Chinese New Year with my girlfriend's family.

[Balthazar]

It suddenly dawned upon me that I might not have prepared well enough for this.

I've been with my girlfriend since late September, and it's fairly serious. Not in the "we are planning to get married / engaged at date x", but closer to engagement level than casual level, I'd say.

In any case, I will be spending Chinese New Year with her family, although not with her parents. (Long story short: they are divorced.) The first part will be with her grandparents (father's side) and some aunts/uncles. The other part will be in another city, with some other aunts/uncles.

My girlfriend has given me some advice as to what I might expect. Questions about when we'll get married, and stuff like that. She's also said her family is a lot more casual about it than what is normal. For instance: they don't drink heavily (and they stick to red wine, rather than 白酒). But then again, I have the impression that this is something many Chinese people tell their foreign girlfriend/boyfriend so as to not scare them.

I did a bit of searching today, to see if I could find some general hints.

One that came up a lot was to bring gifts. Which I hadn't even though about. I do want to make a good impression on her family, and I was thinking maybe she didn't mention this to me because she doesn't want me to feel too much pressure about the whole thing. Will ask her about it, though. I assume the gifts are usually small and more for the symbolical aspect? Do you give "bigger" gifts to grandparents than uncles/aunts? Can you give the same thing to several people? Do they gather around to open the gifts together, as with Christmas? So many questions. Maybe I'm over-thinking it.

Another thing mentioned was to bring some new clothes for the first day of the new year. Not sure how important this is, nor what sort of clothing (traditional Chinese vs something more modern, semi-formal) to buy.

Are there some other essential things I should prepare for? I've been informed about our sleeping conditions: separated (of course), with me apparently being the only one getting a single room.

I'm expecting a lot of food and TV (which I won't understand any of). And my Chinese is nowhere near conversational, so save for the handful of phrases I know I expect it will be a week of big smiles and awkward silence (on my part). I wish I could get some reading done while the others are watching television, but I guess that would not be very welcome.

[Scoobyqueen]

I would sell the difference in traditions. You want to bring some traditions, something typical of your culture with you therefore you have brought these gifts. Then you do not try and match anything they do. They will put any faux pas down to cultural difference then. It will also give you a talking point.

[Lu]

Yes bring gifts and ask your gf for advice on this. If things continue to go well for you & her, this will be the first big occasion of many and she'll need to advise you more often anyway. Gifts are generally not opened Christmas-style but put away, unless the giver insists that it be opened.

For new clothes, I'd suggest something nice but casual, not a suit but a nice sweater or something, something you might buy anyway (or have already bought but can still reasonably count as new) that looks nice. And/or something red to wear for luck.

Yes expect lots of food and tv, and perhaps also mahjong. If you can (learn to) play, that'd be something you can do instead of listening to stuff you can barely understand. Just be careful not to loose too much money.