NANCHANG, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Every Chinese family's kitchen is busier than usual during the Spring Festival, as food is an important part of the celebrations of Chinese Lunar New Year. But the flavor coming out of a communal kitchen in east Jiangxi Province seems to be particularly special.
Pasting couplets, hanging lanterns and making dumplings, Wan Zuocheng and Xiong Gengxiang, a couple in their 60s and the kitchen's owners, were preparing to celebrate the festival in their kitchen with their "family."
The kitchen is located on a street right next to Jiangxi Provincial Cancer Hospital. Nearly every day, there are more than 100 family members of patients that use the communal kitchen, believing home-cooked food is the best way to show how much they care for their loved ones and because it costs less than buying food from the hospital.
In China, cancer can financially ruin an average family, as medical insurance only covers a tiny amount of the bills they must pay. But everyone who uses the facilities in the kitchen only needs to pay one yuan (about 0.14 US dollars).
When Wan and Xiong set up the kitchen 17 years ago, they used to sell fried dough sticks, or youtiao, a popular breakfast food in China, in order to cover the cost of the facilities in the kitchen.
In the past two years, more and more warm-hearted people donated items, the local government helped them paint the walls of the kitchen and two volunteers came once a week to clean up the kitchen.
"Since things have improved, we already stopped selling dough sticks," said Xiong.
Each year, the communal kitchen witnesses life and death. Some cook dishes for their husbands, some cook soup for their parents, and some cook noodles for their relatives who are receiving chemotherapy.
In a cacophony of frying, a woman surnamed Liu put a carp into a frying pan. Fish is always part of the festival dinner, because in China fish are seen as auspicious, signifying abundance in the coming year. In the past year, Liu's husband had nasal cancer and was hospitalized intermittently. By cooking in the communal kitchen she has been able to find moments of peace and a sense of normalcy.
"The doctor said my husband's condition is stable, he can go home first and come back for reexamination after the festival," Liu said.
For 58-year-old Xia Huoliang, his wife weakened as her illness grew worse. In recent days, Xia came to the kitchen to cook something for himself.
"My wife may not live long, but I don't want to give up," Xia said.
In the past 17 years, Wan and Xiong have met thousands of patients and their families, hoping that their efforts could offer a degree of comfort and strength. Therefore, they worked from 4 a.m. until 8 p.m almost every day throughout the year.
One Spring Festival a few years ago, Wan's son took them to his home. They came back after two days and found that many people had brought seasonings and left them at the door with various notes attached, hoping the kitchen would open for service.
"Since then, we haven't taken the Spring Festival holiday off anymore. And every year three days before and eight days after the Spring Festival, the kitchen opens for free," said Xiong, feeling the users of the communal kitchen have become members of her family.
