"Poon choi!" when asked for a must-try for the Spring Festival, Ziv Glikman, an Israeli who had been in Dongguan for 17 years, gave his answer without hesitation. As a featured dish in South China for celebrating the Spring Festival, Poon choi is composed of many layers of different ingredients such as meats, seafood and vegetables. For Ziv, the Spring Festival also means a lot.

Finding the connection

The Chinese New Year is also very important for Ziv Glikman as an expat. This year, Ziv and his partner Billy will keep organizing their traditional CNY potluck in his bar.

"We like the locals and foreigners to both come together. And each one brings their own food", this is the way that Ziv celebrates the Spring Festival in China every year.

"I always thought the Chinese and Jewish people are very similar in a few things. For instance, family is very important. On the holidays we have big dinners, together with the family".

Over the years, Ziv has been working hard to promote Chinese culture, including Chinese New Year. And now he has some interesting findings.

"It's quite similar. For example, in Israel we eat apples with honey which symbolizes the year will be sweet. We need to eat the fish head so we want to be the head and not the tail", Ziv found out that both Jewish culture and Chinese culture, two of the oldest cultures in the world would use similar symbols to express best wishes for the new year.