After the 60s, Uncle Liu became busy after entering the wax moon. The new lanterns I encountered on this day are good, buy a few and send them to relatives who have yards; The firecrackers are thick, buy a few and put them in the car to prepare to worship the ancestors; The pastry gift box operated by the old friend is on sale, and when I pick up the goods, I return the gift by the way to thank the old friend for the discounted price; The old fish ball vermicelli braised pork shop that is frequented is about to close, so I am in a hurry to buy a few more boxes of the last batch of goods; When shuttling around the city, pass by the door of a friend's house, call a few **, and send the New Year's goods downstairs in advance. These eat at home, those give away, decades of experience in purchasing New Year's goods make Uncle Liu feel like he has an abacus and a task list, what budget to buy something, buy one and tick a box, and the New Year's goods are prepared in such an orderly manner. There are e-commerce platforms that specialize in statistics on the consumption of New Year's goods, and the post-60s generation is the most active group to prepare for New Year's goods. For them, the basic plate of rice, flour, grain, oil and meat must be prepared, the snacks and gifts for the younger generations should not be left behind, and the hard currency for moving between relatives and friends should be left. But after buying the goods for many years, there are few things that can make Uncle Liu's mood ripple now, and the deepest memory is hidden in his childhood. "When I was a child, I was hoarding cabbage, radish and green onion vermicelli for the New Year, and I had to shop with a ticket per person. The most commonly bought are old-fashioned fruit snacks, sugar, fruits, and meat. If you give a gift to an important relative, you will also buy a 'gift strip', that is, pork rib meat, six or two or eight roots;Zailong's focus is to send a whole pig's head. "For people born in the 60s, the New Year's goods of that year were a rare luxury outside of daily life, and now more than half a century later, it seems that it is nothing more than that, but the relative abundance and sense of ritual have become an indelible memory. As the most important and ceremonial shopping festival for Chinese, the changes of New Year's goods between Jiazi reflect not only the details of ordinary people's lives, but also the "business narrative" of countless goods and consumption methods, and the portrayal of the vicissitudes of lifestyle and consumption concepts.
A generation has a generation's New Year's goods
The rainbow aunt born in the 70s has some colorful memories to fill the lack of material. It was 1980, and after entering the lunar month, the family had to start to collect new clothes and shoes for their five children: pulling flower cloth from the township, going to the brigade to step on the sewing machine, and finally taking it home and sewing it with stitches and threads. Every night before going to bed, the youngest daughter Rainbow always asks, "Mom, can you wear new clothes tomorrow morning?" "In response to these few words of the child, on the day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, the mother will always fight at night to add strength to the children's New Year's gifts. The sleepy-eyed rainbow fell asleep in the yellow light and the sound of the mother's squirming, and when the rooster crowed and firecrackers sounded, it was already the first day of the new year, and the rainbow opened her eyes and turned over to see that new clothes and shoes were placed at the head of the bed. The powerful sisters rushed to put on new clothes at this time, and when they were defeated, they cried and went to the kitchen to complain to their parents.
In the kitchen, the children who were the first to get up that day have already tasted the sweetness.
In winter, the temperature becomes lower, and the chickens lay fewer eggs, which also arouses the children's cravings: "After the holiday on the 23rd day of the lunar month, my favorite thing is to get up in the morning to sprinkle a handful of buds for the chickens, and after returning from cross-country with friends, squat in the chicken coop to observe the chickens. If I wander outside and find a hot fresh egg in someone else's chicken coop, I sneak it into my pocket, of course, I am not so greedy, and I will leave one for someone else when I encounter two eggs. When I got home, of course, I didn't dare to tell my parents that I had stolen the eggs, but I only said that I picked them up in the mountain nest, and my mother happily said that she was so lucky that she opened a small stove to cook eggs for me to eat. ”
At that time, the white rabbit toffee, rice flower balls and New Year's pictures bought back in the market were children's favorite New Year's goods. For this generation, New Year's goods are an extraordinary surprise, and they are the color and hope of the day.
Aunt Rainbow's must-have New Year's goods: New Year's pictures come from the Internet.
Jing Yi, who was born in the 80s, has been a New Year's star in the family since he worked.
Every year before the Chinese New Year, she plans a gift that suits each family elder with a limited budget: skin care products and phalaenopsis for her mother, clothes and health products for her father, and exquisite souvenirs for her younger siblings. After that, she will take her parents to visit the largest supermarket in the local county: "I want them to experience the feeling of big purchases, and I will pay the bill when the car is full." They are reluctant to buy what they usually don't want to buy, and they have all the daily necessities, household items and snacks at home. ”
In the first 10 years of the 20th century, the familiar advertising slogan "No gifts will be accepted for the holidays this year, only brain platinum will be accepted for gifts", accompanied by TV commercials, quickly spread all over the streets and alleys, and in the monotonous rice, flour, grain and oil New Year's goods, it quickly locked in the post-80s generation like Jingyi who hoped to improve the lives of their parents and express their hearts. In the first few years when she started preparing gifts, Brain Platinum was always at the top of her gift list.
Brain platinum TV commercial picture from the Internet.
Jing Yi's thoughtful thinking on New Year's goods will be praised by family members for several months from the beginning of the lunar month, and she is also quite satisfied with herself. At the moment of family reunion, she used materials to improve her family's life experience and bring psychological comfort, which was also to make up for her own loss when she was a child.
When I was a child, my favorite thing was to eat, such as peanut nougat, lobster halva, and I also liked wine chocolate, but this kind of family is reluctant to buy, only relatives who come back from the big city will bring it to us. At that time, I thought that if I could eat every day like the Chinese New Year, I would be the happiest person in the world, and I would have to eat 10 lobster candies a day if I had the money in the future. ”
In the annual New Year's goods, Jingyi used materials to "re-raise" himself and his family.
This year, Jingyi has been seriously preparing for the New Year's goods for ten years. With more and more brands and the material wealth of family members, it is becoming more and more challenging to "do a good job of New Year's goods". At the beginning of this year, Jing Yi decided to let her parents make their own New Year's wish list. Under the repeated resignation of parents and the insistence of Jing Yi, a tablet computer and a massager were finally finalized"From reactive acceptance, to taking the initiative to discover your own needs and not being ashamed to express them, this is the most important thing I can bring to my parentsChange. In the changes of the New Year, Jingyi practiced her sense of responsibility as a child, and also completed the upgrade of her life experience with her parents.
Lobster Candy Figure from the Internet.
Internet natives, how to re-"invent" New Year's goods?
The memories of these young people's New Year's goods are composed of traditional customs and emerging consumer brands: on one side are the traditional rice cakes, cured meat, salted duck and smoked fish in their hometown, and on the other side are Want Want gift bags, Xu Fu Chi halva, Xizhilang jelly, three squirrel nuts and Panpan bread.
Although he also loves to eat, none of the best New Year's goods in Ah Zhi's heart are related to "eating".
Firecrackers are his favorite. "Compared with eating, things with a stronger sense of experience can make me appreciate the taste of the New Year. "Purchasing a batch of firecrackers with hot New Year's money can make a child quickly become the most enviable child king. This year, his hometown has loosened the strict control of fireworks, and as the sound of firecrackers rang out one after another, Ah Zhi and his friends made an early appointment for this year's "Firecracker Bureau".
However, as the generation of young people who grew up in sufficient material nourishment gradually entered the society, New Year's goods are no longer a simple commodity, but also represent their cognition and understanding of various new things, and represent their consumption and life concepts.
What to buy and what to give for the New Year, to a certain extent, is their question of "how do you view your relationship with your hometown and relatives?" "How do you repay your family with your own consumption?" and so on.
At first, the answer sheet seemed a little clumsy. The volcanic stone bracelet for the couple given to the parents was left idle for many years, the large scarf for the mother was used as a tablecloth, the durian for the grandfather almost sent the elderly to the hospital, and the sports watch for the father was left idle in the toolbox.
The New Year's goods that stepped on thunder and overturned cars are full of young people's immature temptations in front of traditional festivals:Perhaps, there can be more and better answers for New Year's goods?
In recent years, with the growth of young people's consumption power, there are brands that pay more attention to product scene marketing, and more needs and good things are gradually linked, driving consumption trends and reshaping young people's New Year's goods choices: imported fruits, prefabricated dishes, digital 3C, pet supplies and even new energy vehicles.
It should be chosen according to personality, usage scene, hobbies, and frequency of use. Choose scarce, usually reluctant to buy, home should be updated, mood or decoration or other added value. An example of Xiaoguo, a player preparing for the New Year's goods:
"If it's an inland city, you can choose coastal specialties and vice versa; If you are a parent who is about to retire, you should send it to a hobby, so that they can transition to the stage of life safely; The service category is also very good, such as door-to-door cleaning of range hoods and washing machines. In short, when you go home, you should pay more attention to what your parents complain about.
Ye Wen deeply agrees with this. Like all parents who are not careful, Ye Wen has heard the saying "nothing is needed" many times. How to buy New Year's goods to buy the itchy spots of your parents, Ye Wen has secretly observed for a long time: "They don't say it, so you have to take the initiative to find their needs." When he returned home this year, he brought home a "far ahead" for his mother, who was running low on mobile phone memory.
When she first gave it to her, she would still complain about how to spend money indiscriminately. But it didn't take long to start showing off to friends. While enjoying the joy of "buying the right one", Ye Wen found that this year, friends are becoming more and more picky about purchasing New Year's goods.
Because there is basically no shortage of gift boxes and New Year's goods at home, and it is relatively large to give money directly, it is very important to choose a good New Year's gift. Although the decision-making process is difficult, parents can be happy for a long time, and they are happy to see it as children. Although this happiness is different from the simple joy of being carefree and new to everything as a child, it is mixed with more responsibility as a child, especially after work, which grows deeper and deeper. ”
There are also many young people who choose to send the New Year's goods directly to their homes, never carrying thousands of miles of heavy loads and tiring boats and cars, realizing the "full-link e-commerce" of New Year's goods.
Since 2016, when the domestic e-commerce platform first opened the New Year's Festival, all kinds of express delivery have been suspended later and later, until the Spring Festival will not close in 2024. CC, who works in Beijing, bought half a sheep and a box of wine and miscellaneous New Year's goods in advance, and delivered them to his home in Wuhan before the freezing rain fell. Before he went home, the New Year's goods had been waiting at home for a long time. "This kind of New Year's flavor will not fade, the key is still what you buy. He said.
Xiaoguo, who has arrived at home, still has a batch of New Year's goods stuck on the road because of the weather, she opened the e-commerce platform countless times a day to check the logistics progress, and felt a little annoyed: "I should have placed an order earlier." In this proposition essay called "New Year's Goods", she felt that she was late to submit the paper.
But the mother only used one sentence to reassure Xiaoguo: "Although it is cliché, my child will come home, this is the best New Year's goods." ”
The names of the characters in the article have been changed).