The Holiday Party

Back in China, it seemed that the whole country was anticipating the coming New Year holiday.   The Chinese Calendar, or Lunar Calendar, is based upon the ancient principles of measuring time by the phases of the moon.  Though the country officially has been using the Western (or Gregorian calendar) since 1912, the lunar calendar is still the basis of many of the more important aspects of life.  Auspicious dates for weddings or business openings are based upon the traditional lunar calendar.  Also, many of the traditional holidays, such as the Moon Festival and Dragon Boat Day are based upon it. 

The Lunar New Year is the biggest of them all.  "Spring Festival" they also call it.  It is a seven-day public holiday that begins on New Year's Eve - this year on January 22.  Tradition requires that everyone spend the holiday with their family.  So in the week before the holiday, all forms of travel become insanity as a billion people hit the roads, the train stations, or the airports.  The public holidays end after the 6th day of the new year.  Then everyone is supposed to go back to work.  So the travel insanity begins again.   And even after that, there are rituals that continue up through the 15th day after the New Year.

End of Year Parties are another part of the tradition.  Prior to the New Year holiday, every business of any sort is expected to throw a dinner party for ALL of its employees.  The idea is to have a celebration amongst colleagues before everyone sets off to visit with family.  There is a certain rigor to these celebrations.  At minimum, they are expected to distribute year-end bonus money to all the employees.  But there is also an expectation that everyone entertain each other by displaying their talents...or lack of talents. 

My company's End of Year Party was held on January 12, a Thursday.  Any date after that would have been a poor choice, as many people needed to begin their journeys home in the coming week-end.  As things go, our's was fairly late in the season.  In the first two weeks of January, every Chinese restaurant and hotel banquet facility was booked solid with private parties - for both evening and lunch.

Everyone that works in our factory was invited.  Everyone came.  Production was shutdown for the night.  Since Chinese parties often involve large quantities of alcohol, and since people often continue after the party with late nights of karaoke, everyone was given the next day off to recover.  (In trade, though, everyone was expected to work on Saturday.)  Around 300 people work in our small factory.  There were tables for 300 people and the tables were full (See second photo).  The venue was a large hotel, with a large banquet facility,  on the North side of town.

The dinner lasted about three hours, including the entertainment.  Each department was assigned a performance of some kind or other.  It started with a dragon dance, performed by the management team. (Top photo).  This was followed by the only professional performer - a gymnast that was hired by the worker's council.  (That would be the third photo.)   After that, it was all done by people that had a day job.  They had all been practicing at nights, after work, for the preceding six weeks.

There were probably about 12 or 15 performances during the night....I lost track.  The fourth photo shows the Supply Chain Team performing a skit on the history of our factory.  This particularly photo shows their take on the events of the 1970's.  It was tongue-in-cheek humor....poking fun at their history and themselves in ways I never would have expected before coming here.  The fifth photo is analytical labs performing a Spanish dance routine.  Notice that no expense was spared on costumes.

No matter where you work, you work with people every day and normally don't think much or learn much about their hobbies or their talents or their passions.  That was one of the most fun things about the performances - learning who the really good singers and good dancers and latent comedians were.  The other fun thing was the total absence of fear of litigation.  In the U.S., most of the performances would have been nixed by the lawyers out of fear of discrimination lawsuits.  Jokes were made that were mildly offensive, as all the best jokes are.  Young men danced shirtless and young women danced in tight dance costumes.  And two days later, everyone went back to work with each other with no one having made a harassment complaint.

Also, each table was provided with beer and wine and Chinese rice wine and white liquor.  Most everyone drank responsibly.  A few had a little too much, but not enough to be belligerent or troublesome.  Buses and taxis were provided for all.   No one drove.  No one fought.  No one vomited.  There was no need for anyone to sign a liability waiver.

The last photo is of a lady who works in the production department.  Every year the site has a karaoke competition, and for the past few years she has been the winner.  I didn't know this until someone told me.   I thought she was a hired professional.  She had a voice that could cover about 25 octaves or so.  She performed a song of one of the Western provinces, where Chinese and Arab and Indian music all fuse into the regional style.  She is even dressed in the ethnic costume and hairstyle of the region.  In the U.S., I would have been happy to pay money to see her perform.  Here, she is just another employee with a hobby.  Two days later, she was back at work on the production line.