Once just a visitor, she now moves through Qilou Historical and Cultural Quarter like a local—gathering Hainan sausages, niangao, dried seafood, cat ear snacks, and coconut candy. She knows what “Nian Nian You Yu” means. She knows the chili here actually brings the heat. And as she tosses brown sugar cake into her basket, she says, “My family will love these.” Ten years in, she now naturally says “we Hainanese.”

This year, from a street draped in red lanterns, she sends out blessings in Russian and Chinese, no translation needed.