How China’s technology boom is changing New Year celebrations
- Traditions like cooking big New Year meals might be replaced by tapping an app, but technology is bringing China’s generations together
- But some question whether technology has changed the New Year atmosphere and whether it has resulted in people becoming lazy and introspective
For this Lunar New Year, Tiffany Chen is trying something unconventional and ordering in a meal for her family get-together.
In the past, Chen, who works in Beijing, would return to her hometown of Hefei, in east China’s Anhui province. Her family celebrated the holiday the traditional way, by cooking a large meal from scratch on Lunar New Year’s Eve.
But in recent years, attitudes have changed. Her mother felt cooking a big meal was a chore and she became fed up with oil and smoke. This year, Chen’s mother decided to visit her daughter in Beijing.
To keep the celebrations going, Chen started looking at restaurants, trying to make a reservation for a holiday dinner, but found they were packed and her family did not want to go out on a cold night. Then she logged onto Eleme, a food delivery service app, and searched “new year’s meal”.
“I actually found quite a few results, this apparently is a real thing now,” Chen said.
The ease of ordering takeaway food is one of many ways technology is changing how Chinese people celebrate Lunar New Year, and this change has been embraced by all generations, not just those raised with gadgetry that has become ubiquitous over the past 25 years.