This intricate composite character is a combination of 日日有财 (rìrìyǒucái), and means "see riches every day".

It's made up of two 日 (rì – day) on top, 有 (yǒu – have) in the middle, and 财 (cái – wealth) on the right, with the 月 component of 有 forming the 目 component of the traditional version of 见 (jiàn – see), 見. Cleverly, if you double up that 見 it reads 日日有财见 (rìrìyǒucáijiàn).

What's more, if you ignore the 见 radical of 财, it becomes 才 (cái – ability), making the meaning closer to 日日有才见 (rìrìyǒucáijiàn) "learn something new every day". Whichever way, we wish it for Anthilll readers in 2014!

From cultural revolution to rent collection – by Alec Ash

It's always a pleasant surprise when my landlady drops by unannounced at eight in the morning. I'm familiar with the early bird rap tap on my door by now, and the first thing I do before opening the door is put on the kettle. Sometimes she's there to collect the rent. Sometimes it's to check the heating came on, or to write down the electricity meter digits, or to switch off the water supply to the roof so it doesn't freeze in the pipes during winter, twiddling with hidden knobs under the kitchen sink.

This time, rap tap tap, it was just to have a chat.

Ho ho ho (哈哈哈), a very merry Christmas and happy holidays to ants all over the world. The Anthill is taking a week's break, and will be back in the new year with more narrative sketches and stories from China. Until then, here's a cracker-full of chengyu, four-character Mandarin idioms – some meant for spring festival – that could be repurposed as more Western festive greetings ...

A Christmas gone wrong in Shanghai – by Tom Pellman

I realised I wasn’t ready to handle Christmas alone around 5pm Christmas Eve. It was 2007, and I was sitting in the Shanghai office of the media company I worked for at the time. Ricky and Pang Pang from design were two of the few people still hanging around. Most of my foreign colleagues had left days ago, including my boss. I had a mountain of work to get done, but I wasn’t working on Christmas Eve because of my deadlines. I was still at the office because I didn’t have anywhere else to be.

Captain Ahab in China – by Decater Collins

With yet another story of expats behaving badly making the rounds, I’ve been thinking of my own angry encounters on the streets of Beijing. I have plenty of incidents from my thirteen years here, including a near fist fight with a taxi driver who wanted to extort me for only going to Dongzhimen from the airport, and the near-death experience of getting sideswiped on my bike by the Australian ambassador.

One time in 2005 nearly ended in tragedy.