There is one day per year when you find amounts of Chinese people outside to play with fireworks. It shows that Chinese New Year is coming. Firework display has already been a symbol of Spring Festival celebration. To the expat it is an impressive happening. For the most expats the most impressive thing to see on Chinese New Year is the amazing and beautiful firework view with the firecrackers crackling and spluttering, it sounds like a small symphony.But what only a few expats know is why the Chinese people play with the firework on the exact 00:00 o’clock. For the cultural tradition people usually set off firecrackers to ring out the old year and celebrate the coming year. The another reason why the Chinese people do this is an old Chinese story, In the ancient China there was one fierce monster named “ Year (年nián) ”, the monster lives under sea. Every Chinese New Year the monster awakes and eats all the people and animals that are in his way. In order to frighten this monster off, people start to set off firecrackers because Nian was afraid of the color red, the noisy cracking, the wild flames and bright flares. This custom has come down from time immemorial.Why not enjoy firework by yourself? In Shanghai, expats can get firework from a lot of legal selling points, it’s recommended to purchase small fireworks instead of firecrackers. Find out the fuse, lit it by the match or lighter and then keep back, it’s time to enjoy an exclusive firework show. Indeed “Fireworks” cannot be the unique word to describe Chinese New Year, almost every Chinese family is expecting to watch a live broadcast TV program on that day, it’s “ CCTV Spring Festival Gala (春晚chūn wǎn) ”.With no doubt Spring Festival Gala is a hugely influential and national TV performance in China, every time this show gathers a range of singing and dancing, acrobatics and stunt, opusculum and comic dialogue, the lineup of star is strongly. More important it has already become a traditional habit for Chinese people to watch it with families after dinner. Most expats considered this Spring Festival Gala is still far away from them, because of the language, culture and no other expats joining at all. But the following story maybe totally changed your mind, you will be feeling the Spring Festival Gala is much closer to the expat, not as far as you thought.In 2011 Spring Festival Gala, the well-known expat artist Mark Rowswell (Chinese Name: 大山dà shān) with other five expats contributed a comic show “四海之内皆兄弟”, in English, this show title means the spirit of cosmopolitanism. With a wonderful performance it brought a huge success. The following video clip is this comic showThere are still a few features to describe Chinese New Year. Of course you can offer your best wishes in traditional Chinese to your Chinese friends, it will be a great and surprising gift. In case Chinese friend is a business man, it’s better to say “恭喜发财gōng xǐ fā cái” (i.e. Good luck for your business ), otherwise in general we say “万事如意 wàn shì rú yì” (i.e. Everything is going well).Finally Happy Spring Festival for Expats in China!