CHINESE New Year is often associated with noise, the good kind, of course. The loud bursts of fire crackers (despite the fact that the practice is banned), the clash of cymbals and sonorous beat of the drums accompanying the lion dances, and everyone wishing each other “Gong Xi Fa Cai” all add up to the cacophony of sounds that is the celebration of the festive occasion.
Home boy: Michael Wong has never celebrated Chinese New Year anywhere except Ipoh . Ipoh-born singer, composer and actor Michael Wong, who is based in Taiwan, sums up this yeet lau mood pretty well.
“It’s a fantastic time that I love because everything is so ‘happy’. Happy songs, happy colours, happy people everywhere.”
Wong, who is best known for his hit single, Tong Hua (Fairy Tale), has never celebrated Chinese New Year anywhere except Ipoh where he gets to be with his nephews and nieces and they help him to forget about work!
For Sino-Kadazan Roger Wang, a solo acoustic guitarist based in Kota Kinabalu, the important thing is to spend this auspicious occasion with loved ones.
Chinese New Year has always been about family and relatives for Wang. Hence, he wants his his three-year-old daughter to meet everyone in the extended family.
Of course, the new year is also synonymous with food and a time to tuck in his mother’s Hakka cuisine, especially her sumptious kau yook, which is steamed pork belly with yam.
As Wang was born in the year of the Tiger, he is confident that all his efforts will mirror the courage, power and authority of this animal. For celebrity cook Agnes Chang, “going home” means travelling from her base in Kuala Lumpur to Singapore to be with her 85-year-old mother, her three grown children and six grandchildren for 10 days.
To let her put up her feet and not slave over the stove, her children will be treating her to a grand reunion dinner in a restaurant. But there is no keeping this chef from her wok and the doting mum will endeavour to cook all her children’s favourite dishes during her stay in Singapore. Among her signature dishes are stuffed oysters and Chinese cabbage soup with abalone and seafood.
At home: Agnes Chang (top) will be with her 85-year-old mother, her three grown children and six grandchildren in Singapore. She says during Chinese New Year, she always remembers her late mother-in-law, a Teochew.
“She never failed to say ‘sin chia ju yee’ (which means peace and success throughout the year) when I served her tea on the first day of Chinese New Year,” Chang recalls. “In reply, I would say ‘tang tang ju yee’ which reciprocates the greeting.”
However, not everyone will be joining their families for the reunion dinner.
Hannah Tan, singer-songwriter and TV personality, will be one of those who will be missing out on her ang pau collection. This year, Tan will be in Tokyo for work. As the Japanese Government does not recognise Chinese New Year as a public holiday, it will be a working day for her. But being the tech savvy chick that she is, Tan will be extending her Chinese New Year wishes to her family in Kuching via Skype.
Zhang Zhi Chen (Z-Chen), the Malaysian singer who is based in Taiwan, is not as upbeat as Tan when it comes to celebrating Chinese New Year away from home.
Recalling the time when he had to do a few shows in Taipei during Chinese New Year five years ago, he says: “It was weird because it was filled with emptiness and loneliness.”
For Zhang, who is Fish Leong’s cousin, there will be no joy without his mother’s special yong tau fu and mahjong with his family.
Victor Tseng, the representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia, says he will not be going back to Taiwan and his two daughters will not be joining him for the reunion dinner here.
Staying put: Victor Tseng, the representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia , will remain in KL this Chinese New Year. But he will nevertheless be kept busy making his round of visits to official functions and open houses in Malaysia.
Due to the nature of his job as a diplomat, spending Chinese New Year away from home is common. Considering that Taiwan is just a short four-and-a-half-hour flight away from here, Tseng says that his trips home are frequent enough throughout the rest of the year.
Naturally, Tseng has plenty of interesting tales to tell of his Chinese New Year experiences in foreign lands. In New York, for example, he was asked to make a lion head “come alive”. This is done by dotting the lion’s head with red vermillion and saying “Tien Lei Ti Tung”, a prayer which seeks the favour of the God of Thunder to stabilise the earth. It was an elaborate ceremony which saw two lion dance schools pitting their skills against each other and the paper shreds from the exploding firecrackers formed an inch-thick carpet on the streets. Later, Tseng found out that the organiser was the head of a Chinese triad!
Danny New, the violinist for the band It’s An Honest Mistake, which won the Voize Independent Music Award 2010 for the Best College Act, remembers a childhood which had been largely spent overseas. While in the United States and Thailand, New, whose father is a banker, made many Asian friends and had a gala time watching lion dances in city parades, having lou sang house parties, lighting firecrackers and doing the usual round of visiting.
Double celebration: The band members of An Honest Mistake (from left: Danny New, Darren Teh, and Kevin and Leonard Chua ) are celebrating both CNY and Valentine’s Day. As Chinese New Year also falls on Valentine’s day this year, some will be opting for a double celebration. Leonard Chuah, the lead guitarist of the band, says he plans to send his girlfriend Mandarin oranges shaped in a bouquet complete with an ang pau (from his parents, of course) in Seremban.
Malaccan-born Lim She Ting, the NTV 7 Mandarin news reader, will be expecting her fiancé to bring her a take-away of fried rice with abalone on New Year’s Eve as she will be working over Chinese New Year. This year will be extra poignant for her as it will be the last time she is receiving ang pau. To find out who the lucky beau is, catch her on The Breakfast Show tomorrow at 8.30am on 8TV.
In line with the festive mood and the Chinese tradition of uttering “auspicious words”, Danielle Dai, the host of Women’s Zone on NTV 7, is counting on her son’s ability to master a few choice phrases.
She hopes to get her 15-month-old son to wish the family “Gong Xi, Gong Xi” this year. He will be dressed in his new gold and red Chinese suit, she says, adding that she has been coaching him in preparation for visits to her friends’ homes in Kuala Lumpur.
For Kuala Pilah-born Fish Leong, who is the Queen of Love Songs to fans in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Singapore, this will be her first Chinese New Year as a married woman.
Leong, who tied the knot with Tony Zhao on Feb 1 in the Philippines, has this message for her fans. “Let’s hope that the stars of luck will smile favourably upon all of you for continuous good fortune and luck. Everyone should remember to smile and to be brave in facing all challenges for the coming year.”
Published in The Star 14th February 2010
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