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    Good Luck Life: The Essential Guide to Chinese American Celebrations and Culture
    Unavailable
    Good Luck Life: The Essential Guide to Chinese American Celebrations and Culture
    Unavailable
    Good Luck Life: The Essential Guide to Chinese American Celebrations and Culture
    Ebook303 pages3 hours

    Good Luck Life: The Essential Guide to Chinese American Celebrations and Culture

    By Rosemary Gong

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Good Luck Life is the first book to explain the meanings of Chinese rituals and to offer advice on when and how to plan for Chinese holidays and special occasions such as Chinese weddings, the Red Egg and Ginger party to welcome a new baby, significant birthdays, and the inevitable funeral. Packed with practical information, Good Luck Life contains an abundance of facts, legends, foods, old-village recipes, and quick planning guides for Chinese New Year, Clear Brightness, Dragon Boat, Mid-Autumn, and many other festivals.

    Written with warmth and wit, Good Luck Life is beautifully designed as an easily accessible cultural guide that includes an explanation of the Lunar Calendar, tips on Chinese table etiquette for dining with confidence, and dos and don'ts from wise Auntie Lao, who recounts ancient Chinese beliefs and superstitions. This is your map for celebrating a good luck life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061871481
    Unavailable
    Good Luck Life: The Essential Guide to Chinese American Celebrations and Culture

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    Reviews for Good Luck Life

    4/5

    24 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Very informative- read my parents' copy, which they got after my grandmother passed and my grandfather had been invited to a wedding shortly after the funeral- we weren't sure if it'd be in poor taste for him to go if it'd spread ill will. Need to get a copy of my own at some point...
    • 4/5
      I found this book to be a bright and pleasant introduction or refresher to those seeking insight into Chinese-American cultural celebrations. I could see this book being a fabulous gift for someone who is marrying into a Chinese family, or someone who is Chinese but hasn't been raised along strict traditions or had the rituals explained. Gong plainly states what food is served or not served, what food and flowers and numbers symbolize, the history and mythologies behind rituals, and includes incredibly useful timelines on how to plan and purchase items for a celebration. There are also numerous recipes; some of the ingredients might be a challenge to obtain unless you live near a Chinatown or a well-stocked international grocery, but it still makes for fascinating reading.
    • 4/5
      A good primer on Chinese festivities and customs written in simple auntie style that targets, contrary to its subtitle, mostly non-Chinese readers. I don't think that actual Chinese or Chinese Americans will learn much from this collection of shared background knowledge. Centered on family life, the author explains and illustrates popular Chinese festivities and customs with stories, recipes and checklists. Whether the book's obsession with checklists is due more to its American or Chinese roots I cannot tell. At least, now I know where I can look up the steps necessary to plan a Chinese funeral should this need ever arise. Curiously missing from the book is a chapter on housewarming and interior decoration, always popular in such type of books.The author also evades the tricky topics of minor culture clashes: Only if a neat solution already exists (such as the bride marrying in a Western white dress before changing into a Chinese red dress), is it mentioned. How does the distinct practice of giving Western first names to children compute with the naming schemes described in the book? Should one celebrate one's Western 30th or the equivalent Chinese 31st birthday? On the day itself or during the Chinese New Year? A glimpse at the author's necessarily arbitrary custom in practice would have been more interesting to me than the general vagueness of the book. With its practical focus on family relations and food, it nicely complements Vivien Sung's Five-fold happiness.