February 19 - Chinese New Year -Pictorial Documenting the Biggest Migration of People in History

The Chinese New Year is the largest movement of People.

Chinese Search Engine Baidu has a location tracker which it used to track the people returning home.
Notice that most people left one of four cities

Most Chinese no longer remain in their ancestral villages, but instead travel to the big cities to find more lucrative work. Those cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen are filled with transplants from all over China. I live in Shenzhen, the 4th largest, with about 22 million people. It borders Hong Kong, and is in the same province as Guangzhou, the 3rd largest. Guangzhou was formerly known as Canton, the place where the British sold Opium to the Chinese. Both Shenzhen and Guangzhou are in the Guangdong Province, formerly also called the Canton Province.

I wanted to document this migration, so I asked people to send me various pictures from their trip home as well as their stay at home. I didn't want to tell people what kinds of pictures to take. I also found many pictures posted on Facebook, but even more on We Chat (Weixin)(the Chinese mobile Facebook) used by some 300 to 500 million Chinese.

People go home to their ancestral villages and home cities.  People travel great distances, if necessary. Trips range from one to three weeks, depending on one's job, finances, and available vacation days. Everyone has fun. People exchange Hongbao (or red envelopes filled with Lucky Money). Dumplings and special meals are eaten. Fireworks scare away evil spirits, while red banners bring good luck and prosperity. Unwed people over 25 complain they are harassed about the failure to marry.

The pictures tell the story far better than I could.

Notice the Picture of Chairman Mao in the Back

MORE PICTURES FOLLOW

I AM CHARLIE AND WILL ALWAYS BE CHARLIE

I AM STILL CHARLIE, AGAIN AND AGAIN,

DESPITE THE RECENT PROTESTS OVER CHARLIE HEBDO'S DEPICTION OF MOHAMED

Charlie Hebdo was republished with another depiction of Mohamed, causing worldwide protests, and perhaps, more future violence. I have Muslim friends. I respect Islam. But it has been perverted, attacked and degraded, not by those who who depict the Prophet, but by those that commit unjustified violence in the name of the Prophet. That is the point of the cartoon. Perhaps some Jihadists should look at the cartoon and think about it for a moment.

I am Jewish. My religion also prohibits depiction of God. Who cares if someone else does this? That is on them. I would never commit violence if someone depicted God. We are not even supposed to write God. We are supposed to write G-D. Our religion is not so different from Islam in this. So why is our behavior and tolerance so different?

One, because we ostracize the fanatics of our religion. Second, because we value the societies we live in. Most importantly, as Islam, Judaism, and Christianity teaches, we value the prohibitions against violence and destruction of innocent lives and societies. Not every action or perceived insult justifies Jihad, as even the Koran states that Jihad must be defensive.

It is time for people to live in peace. Violence just begets violence, and too often, it is the truly innocent who bear the suffering.

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