Spring Festival

Name: Spring Festival
ISBN: 9787201175775

萧放Tianjin People's Publishing House · ChinaJan 2025

4.0

Word count: 93K words
Chapters: 7
ISBN: 9787201175775

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Summary

Spring Festival is a knowledge primer on traditional festivals crafted for Chinese readers. With its long history and rich customs, the Spring Festival is a major traditional festival. In this book, the author takes the cycle of a year as the entry point and probes the time concept embodied in the Spring Festival, the most important node in Chinese festival customs; recounts the festival's evolution over more than three thousand years; then, from a micro perspective, fully recreates a traditional Chinese person's complete celebration from the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month; and finally presents an overview of the festival's current state overseas. The book features 50 high-definition classical paintings, inviting readers to experience the emotions, wishes, ethics, and beliefs embedded in the Spring Festival through its ultimate ritual of time, and to appreciate the beauty of time in Chinese-style life within a traditional festival.

Editor's review

Spring Festival is the fruit of years of research by folklorist Professor Xiao Fang. Drawing on solid historical sources and vivid fieldwork, it systematically traces the evolution and cultural significance of the Spring Festival, China's most important traditional festival. The book has maintained a Douban rating of around 8.5, reflecting its scholarly rigor and readability.

Structured by time and woven with customs, the book runs from Laba to the Lantern Festival, analyzing the rituals, foods, taboos, and social functions of the Spring Festival day by day. The author not only traces the festival's millennia-long transformation from ancient sacrifices at the year's beginning to the modern family reunion but also explores the cultural psychology and symbolic meaning behind customs such as pasting spring couplets, staying up on New Year's Eve, paying New Year calls, and giving lucky money. Particularly noteworthy is the analysis of the festival's contemporary changes—how traditional customs adapt and innovate amid urbanization and globalization, and how the core spirit of "reunion," "welcoming the new," and "praying for blessings" endures.

As part of the "Our Festivals" series, the book is neither a dry academic monograph nor a superficial folklore introduction, but a deep cultural interpretation grounded in scholarship and addressed to the general reader. In plain, clear language, Professor Xiao Fang turns scattered folkloric material into a coherent cultural narrative, enabling readers to know not only "what" but "why." Against the backdrop of increasingly formalized traditional festivals, the book offers a cultural perspective for reunderstanding the Spring Festival and helps us take part in transmitting its customs more consciously. Reading it is like taking a systematic cultural journey through the Spring Festival, and it holds real value for understanding Chinese conceptions of time, family ethics, and social interaction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in exploring traditional Chinese festival culture
Those who wish to understand the origins and meaning of Spring Festival customs in depth
Professionals and students in cultural studies, folklore, and related fields
Chinese families living abroad who wish to pass on the essence of Chinese culture to the next generation

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking only light holiday stories or practical celebration guides
Literary enthusiasts expecting novelistic narrative or strongly personal expression

Reading tips

Read in chapter order and follow the timeline to experience the full cycle and changing rhythm of the Spring Festival
Compare what you read with your own New Year experiences to grasp the cultural logic behind the customs
Focus on Chapter 2, "The Historical Evolution of the Spring Festival," and Chapter 5, "The Cultural Meaning of the Spring Festival," to grasp the book's core framework

About the publisher

Tianjin People's Publishing House China · Founded in 1950

Tianjin People's Publishing House publishes across such fields as classic works, foreign literature, architecture, social culture and social sciences, with 749 relevant titles in the collection. In the areas of classics and scholarship, works such as Wang Guowei's Renjian Cihua and Fei Xiaotong's From the Soil and Fertility and Reproduction reflect a sustained attention to social culture and classic texts of thought. Architectural books are represented by Liang Sicheng's Annotated Yingzao Fashi and A History of Chinese Architecture, showing an emphasis on architectural heritage and building traditions. In foreign literature, translations of Sholokhov's And Quiet Flows the Don and Tolstoy's War and Peace and The Death of Ivan Ilyich, through the work of translators such as Li Gang and Yu Dawei, form a substantial series of translated works. Overall, the press combines classic texts, scholarly works and fine translations, with a publishing character oriented toward humanistic depth and the dissemination of knowledge.

版权信息
题记
壹丰收祭与新岁首
贰春节的演变
叁春节习俗深描
肆海外过春节
后记

FAQ

Is this book an academic work or a popular one?

It is positioned as academic popularization: it rests on rigorous scholarship and a clear historical thread while using language accessible to general readers, making it suitable for non-specialists with a deep interest in folk culture.

Does the book include specific suggestions for Spring Festival activities?

The book focuses on cultural interpretation and historical review rather than serving as a how-to guide. Readers may draw on their understanding of the customs to create contemporary celebrations of their own, but the book offers no specific activity plans or implementation steps.

What sets this book apart from other books on the Spring Festival?

The author, Xiao Fang, is a professor of folklore at Beijing Normal University and has long studied festivals. This book is a popular edition of his systematic scholarship, emphasizing coherence, historical depth, and cultural insight—unlike scattered introductions to customs or personal festival essays.

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About the author

萧放 Author

Xiao Fang is an author about whom limited public information is available. What is known is that the works collected here focus on Chinese culture, with five titles in the library, including Spring Festival, Festivals in China (five volumes), The Twenty-Four Solar Terms in Jiangnan, Qingming, and Dragon Boat Festival. These works show that Xiao Fang has long been concerned with traditional Chinese festivals and solar-term culture, writing on seasonal customs, folk life, and regional traditions, with particular attention to the seasonal heritage of the Jiangnan region. The writing tends toward informative exposition and cultural interpretation, linking the origins and customs of festivals to everyday experience while balancing readability with reference value. The works mostly appear as thematic volumes or series, suitable for general readers seeking an overall picture of traditional festivals and offering a fairly systematic introduction to festival culture.