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年春節前幾天，我的朋友范群(Fan Qun)、她的丈夫和我乘坐公共汽車、小巴、船，最后步行，前往她位于湖南省山區的偏遠村莊；她在廣州打工的兩個兄弟也回來了過節。在除夕夜，我們從稻田里抓來一只公雞，她的父親用菜刀迅速宰殺，而已經宰殺的肥豬的肉則在廚房的火上熏制。范群的父親在家中的祭壇上供奉了豬頭、一整條熏魚和一塊豆腐，還有搪瓷杯裝的米酒和自家種的茶，祭拜祖先。