A couple of days before the Chinese New Year of 2004, my friend Fan Qun, her husband and I travelled by bus, minibus, boat and, finally, foot, to her family’s remote village in the hills of Hunan province; her two brothers, migrant workers in Guangzhou, had also returned for the festival. On New Year’s Eve, we rounded up a rooster from the paddy fields outside and her father dispatched it quickly with a cleaver, while the meat of a fattened pig that had already been slaughtered was smoked above the kitchen fire. Fan Qun’s father made offerings to his ancestors at a domestic altar laid with the pig’s head, a whole smoked fish and a block of tofu, as well as enamelled mugs of rice wine and homegrown tea.
2004年春节前几天，我的朋友范群(Fan Qun)、她的丈夫和我乘坐公共汽车、小巴、船，最后步行，前往她位于湖南省山区的偏远村庄；她在广州打工的两个兄弟也回来了过节。在除夕夜，我们从稻田里抓来一只公鸡，她的父亲用菜刀迅速宰杀，而已经宰杀的肥猪的肉则在厨房的火上熏制。范群的父亲在家中的祭坛上供奉了猪头、一整条熏鱼和一块豆腐，还有搪瓷杯装的米酒和自家种的茶，祭拜祖先。