Marry a foreigner: One way to avoid Spring Festival dilemma

Qiu Feilan (third from left) and her Swiss husband Marc Hunziker at a family gathering. Photo: Handout.

BEIJING: The annual argument over whose family to spend the Lunar New Year with has become a modern tradition for married couples in China. But it’s one that Qiu Feilan will be spared because her husband is a foreigner whose family does not celebrate the most important holiday for Chinese people around the world.

Qiu and her Swiss husband Marc Hunziker spend every Lunar New Year – also known as Spring Festival on the mainland – with her family while the Christmas and New Year holidays are spent with Hunziker’s family in Bern, Switzerland.