Today, first day of Chinese new year celebrations, is an excellent opportunity, not to be missed, to sincerely wish a happy new year 2026, year of the fire horse, to all Chinese living here in France, in mainland China, or anywhere else. I have good personal reasons to do it wholeheartedly.
French borne, I have always been interested to know about other cultures. I studied Chinese language at Paris University when I was 20, then I studied the Yi King and the Tao te King, and I started travelling extensively in Asia where I met many Chinese. Contacts have always been pleasant and courteous.
I got married later with a Filipina lady, and my father in law was a Chinese from Hainan, born In Manila, an excellent cook, I had great respect and love for him.
Later on, as a professional sourcing leather bag and travel goods for well-known brands, I settled in Hong Kong for a while (before retrocession) and travelled extensively in China to visit factories and select suppliers.
Much later, I became a professor in marketing for students at master level and had a lot of Chinese students I helped for their master’s thesis. I knew how important it was for them and the difficulties they encountered. I took great care of them. Students are the future and helping them was a duty for me. They worked hard and all students I helped succeeded in their sustenance.
Now, I try to share my experience and knowledge in this blog, and I noticed with a great joy that the number of visitors from China has steeply increased since January. WordPress give informations about their visits.
It is probably due to two factors. Google provides instant translation with a good quality and search algorithms have probably noticed the increasing number of visitors, the time spent (in average close to 2 hours) and the number of articles read (over 4). It is quite unusual for a blog without images and tackling difficult subjects. So, when you enter a search, you have more chances to find my blog without having to reach the page 10 of the results.
I have good reasons to think that most of my Chinese visitors are students or professionals within a 25-40 age bracket. It is encouraging, I am working for free, of course, but I help them. I have a particular thought for all my visitors, past, present and future.
Back to New Year celebrations I experienced often in various countries, I know it is not so different from Christmas : family reunite and eat together special food. Which mean a lot of travel when you live I a large country like China. Trains are full and stations are crowded. But it give good memories to all.
I saw how hard Chinese are working and New Year provides a good rest for minds and bodies.
So, again, Happy new year 2026 to all !
I will now add some basic information for my French readers.
L’année chinoise est sur un cycle lunaire, les dates varient et chaque année est associée à un symbole animal.
2026, le cheval de feu succède au serpent de 2025 et au dragon de 2024. Le dragon est un animal mythique très présent dans la culture chinoise, qui n’a pas entendu parler ou vu des danses avec un dragon formé de plusieurs danseurs ?
Les festivités s’étalent sur 15 jours et se terminent par la fête des lanternes, la plupart des pays d’Asie ont des fêtes marquantes liées à la lumière comme Divali en Inde ou Loï Kratong en Thaïlande.
Traditionnellement, la culture chinoise intègre de nombreuses superstitions qu’il serait trop long d’énumérer ici, mais il y a de mauvais esprits qu’il faut effrayer, d’où les pétards. Les échanges de cadeaux, les couleurs rouge et or, signes de bon augure, sont un grand classique pour bien commencer l’année.
Les fêtes de Nouvel An chinois sont gérées par la communauté chinoise locale en concertation avec la mairie. C’est un moment de joie partagée avec cette communauté discrète que la plupart connaissent par les restaurants chinois que nous sommes bien contents de trouver sur notre route partout dans le monde, surtout pour un grand amateur de riz comme moi.
Bonne année 2026 à tous !