers, pasting Spring Festival couplets, and hanging lanterns is the joy of reuniting with relatives and friends "alone in a foreign land" but not a stranger. Kuaishou is a window for them to get a glimpse of the "flavor of the New Year". Every New Year, Kuaishou will raise the power of the platform to bring new annotations to the New Year's flavor, Ira has already sent her parents the "New Year's Short Film" she participated in, this Spring Festival, she can not only "cloud reunion" with her family on the platform, but also "cloud tour" - this Spring Festival, Kuaishou also continued the theme of "Kuaishou has a New Year's flavor", in addition to the online New Year's short film, it also launched the "Cloud Temple Fair" that took everyone to see the six major New Year's customs, and the old iron party that allowed everyone to cross the distance "fireworks and joy in the world" and other activities. Just like what is expressed in this iron-flavored foreigner's New Year's short film, the flavor of the New Year is the flavor of humanity, and the platform built up on this human touch is also full of strong New Year's flavor. "It would be best if my parents and younger brother had time to spend the Chinese New Year with us. Ira said. 【Copyright Notice】The copyright and other intellectual property rights of this work belong to Beijing Youth Daily [Beiqingshen Yiyi], and it is not allowed to be unauthorized to **.