August 14, 2013 (TSR) – According to a Chinese folk love story, the Qixi Festival is the day when Niulang, a cowherd, and Zhinv, a beautiful weaver girl, meet annually. But in a modern society, celebrating the Qixi Festival may mean little more than spending money.

Retailers and shop owners have been ready for days, stocking up on flowers and offering tempting discounts on chocolate bars, shoes, jewellery and other romantic gifts. On Taobao.com, China’s biggest online retail site, more than 550 thousand results return from a search for “Qi Xi Gift”.

China Qixi Festival

Whilst, to attract more visitors, the Beijing Garden Expo Park will tonight distribute 50 thousand roses to lovers who choose to visit the park.

Many young people say they accept Qi Xi as just another excuse to spend money and are not particularly concerned about the cultural meaning of the festival.

“It’s nothing special. The festival is commercialized. Just some businessmen want to make more money.”

Another interviewee says that the Western St Valentine’s Day is more meaningful.

“Many movies give me the impression that the lovers’ day in the west is more romantic.”

The 2,000-year-old Qixi festival originated from a folk tale that a fairy called Zhi Nv married a mortal called Niu Lang.

Shortly after the Goddess of Heaven, who opposed their marriage, sent the couple to heaven as two stars, separating them by the vast Milky Way.

According to the story, magpies feel sympathy for the lovers and so they fly up to heaven every year to form a bridge. It is across this bridge that the lovers can reunite for a single night.

Couples who are separated by work or study, celebrate their love on the date of the lovers’ annual reunion.

Qi Xi was listed as an intangible cultural heritage by China’s State Council in 2006.

Xiao Fang, professor of Folklore Research Institute of Beijing Normal University says that Qixi is primarily about courting with expensive gifts.

“Qi Xi is not lovers’ day. In the past, Qi Xi was an occasion to show someone…your skill, like sewing and making clothes. Nowadays, these are skills not in common usage. But you can make…a personalized gift.”

Meanwhile, many who oppose a commercialized Qixi also confess a paradox; without commercial interest, the festival may well be forgotten and become a mere relic of the past. (Source: CriEnglish.com)

Striving to make “Chinese Valentine’s” more “Chinese”

With flower stands lining the streets and online shopping sites awash with valentine gift commercials, Tuesday’s Qixi Festival, which has recently been dubbed Chinese Valentine’s Day, is not much different from its western counterpart on Feb. 14.

There is a rising perception in China that Qixi – a festival derived from an age-old romantic legend – must not be reduced to another anodyne exercise in consumerism, but rather it should be an occasion to revisit fading traditions.

Some young lovers are striving to make “Chinese Valentine’s Day” more “Chinese”.

“I don’t want to just send roses and chocolates to my girlfriend as Chinese Valentine’s gift,” says Hua Junpeng, a 24-year-old graduate student in Beijing.

“I celebrate two Valentine’s Days each year. I hope that I am able to use different ways to express my love, which represent two different cultures.”

Unable celebrate the romantic occasion together, the two young lovers separated for the summer in their respective hometowns, Hua and his girlfriend will borrow some conceptual elements of Qixi as a way of romanticizing.

“I will chat with her online to celebrate Qixi, as if the Internet were our Magpie Bridge,” Hua says.

The Magpie Bridge, in the folk legend from which Qixi originated, is the channel that enables separated lovers Zhinu and Niulang to reunite despite the obstacle of Milky Way. When a fairy named Zhinu married the mortal Niulang, the marriage enraged the goddess of heaven, who created the Milky Way to separate them. The lovers are reunited for a single night each year by magpies which fly to the heavens and form a bridge for them to cross.

Liu Xiaolong, 27, scours markets for a surprising gift for his girlfriend.

“Chinese Valentine’s Day should be distinguished from the western one. I want to find my girlfriend a gift with a Chinese flavor.”

Such gifts do exist, and their popularity shoots up around Qixi. For instance, bamboo-scroll love letters attract a large number of buyers on China’s largest online shopping site, taobao.com.

Having a love letter you have written yourself inscribed on a bamboo scroll – used to display calligraphy in ancient China, before paper was invented – satisfies some young people’s craving for personalized gifts with traditional feel.

One anonymous recipient of a bamboo billet doux commented on taobao.com, “I like it very much. A fitting gift for Qixi, memorable and easy to preserve. Much better than floral bouquet.”

Events held all over China on Tuesday will explore the unique Chinese characteristics of the holiday.

A bar in Huizhou, southern Guangdong Province, posted on the twitter-like microblog, weibo.com, advertising a “romantic party on Chinese Valentine’s Day”.

Apart from entertainment, the party includes a needle threading competition, with a prize for most nimble fingers.

Qixi festival was traditionally a tribute to Zhinu, goddess of weaving, and for young girls to request the blessing of dexterity. The threading competition brings Qixi celebrations closer to its true meaning. (Xinhua)

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