The Book of Chinese New Year: Rediscovering the True Flavor

Описание: 00:58 Chapter 1: Reflections on the Year – The Brightest Lights in Childhood Memories
07:43 Chapter 2: The Essence of the Year – The Perfect Fusion of Life and Ideals
14:50 Chapter 3: The Art of the Year – Beauty and Inheritance in Folk Customs
22:31 Chapter 4: Reflections on the Year – Concerns and Solutions Behind the Fading Flavor of the Year
28:14 Chapter 5: Guarding the Year – Action Paths from Individual to National Level
33:04 Chapter 6: The World Significance of the Year – The Key to Telling China’s Story Well
36:47 Chapter 7: The Future of the Year – Letting the Flavor of the Year Never Fade

Since its release in early 2025 following Spring Festival's successful UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage inscription in December 2024, Feng Jicai's The Book of Chinese New Year (《过年书》) has become a cultural phenomenon in China. It quickly earned an 8.0–8.1 rating on Douban from hundreds of readers (with over 60% giving 5 stars), and has been widely praised as the definitive post-heritage guide to reclaiming authentic "year flavor" (年味), selling strongly through major platforms like Dangdang and JD as a must-read for the modern Spring Festival.

Feng Jicai is one of China's most respected contemporary writers, painters, and cultural preservationists, born in Tianjin in 1942. A pioneer in Scar Literature after the Cultural Revolution, he is renowned for works like The Tall Woman and Her Short Husband and Faces in the Crowd. As a leading advocate for intangible heritage, he played a key role in successfully nominating Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) for UNESCO recognition in 2024. Through decades of fieldwork, writing, and advocacy, he has dedicated his life to rescuing and revitalizing traditional Chinese folk culture.

The Book of Chinese New Year collects over 50 essays, reflections, and interviews by Feng Jicai on Spring Festival. It begins with vivid childhood memories from 1950s Tianjin—pasting couplets, staying up all night (守岁), eating symbolic foods like fish for "year-after-year surplus," and the Nian monster legend. The book explores the deep fusion of daily life and ideals: how rituals turn ordinary moments into celebrations of reunion, abundance, and hope. It celebrates folk arts like New Year paintings, paper-cuts, lantern riddles, and temple fair yangge dances as expressions of collective joy and beauty. Feng addresses the fading "year flavor" in modern times due to urbanization, commercialization, and generational shifts, yet offers optimistic solutions—revival through sincere, adapted participation rather than rigid restoration. He details his personal efforts in heritage protection and the global significance of Spring Festival as a universal symbol of family and human warmth. Ultimately, the book calls for active guardianship so the intense, mellow "old wine" taste of the year never fades.

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