Chinese New Year- What Malaysians did and what they do. (Read at your own risk)

It’s Chinese New Year again. You can see red lanterns everywhere in the shopping malls, God of Wealth (not the real one though) making public appearances- giving ang pau to kids (and sometimes adults), people (not just Chinese) eating mandarin oranges, lion dances and dragon dances being performed and the list goes on and on.

But these are the typical things that we usually do whenever it’s CNY; there are things that we don’t do anymore though they were practiced. I can still remember how my grandparents celebrated CNY when I was young. And now that I am to compare it with the recent CNY, which was mainly dominated by my parents’ generation, I can tell that there are things that the older generations did and are not inherited by our parents. And trust me, our generation will be even worse, judging from the fact that most Chinese in my college didn’t know that Chap Goh Meh is not the Chinese Valentine’s Day (7th of 7th Lunar Month is), it simply shows how ignorance young people these days are (which in a way, can be a good thing. =p)

Let us just make a comparison between Malaysians (the Chinese community, in particular) in the past and present.


Past: They’ll NEVER ever sweep the floor on the first day of CNY.
Present: They DO sweep the floor on the first day of CNY. Hygiene comes first, beliefs next.

Past: CNY Reunion Dinner is the dinner where EVERYONE sits at a round table and has their meals together.
Present: CNY Reunion Dinner seems to be just another normal dinner where you eat at your own pace and leave the table after eating. You can eat first if you are hungry, or later if you don’t like the crowd.

Past: People (Adults and children) stay back after CNY Reunion Dinner and play mahjong, or at least chitchat if they don’t gamble.
Present: Kids will be busy surfing Internets or glue their eyes to the TV screens after meals. Parents will just switch on their laptops and continue with their business plans or proposals.

Past: Ang Pau was given to show that someone has grown. Money wasn’t that important, the red packet was.
Present: The amount in the red packet seems to matter the most. It doesn’t matter if you put the money in an envelope instead of a red packet, as long as the money goes into one’s pocket.

Past: Lots of paper money will be burnt. Paper houses (the traditional ones) will also be burnt to our ancestors to show our respect.
Present: Version 1: Save the environment. No open burning is allowed, therefore no burning of paper money.
Version 2: They still burn, but no more paper houses, they burn paper hand phones, paper MP3s, paper Toyota VIOS…

And I’m sure you can think of more differences between the past and present. I’m not saying that Chinese in Malaysia do not appreciate the culture. But get real, the world is constantly changing and we Malaysians do change as well. What I have mentioned may not be representative enough to show the whole Chinese community in Malaysia (as I’m sure people in Penang and Ipoh still practice lots of the traditional practices), but even if it is only parts of Malaysian Chinese, it’s still something that we experienced, isn’t it? Do not take it seriously if you do not agree with what I mentioned, but sometimes, such changes are necessary to make things better~

--Lim Boon Seong--