Insects Awakening

Over 2000 years ago, ancient Chinese scholars observed the changing patterns in our natural world:The climate, the turning of the season, and astronomy.The scholars measured and divided the sun's annual movements into 24 equal parts, creating the 24 solar terms which were used to govern agriculture in ancient China.Even to this day, this invention still guides the lives and traditions of hundreds of millions of Chinese people.

Around on March 5th, the Insects Awakening Solar Term begins.At this time, there is a customs of enjoying rose and eating pears.Everyone is looking forward to the first thunder and the awakening of all things.

Changting county,Fujian province, China, every year at the Spring Festival, villagers from more than a dozen villages host a humongous street party.I thought I was getting a bit of a nice walk. It turns out it's like a sprint. These guys are on fire.Just like Christmas in the West, the Spring Festival is the most anticipated holiday in China.Even the Bodhisattva statues which normally sit in the temples are moved out and carried in sedan chairs from village to village early in the morning to bring locals the Spring Festival blessing.

In order to welcome the auspicious arrival of the Spring Festival, rice wine and rice cake are prepared by many families.This is the first time in my life I've seen a table with hundred of pots of wine on it.It looks like a fierce battle is about to begin.

It's a community event.It's the one opportunity of the year the whole villager gets together.It's the end of the Spring Festival.It's the start of the hard work.And when could you choose a better time to enjoy a lot of rice wine?Well tomorrow we all start our hard work.Let's enjoy a drink.

All after the noisy and chaos of the Spring Festival, the days start to calm down again.With the first thunder of the year, the Chinese welcome in the third solar term: Insect Awakening or Jingzhe in Chinese.The spring thunder awaken more than just those little creatures.The fields are showing little green and peasants who follow the solar terms have begun their hard work.

Chinese cuisine is amazing.The food related to the 24 solar terms is proof of just how insanely creative the Chinese are.Stir-fried soybeans symbolize jumping pests.Fuzzy taro symbolizes this mice.To eat them on the day of Insect Awakening symbolizes getting rid of the all pests in the fields and wishing for a bumper harvest after a year's hard work.

Ma Guanhong is a Hakka from Changting. Not long ago, he gave up his life in the big city and returned to his hometown.He opened a gallery in Changting where he teaches children how to paint.It's called the Sound of the Insect Gallery.

Changting has over 2 thousand years of history,.It is also home to one of China's very unique ethnic groups, the Hakka, who settled there.'Hakka' basically means to be a guest.This is because the Hakka left their homeland by the Yellow River thousands of years ago, and settle all over the world.The Insect Awakening solar term is when the Hakka people go home and pay respects to their ancestors.Huge groups of Hakka from all over the world, Hong Kong, Macao,Taiwan and places across Southeast Asia return to Changting to pay their respects.

In China, paper money can be used if you want to pay respects to your ancestors.Offering paper money to the deceased is a way of showing respect.

Among all the ethnics groups in China, the Hakka is one of the most widely spread out.Because of the war in 2000 years ago, they migrated from central China to the south. It is estimated that there are around 80 million Hakka in the world today. Most of them you can find on the southeastern coast of China and others live in Southeast Asia, the United States and even Europe.

Tingjiang River is the largest river in the west of Fujian province and it is the mother river for the Hakka.Thousands of years ago, when the Hakka settled here or there was the turbulent Tingjiang River and dense bamboo forests. By making goods out of bamboo and by using the Tingjiang River for transport, the Hakka were able to trade and make a living.And the real money maker for them was bamboo paper.The history of bamboo paper started more than 800 years ago during the Song dynasty.And this paper was distributed around China by the Tingjiang River.Bamboo shoots up high during the Insect Awakening solar term, and it makes excellent material for Changling bamboo paper.After turned the bamboo is evenly cut into sections,It's immersed in water for a hundred days.Then it is beaten thousands of times with sticks removing all of the rough shell and green skin.Afterwards, it is boiled with hight-quality lime until it becomes a fine bamboo fiber.When paper making begins, the bamboo fiber is put into tanks where it's mixed with water to form a pulp.Bamboo screens used in the paper making are woven out of a very fine bamboo strips.An old craftsman holds the bamboo screen, swing it through the tank, making a thin film out of the pulp.The evenness and thickness of the final product all depends on the craftsman's level of control, Light swings are for thin paper, or heavy swings for thick.After the bamboo paper has dried, it's thin, smooth and flexible.Depending on the quality, bamboo paper can have many uses.Poor quality bamboo paper is made into paper money and burned as an offering.The good quality bamboo paper is made into books, or used for painting and calligraphy.The whitest and toughest bamboo paper is used for recording Hakka family histories, which continue generation after generation.

Throughout the history of the Chinese people, family history books have been some of the most influential and long-lasting.They record family lineages ,and the stories of the significant figures.The Hakka have a unique history of migration, and have deep feelings towards their families.Family history handed down from generation to generation,give them a sense of place within their clan, and the strong feeling of belongings.Ancestral halls are built so they have a place to gather and make offerings to their ancestors.

Yu Zhongjian is one of the stewards of this hall.Among the Chinese, the Hakka are the most close-knit.They put more emphasis on blood ties than any other group.Thousands of years ago, these Hakka migrated all the way south.They came to Changting the strange place and built homes.But being outsiders, they had to work together.As a result, family relations become very close.The first ancestor that came to Changting is revered as a god by later generations. Inscense is offered to him for protection of their descendants prosperity.

In the villages around Changting county, there are still the remains of the Hakka's ancestral homes.At that time, in order to resist invasions and wild animal attacks, families lived together as clans.They designed and built their own unique dwellings:Enclosed houses.The Tudang enclosed houses were built during the Qing dynasty.The old furniture and discolored walls tell the history of the Hakka who lived together here as a clan after arriving.Although most of the rooms in outer circle are a state of disrepair, the main hall where is the past elders lived is still carefully managed and maintained by the descendants.Every year during this solar term these enclosed houses await the return of its clan members for a family reunion.

This journey has helped me to understand the importance that the Hakka put on family ties.This solar term is not just about this ancient land's connection to nature, but more about the relationship between people.