My Name

Believe it or not, recently someone asked me about my name, and I had to look at my companion as if I didn’t know my own name. That may seem funny. But let me tell you why I hesitated and you will understand my dilemma. I have two names and I didn’t know which to use. I like to use Yan-Qing Li (my Chinese name), because that’s my official name. But I know a lot of people here in the U.S. have trouble saying and writing it so I have an American name: Christine Lee. Christine really has nothing to do with "Yan-Qing". I chose it because I’m a Christian and I really like the name of Christine. It isn’t the translation of my Chinese name though. Yan-Qing is two characters in Chinese. Yan comes from "Yan-Jing", the city of Beijing’s old name. I was born in Beijing. Qing is the color green. I was born in the Spring when trees and plants start to turn green. Now you understand what Yan-Qing means. It indicates the place and the time I was born. All Chinese names have literal meanings if you write them in Chinese characters.

Moon Festival

Some people probably have heard of the Moon Festival. It's one of the traditional Chinese holidays. Do you know when it is this year? I don't know where this English term "Moon Festival" comes from. In Chinese we call this holiday "Middle Autumn Festival".

People in ancient China used to celebrate the harvest in the middle of August in the lunar Chinese year. In this sense, it’s like Thanksgiving in America. Chinese festivals always involve special foods. For the Moon Festival, we eat mooncakes as a special dessert with tea after our meal. This year's Moon Festival falls on September 24. In the Chinese lunar calendar, this day is August 15th. Let me tell you a little bit more about the Chinese calendar. There are 24 special dates (solar terms) in a year. They indicate weather and seasonal changes. Ancient Chinese farmers grew and harvested their crops all according those 24 dates. Nowadays, many people still believe in them. OK, let me get back to the Moon Festival. The moon is adored by Chinese people. Since ancient times, many poems have been written about it. People tend to have family reunions at the Moon Festival. After a feast, people take a walk outside and appreciate the bright, full moon. We like the round shape of the moon. "Round" in Chinese also means "reunited". A full moon gives people a lot of imagination and it triggers a lot of nostalgia, too. When I first heard people here in the U.S. tell me to be careful on a full moon night, that there are crazy people out there, I was very confused. I didn’t know what that meant. I’m sure American people enjoy the full moon, too, as you have many beautiful songs like "Moon River". But in China we don’t believe that the full moon drives people crazy.