This red tree went up in the plaza at our apartment complex around December 1st, along with the strings of red lanterns strung between the palm trees. By the time we returned to China on December 31, a silver "Happy New Year" banner had been added to the decorative tree. The banner is still there on the tree and now refers to the Chinese New Year coming up in a few weeks.
I took this photo of the banners outside the Decathlon sports store on Friday afternoon. The red and white colors, as well as the snowflakes and star designs, make these look Christmasy. But this decoration is a mashup, too: notice the girl bunny dancing on the mushroom umbrellas on the right. The Chinese New Year, the Year of the Rabbit, begins on February 3. When I took the photo, a gardener was going down the line of flowering plants and tying the pink ribbons around them. The calming pink color is perhaps significant: the rabbit is supposed to usher in a quieter period, on the heels of 2010's Year of the Tiger.
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