Zou Di (c) while placing red "Chunlian" signs on the door of his apartment with his little daughter Victoria (d) de 3 years and her husband Francisco (i) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on February 13, 2018. [Photo by Martín Zabala]

The family is preparing to celebrate the arrival of the Chinese New Year of the lunar calendar or Spring Festival, a celebration that is increasingly extended and that it also includes mixed families, made up of one part of Argentina and another part of China. The celebration is the epitome of the union of families and here is no exception, as evidenced by the marriage composed by Francisco Risso Patrón (35), his wife, Zou Di (33), born in Baicheng, Jilin province, and the little daughter of both, Victoria, who turns four in July. The couple met in 2009 at the Normal University of the Northwest, in the Chinese city of Changchun, in the province of Jilin. Francisco traveled to China to study the language, while Zou was pursuing a PhD in linguistics. The couple married in August 2011 in Shanghai and, two months later, settled in Argentina, where the tradition of celebrating the Chinese New Year, which falls on February 16, remains unchanged. "We celebrate the Chinese New Year at home, we invite friends," said Zou. "Even though my parents are not there, she (Victoria) knows that it is an important holiday for Chinese culture and she also learns words, celebration, how New Year is said, what decorations are called, it is a way for me to maintain the culture, where I am from, "he remarked.