"Can I ask you a very private question?"

I look across the table at the kind-faced Chinese German Chancellor Fellow sitting across from me, and obviously my heart starts to race a bit.

"Um, sure", I tell him, "what do you want to know?"

"Are they real?"

"Are what real?"




My hair.  He was asking about my hair!  Oh thank god, there is actually nothing at all private about this very cautiously asked question.  Yes, my hair is real, I told him.  It is curly.  It grows like this naturally.  Gelockene Haare (in German) is not exactly common in China, or in Germany for that matter. 

I guess it should not have come as much of a surprise to me that the question over the nature of my hair was considered a private one.  My new Chinese friends, thought extremely nice and polite, are a bit harder to get to know than the Russian BUKAs.  We aren´t in class together, and most come across a bit more reserved and formal, perhaps.  But after the enthusiastic responses from us Americans and the Russians to the Chinese cooking at International Essen Fest, the Chinese BUKAs decided to invite us all to a Chinese dinner tonight in honor of:

Chinese Valentine´s Day.

I am ashamed to say that prior to today I was not aware that Chinese Valentine´s Day existed.  Before heading to dinner, I decided to do a little bit of research (meh, Wikipedia).  Well, there are a number of variations on the story of the Qixi festival (aka Chinese Valentine´s Day) which translates to The Night of Sevens (it sounds sort of like a Horror Film to me), since it falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month when the stars Altair and Vega are high in the sky and easily visible.  Here is one version (with some improvements!):


There was once a cowherd named Niulang. He lived with his elder brother and sister-in-law. Disliked and abused by his sister-in-law, Niulang was forced to leave home, with only a pet cow for company.

The cow, however, was a former god who had violated imperial rules and was sent to earth in bovine form (obviously).  One day the cow led Niulang to a lake where fairies took a bath on earth. Among them was Zhinu, the most beautiful fairy and a skilled seamstress (more like a day job).
The two fell in love instantly and were soon married. They had a son and daughter and were very happy.
But, in the eyes of the Jade Emperor, the Supreme Deity in Taoism, marriage between a mortal and fairy is strictly forbidden (all good things are). He sent the empress to fetch Zhinu.

Niulang grew desperate when he discovered Zhinu had been taken back to heaven. Driven by Niulang's misery, the cow told him to turn its hide into a pair of shoes after it died (the cow apparently died soon after...).

The magic shoes took Niulang, who carried his two children in baskets strung from a shoulder pole (use your imagination), on a chase after the empress (all of the babysitters were apparently busy celebrating Chinese Valentine´s Day).

The pursuit enraged the empress.  She took her hairpin and slashed it across the sky, which created the Milky Way (yummm), separating husband from wife.

But all was not lost (it almost never is) as magpies, moved by the love and devotion of Niulang and Zhinu, formed a bridge across the Milky Way to reunite the family.

Even the Jade Emperor was touched (but only a little bit), and allows Niulang and Zhinu to meet once a year on the seventh night of the seventh month.

The End.

For our celebration, the Chinese BUKAs prepared some delicious typical Chinese dishes, and the rest of us provided beverages and dessert.  I brought a watermelon, and only realized later, in my research, how appropriate this was. 

As it turns out, it is traditional for young girls (me, for example) to carve melons for the Qixi festival to demonstrate skills in the domestic arts and then make wishes for a good husband.  If I had known that I would have put a little more thought into my carving.  So much for my domestic skills.  One of the girls from the Chinese group also offered me this bit of advice: men from the Shanghai region make better husbands than those from the Peking region, as they are more skilled cooks and better with children... I suppose I will keep that in mind.

Logistically speaking, at the moment I am a bit too preoccupied with trying to learn German and sort out my project to devote the proper attention that I imagine would be necessary to wish for a husband from Shanghai.  But, I guess I could add it to the five year plan.

Anyways, it seems that Chinese Valentine´s Day is also of importance to new brides.  As it so happens one of my best friends was married just this weekend in a land far far away, called New Jersey.  Since I wasn´t able to be there with her, I figured I would offer her this piece of Chinese Valentine´s Day advice: Make an offering of flowers, tea, and fruit.  Then take some face powder and put half of it on the roof and distribute the other half to the young ladies of the house.  According to Chinese tradition, you will forever share in Zhinu´s beauty.