Things to do on Chinese Valentine’s Day
By Cindy Xu

Chinese lovers get two chances to celebrate their romance, with the Western holiday of Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14, and the traditional Qixi Festival on July 7 of the lunar calendar.
China’s Qixi festival falls on August 19 this year. The festival is based on an ill-fated love story involving a cowherd and a fairy seamstress. Niulang, the cowherd, and Zhinv, the fairy, fell in love and later ascended to the heavens, becoming two stars separated by the galaxy. They could only meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, when thousands of magpies formed a bridge to allow them to cross the galaxy. Chinese started to pray for good lives and love on the festival in the middle of the Han Dynasty (202 B.C. to 220 A.D.).
So, here are some tips for lovers who want to experience a traditional Chinese romance.
Exchange Tokens of Love
Jequirity (love pea)
Jequirity is an old keepsake symbolizing two lovers missing each other. Legend has it that a man went to battle in ancient China, and his wife leaned against a tree to pray for him every day. She cried for him, and a drop of blood fell from her eyes and melted into a red pea, which took root and grew into a large tree, producing many red peas. The red peas are now known as “love peas.”
Young people use the peas to make necklaces and bracelets. They also present them to each other as a token of eternal love.
Fragrant Bag
A fragrant bag is a bag used to hold spice. In ancient China, young people would wear fragrant bags when meeting their elders as a gesture of respect. The bags are used to carry personal belongings, so lovers would exchange them when dating.
The Loving Knot
In Chinese, “knot” means reunion, friendliness, peace, warmth, marriage, and love. A loving knot is woven from one single rope and is named for its specific form and meaning, as a symbol of the constancy of two lovers.
Bracelet
In many literary works, there are descriptions of women sending bracelets as gifts to their lovers.
Jade Ornament Decorated with Ribbons
Yu Pei is a jade ornament which was worn as a pendant around waist in ancient China. Confucius said, “The jade is as beautiful as the morality of men of honor.” He described jade as having qualities like kindness, wisdom, ethic, etiquette, taste, and loyalty. Jade is associated with so many virtues that gentlemen are often refereed to as “beautiful jade.” Luo Ying is a kind of colorful ribbon girls wore on their wedding days. Girls in ancient times sent ribbons to their lovers to decorate the jade, indicating: “My heart belongs to nobody but you.”
Hairpins-Zan
According to historical records, the Han Empire Liu Che (156-87 B.C.) loved his concubine Ms. Li very much and one day he took her jade hairpin to scratch an itch on his head. Ever since, hairpins have also been known as “scratching head,” and are symbols of the intimacy between two lovers. In a story written in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.), a girl invested heavily in a hairpin and wanted to give it to her lover who would be leaving for a long journey. But, she was so angry to hear the man had had an affair with another woman that she dismantled and burned the extravagant hairpin to ashes, and swore to breakup with him for good.
Truelove Knot
The truelove knot is a keepsake used to express a solemn pledge of love from the days of old. It’s now a public token of engagement. On their wedding night, Chinese couples would knot their long hair together, promising to endure hardships and enjoy happiness together forever.
Comb
In ancient China, hair was called “threadlike things of troubles” (thus, Buddhist monks shave their heads completely). Combs arrange hairs, so people think of them as a way to clear their troubled minds. It also has the meaning of “smooth and prosper,” so combs represent people’s good wishes.
White Handkerchief
Giving handkerchiefs as a keepsake of love began in the Tang dynasty. There is a story that Zhang Sheng and Cui Ying-ying wrote poems in handkerchiefs and exchanged them to express their love in Yuan Zhen’s “The Story of Mandarin Duck.” In the Tang dynasty, many girls printed their lips in white handkerchiefs to present them to the man they loved. In the Song dynasty, girls usually printed their eyebrows in white handkerchiefs.
A Tasty Love
China boasts a wide variety of snacks, which are not only delicious, but are related to love.
First Love
“Xiao kou chang kai,” literally means “smile forever.” Jujubes are decored, then filled with sugar and steamed. A mix of sweet and sour, the dish is a little like a first love.
Passionate Love
Even during the hottest days of summer, Chongqing people still cannot escape the allure of hot pot. The tongue-searing dishes are the coolest choice on steamy days for locals. The spicy food burns your tongue the way passion sets you on fire.
Rational Love
In northeastern China people throw bits of apples into a pot of boiled syrup for a special treat. Before putting the scalding sugar coated apple in one’s mouth, one needs to dip it into cold water to cool it down and make it crunchy. Similarly in love, when passion fades away, rational lovers feel comfortable in long and stable relationships.
Enduring Love
When husbands leave home, wives in Xinjiang Province always have the dough kneaded the previous night to bake a big nang for them. Nang, neither sweet nor salty, is the best food to take when traveling in the Gobi desert. This is like the love of ordinary lives — lacking overwhelming passion, yet true and long lasting.
Tender Love
Legend has it that once in Yunnan Province, a scholar, preparing for the imperial examinations, isolated himself on an island on a lake to concentrate on his studies. His devoted wife was dismayed that the meals she took to him always arrived cold after crossing a long, wooden bridge. But by chance, she discovered a way to prepare hot food for her husband: bringing sliced meat, noodles, rice and a bowl of hot chicken broth, which was topped with a layer of vegetable oil to keep the soup hot; when she found her husband, she put the meat and rice into broth to be boiled, so that her husband would enjoy a bowl of hot noodles and rice. Of course, under her tender care, the scholar passed the exams. Nowadays, “across-the-bridge rice noodles” is a popular dish in Yunnan.
A Dull Relationship of the Rich
The rich juicy meat of Beijing roast duck brings quite a sensation when you take the first bite, but the oiliness can become boring. It’s like love in a royal family — the prince is handsome and wealthy, the life is elegant and enviable, but who would guess the boredom of it all?
Internet Love
Fried dough twists from Tianjin city are sweet and crispy, and are especially known for being shaped like a braid with several strips of dough twisted together. Eating it, it’s difficult to know which piece you are actually biting. Just like Internet love affairs, you never know who is on the other side. All you care about is the taste, and the taste only.
It’s not about Love
In a traditional Cantonese wedding, the last dessert served at the table is always sweet soup with lotus seed and lily. The pronunciation of the dish in Chinese sounds similar to an auspicious idiom that translates as “long-lasting marriage and many sons.” Many Cantonese believe in the traditional idea of “the more children, the better the life” and care less for romance than family duty.

—chinaculture.org