As part of the “system” (体制), Chinese courts have their own ways of celebrating Spring Festival (Chinese New Year/ 春节).  A new development is New Year mobile phone emoticons (two examples pictured above),  created by the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) media group , a combination of new and old, (revolutionary) red and traditional.

A long-standing tradition is for the current court leaders to visit the retired leaders and bring them up to date on developments. This year SPC media reported that President Zhou Qiang (accompanied by Justice Jiang Bixin) visited retired Presidents Wang Shengjun and Ren Jianxin.  President Zhou Qiang deputized a senior provincial judge to visit retired President Xiao Yang, who wasn’t in Beijing.

Another court tradition is the work unit Chinese new year’s party, where employees often have to embarrass themselves performing before their colleagues,  to which old comrades are invited–some photos from the National Judicial College website seen below.

A fourth, more recent tradition is the New Year’s video–see some links below to some local court videos:

• Haidian District Court (Beijing);
• Shanghai Financial Court;
• Dongchang District Court （Jilin Province);
• Kundulun District Court (Inner Mongolia);
• Guangzhou Haizhu District Court.

Some of us remember when Chinese new year meant issuing bags of high-quality rice and other normally unavailable items to court employees, but those days are long gone.

Finally, the Supreme People’s Court Monitor wishes readers, wherever they may be, a very happy, healthy, peaceful,  and successful Year of the Pig.