Tuesday, January 31, 2006

The demise of chinese new year

Is CNY really relevant to today's modern family unit? based on my own family's situation i'd like to argue that CNY has degenerated into nothing more than a commercial money-making opportunity.

1. internatonal standards all use the solar calendar, so what's the point of celebrating the lunar new year? ok so let's say it is chinese new year, not lunar new year.

2. ancient superstitions like making loud noises with firecrackers have been exposed as primitive mindsets. furthermore, firecrackers are not allowed in our strict nation. fireworks will have to do, and given the dismal display at the river hong bao, it's quite evident that fireworks displayed too often will make people immune to its "entertaining effects".

3. the river hong bao. every year, it gets more n more boring, displaying the same old things, 12 signs of the zodiac, with so-called fortune telling with bad english (your luck is bad and your enemies is surrounding you) and people standing under a big statue with upside down umbrellas. the large rides which entertain young people like me are gone, replaced with kiddy rides. the only source of real entertainment is the rows n rows of food stalls which are ridiculously over-priced. ($5 for a bowl of ice with colouring.)

4. family gatherings. the most painful of all. there's basically 2 kinds. the sit-down-gamble-play-mahjong-drink-beer kind, and then there's the large-scale-ktv kind. either one is just as boring and torturous. uncles and aunties u hardly know asking stupid questions like "have u grown taller? where's your gf/bf?" year after year after year, the same old lame questions. (here the only plus point is that i get to meet my cousins n complain about how stupid the gathering is, at least we have a common enemy that binds us. hahaha)

i'd write more, but i'm off to meet a friend for lunch.

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