On the eve of the Spring Festival, 15-year-old Zhang Lei finally got reunited with his parents in Beijing after an overnight journey by train from Wuwei County in east China's Anhui Province.
The boy came to spend the festival, which falls on Sunday, with his parents, who have stayed in Beijing as migrant workers for the past years. The Spring Festival, marking the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year, is the most important annual event for a family reunion, like Christmas to westerners.
With a New Year's eve dinner in a small restaurant at a street with all the neon lights, the Zhangs were so hearty that they could be together, but the little Zhang said "it would have been perfect if we had the home-made cookies prepared by my aunt."
Zhang Lei is one of many Chinese who are saying "something is missing" in the celebration of the festival that has been treasured in China for thousands of years.
According to a survey conducted recently by the China Institute of Social Investigation (CISI), 63 percent of Chinese said that the traditional festival is "not what it used to be" and whose unique flavor is fading out.
"At times of scarcity, Spring Festival for kids was a great occasion to fulfill their simple wish for new clothes and best foods," Song Zhaolin, a folk custom expert in Beijing, said. "That is why adults are often nostalgic about their good old times in celebration of the festival."
Life is much better off today, but with the fast paces of life, more and more Chinese are omitting many details that constitute the " authentic tradition" of the festival, Song said. "For instance, the door-to-door New Year visits of relatives, friends and neighbors to extend greetings become rare. Instead, they opt for sending short messages via mobile phones."
According to the same survey conducted by the CISI, more than 41 percent of Chinese people would send short messages to express festival greetings to their friends, instead of paying personal visits. The latest figure show that 30 percent of the 1.3 billion Chinese have their own mobile phones, who have boosted the short message industry.
The government, as well as the public, seems to be quite worried about its people's declining interest in its cultural tradition. The central government has just published a list of " national intangible cultural heritages" to include the celebrations of Spring Festival.
Many have blamed the government ban on firecrackers in many cities for the loss of festive appeal, which are noisy and dangerous, but also give a lot of fun for kids and their parents. For the revival of Spring Festival atmosphere, more than 200 cites have lifted the ban ahead of the Year of Dog.
But it doesn't seem to help much. "At time of material abundance and easy access to more choices, people have no longer been craving for good food and new dresses. They want much more than that," Song said.
"We used to celebrate the occasion for nearly one month, no work but all play," said Zhang Lei's father, a migrant worker in the capital city.
"The Spring Festival is losing its tradition," said Gao Youpeng, a professor with central China's Henan University, in his recent "Manifesto on defending the Spring Festival."
"The modern Chinese are giving up the tradition and custom of the local holidays, and turning to the western festivals like Christmas," he warned.
To rekindle people's interest in the Spring Festival, folklore was printed on brochures and distributed in the Beijing International Airport. Major roads in Guangzhou city were decorated with red lanterns. Girl students at Shanghai Normal University were mobilized to wear red "qi-pao," traditional dresses for ladies.
However, 19 percent of the respondents the CISI surveyed said that they feel quite comfortable with the simplified festival rituals and no longer prefer the traditional stuff.
Tian Qing, director of the Intangible Culture Heritage Research Center in China, said "traditional festivals embody the cultural identity of a nation." In the tides of globalization, Chinese and foreigners may have no difference in life styles, as they both log on to the Internet, drink Starbucks coffee, and wear Nike and Adidas. "Only Chinese are rooted in the Spring Festival, and that makes them fundamentally different," he said.
Just one week before the festival, the Beijing West Railway Station saw a record 100,000 passengers staying in its waiting halls and at the open space outside the building for a single day, because a heavy snow interrupted the nation's railway traffic. Hundreds of thousands people, with no ticket for a seat, insisted on going home by standing all the way.
If someone couldn't have make it, his family would place a set of tableware for him, assuming he is with them.
Song said Chinese always believed that "sound family bonds are essential for personal prosperity," especially in fierce social competition today, people need to seek more strength from family ties.
"This is still the core of what the Spring Festival about," he said.
During the week-long holidays, Song will have to finish a book on Chinese traditional festivals, which will be translated into English and introduced to Britain, United States, Thailand and Malaysia.