Category: Culture

The Hokkiens Are Having A Blast

It is called the Hokkien New Year in Melaka where the Hokkiens arrived some 500 or 600 years ago. The Pai Ti Kong tradition lives on. It will be a blast midnight tonight. Keep your pets indoor.

Tonight, the Hokkiens will set off enough firecrackers and fireworks to make the world think North Korea launched some nuclear weapons. It’s the ‘coming out from hiding in sugar cane plantation” syndrome.
Don’t let your cats and dogs out tonight as they may be bewildered and wander off until lost.

A girl waiting for the apex of the Pai Ti Kong Festival. At midnight, there’ll be a bonfire of joss paper and firecrackers to celebrate the Jade Emperor God’s birthday. In the meantime, three giant joss sticks
burn in front of a table laden with food and fruits. The home offerings were flanked by two tall sugar cane stalks.

Olympus OM-D, ISO 500, f1.4, 1/60 sec.

#paitikong #hokkien #fujian #culture #melaka #tradition #history #malacca #chinesefestival #taoism

Lap Chun or Li Chun

Every year the myth is propagated on Lap Chun or Li Chun. It is today for this year 2017. So expect to see many balanced eggs on social media today.

I tried it with the monkeys in Kuala Selangor during Year of the Monkey CNY last year. Not the best place to try. One of the curious monkeys grabbed an egg and ate it raw. It is a myth because you can balance an egg on any other day.

#lapchun #lichun #monkeys #egg

Understanding The Chinese Psyche

It is a Hokkien (Fujian dialect) term you will hear a lot during Chinese New Year. It goes with the Chinese obsession with prosperity and luck in the form of riches via a windfall. Chinese folks like to gamble, be it at home card games, on mahjong tables or at casinos. So “huat” is like a clarion call and a good luck greeting.

It is not exclusive to Chinese New Year, though. I remember when the deities at the Nine Emperor Gods festival were paraded, every joss stick toting devotee was shouting “Huat Ah!” at the top of their lungs. So was the crowd when the ominous looking Hell Keeper’s deity was lifted for burning during Por Tor or the climax of the Hungry Ghost month.
Huat means ‘to prosper’ as in Fatt in Cantonese. So Huat Ah!

Sony A7R, ISO 160, f4, 1/250 sec

#culture #custom #chinese #hokkien #fujian #huat #prosper #neg #twilight #sunset

The Reunion Dinner

Its cultural significance is similar to the Thanksgiving dinner of the West. The modern families are separated by obligations of career and marriage. Hence the yearly rush back to hometowns to reunite for the dinner. In China, the exodus can result in traffic jams hundreds of miles long and at one time, it lasted for weeks.

Nu Sentral put up an interesting mock up of the traditional reunion dinner table setting when I visited. The dishes were sampuru or Japanese fake or plastic display food. Reunion feast usually includes sumptuous dishes like prawns and steamed chicken meant for the prayer altar, fish and tinned abalone, mushrooms stir fried with mixed vegetables. Missing here is the customary soup. There are no hard and fast rules and the dishes cooked or served can vary according to household and family custom.

The reunion dinner custom serves more than eating. Daughter-in-laws face pressure when they are required to demonstrate their cooking skills. The sitting down is a time to catch up on news of siblings and relatives. It is also a time when younger members are interrogated on marriage and expectancy of babies for newly married couples, Thus, it is an event not always look forward to by all.

Panasonic Lumix GM-1, ISO 1000, f4, 1/60 sec.

#reuniondinner #sample #sampuru #cny #asian #custom #food #culture #dinner #table #chinesecustom #nusentral

Happy Chinese New Year 2017

Photographed this rooster in a remote village near the Ulu Slim Hot Springs last year. I was watching it with trepidation as it was play fighting violently with another young rooster. Cock fighting is a young rooster’s obsession, it seemed.

In one of its non-fighting moments, it stood out with colours of grandeur and was so beautiful. I was glad I waited and captured it. I didn’t know at that point in time, I can use it for a special customised greeting card for the Year Of The Rooster. A special e-card I can send to friends, like those I made for Christmas and New Year.(see related links). I applied several art filters to the image to make it look like a painting or art.

Moral of the story: Click, capture and save an unusual subject even if you have no need for it at that moment. You never know when you might find a need for that special image.

May the rooster bring you prosperity, good health and luck.

Chinese New Year is on Saturday 28th of January, 2017.

Sony A7R, ISO 1000, f4, 1/4000 sec.

#greeting #2017 #rooster #greetingcard #cny #chinesenewyear