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When Halle came to London in the first year, She often went to Chinatown.
“Because I’m not familiar with London and not good at cooking so I always went to Chinatown to eat with my Chinese friends.” Halle said.
She told me as she settled down later on, it gradually became not that necessary. She comes from mainland China and speaks Mandarin Chinese, not Cantonese which is another Chinese dialect widely used in Chinatown and overseas Chinese community. Halle said she does not feel close to Chinatown as she does not speak Cantonese. Another reason is it is more convenient for her to buy Chinese groceries in the Chinese supermarket near her home. All Halle needs from Chinatown is only a supermarket.
“We (Halle and her husband) chose Stratford for buying a flat not only because the traffic here is very convenient but also a Loon Fung Chinese supermarket is nearby. It is even more important.” Halle told me.
“To be honest, if London does not have Chinatown or such kind of Chinese supermarket like Loon Fung, I may not have decided to stay. Because it would feel too lonely. These places give me a Chinese feeling, an atmosphere at home. You can hear Chinese popular songs played in the supermarket, and buy special food during traditional Chinese festivals. For example, During the Dragon Boat Festival, you can find the rice dumplings in Loon Fung. Sometimes it feels like living in China. My husband is willing to go back to China with me, but he can’t speak Chinese and doesn't know much about China. Now he is learning Chinese at SOAS, once a week.” Halle said.
“Chinatown is more important for people who just arrived here. You don’t need to worry about the language. It provides all kind of services you need such as tourist agency, law firm, beauty salons, and even traditional Chinese medicine. I know many people who don’t like having a haircut in a non-Chinese salon.”
Halle thinks Chinatown is too crowded and most people there are tourists. She invited me to celebrate Chinese New Year’s Eve together in February, and she was going to make hot pot at home and watch Spring Festival Gala of China Central Television. We met at Loon Fung supermarket and bought hot pot ingredients together. Halle’s husband Ormond was very familiar with Loon Fung and knew what ingredients were popular. “The fish ball has been out of stock for a week. It seems many people are doing hot pot during the festival.” During the lunch, Ormond, Halle’s husband, connected his laptop to the TV for watching the gala via Youtube Chinese Channel.
As a tradition of Chinese New Year, I brought them two Lucky Envelops. One has a note of 20 Chinese Yuan (slightly more than to 2 Pounds) in it, and the other has two notes of 1 Yuan. During the new year, Chinese people put cash in red envelopes for giving to families and friends for wishing good lucks for the coming year. This tradition has gradually become “digitally” in recent years as digital wallets in social platforms started to bring people a society without cash. I personally prefer tangible envelopes.
I asked them each to pick one. Ormond got the luckier one with 20 Yuan note and was very excited. He told me three months ago he was in China with Halle for two weeks, he barely saw cash and did not even remember what a Chinese note looked like.
“When dining out or shopping with local friends, they either paid by scanning a QR code of the restaurant or by showing their personal QR code to the store clerk. People all said cash is dead in China.” Ormond said.