Yuki Sato (R) learns to make a paper-cutting. [Photo provided to ezhejiang.gov.cn]
Answering the government call to stay put during the Spring Festival holiday, Yuki Sato, a Japanese agricultural expert working in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, recently celebrated a traditional Chinese New Year.
He visited Xiang Zhihua, an intangible cultural heritage practitioner, who taught him to make window paper-cuttings and paint traditional New Year pictures, which feature simple, clear lines, brilliant colors, and scenes of prosperity and are believed to bring good luck in the coming year.
Sato also visited calligrapher Lin Xingming, where he learned to write fu characters, the Chinese character meaning fortune or good luck. Fu, which is written on pieces of squared red paper, is usually posted upside down, which in China means that "fu has already arrived".
Sato took advantage of the Wenzhou government's preferential policies for foreign talent to come work as the laboratory chief at Refine Technology in 2018. He has been devoted to extracting valuable microorganisms from soil samples collected from across China.
Sato loves Wenzhou and regards it "a home away from home".
Yuki Sato (R) shows off his fu character, the Chinese character meaning fortune or good luck. [Photo provided to ezhejiang.gov.cn]
