Now that the kids are all grown up, the band of Chinese families I grew up with don't really celebrate Christmas anymore. We still like to get together during the holidays though, and this year we went to the M's to have shabu shabu.
They're a bit more casual about it than I am and don't bother to move the sliced meat from the styrofoam plates to regular dishes, and they only offered soy sauce and hot sauce as condiments. What the table lacks in spice options, the guests make up for in variety of bold opinions.
I decided to have a bit of fun and quiz the middle-aged, immigrant Chinese parents what their thoughts were on the auto bailout, the bank bailout, subprime mortgages and gay marriage. They were wholly unsympathetic to the auto companies, grimly resigned to the necessity of bailing out the financial firms, but managed to be appalled by subprime mortgages and generally did not comprehend why gay marriage advocates were in such a rush to make things equal.
My Chinese has sorely deterioriated in the years since I've left the west coast to study and work on the east. I'd have to continually beg off and get some adult "kid" or a parent to translate. It was awesome (see awesome, still useful) watching my brother and the other "kids" (all of us either in graduate school or working) get in on the game when the conversation turned to gay marriage. They weren't as concerned about the financial crisis as I was and content to stay out of the conversation, but though they all knew how their parents felt, I don't think many of them (my brother included) had really confronted their parents on gay marriage.
I love shabu shabu. Everyone is shouting. There is steam rising from the table. Chopsticks are jabbing in the area and diving into the pots. Totally wicked awesome.
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