Chinese New Year Is The Best Invention Ever

Ah yes, CNY celebrations by Singaporeans for Singaporeans. Just when I thought I would miss out on all the fanfare being here in the western world ... lo and behold, we celebrate in defiance.

And back home in Singapore, I know my parents are collecting Ang Baos on my behalf. Geez, I don't even have to greet anyone, and the money still keeps rolling in. The Chinese make it too easy on me. I'm so glad for myths, legends, traditions, and the people who perpetuate them. Put a bit of Bak Kwa here and there, buy Chinese goodies, and suddenly you're in the mood. Never did you have to do so little to generate so much revenue.

You know, I was just thinking about all these practices like giving out Ang Baos. I mean, what a great concept! Who came up with it, for crying out loud? Knight him, I say. Give him an honorary doctorate, Google stock options, and huge tracts of land. Award him the Nobel Peace Prize post-humously. Cuz the man deserves it. He's right up there with the best of the scientist inventors. Here is a true-blue cultural inventor. What would we do without these pioneers? And some natural science purists think social science is a joke? I'm all for social science, and the 'fuzziness' that comes with it. There's probably nothing more heart-warming & "core-of-the-human essence" to me than our various cultures, societies, and the inexplicabaloso-ridiculouso celebratory attitude we hype them up with. Why do we do it? We just do! Awesome. And if they are dishing out free cash as part of the highlights of the season, why question its validity? This year, free money for me, no visitation needed. Hmm ... Talk about free-riding, I'm developing the wrong values here.

Whatever.

Who was the Chinese fella who thought it all up? What was he thinking? No, wait! ... what were the people who LISTENED to him thinking? Like, did he spread a rumor or give a public speech on the great and urgent need for married people to put money in little red packets and give them to singles? Those married people must have been stroking their beards, going "Hey, ya know what? He's totally right! Why didn't we realize this earlier? We should give our cash away. It IS for luck."

This is why China will be a world power soon.


On the Eve, a bunch of us Singaporeans went to a chinese restaurant called Ming's Chinese Cuisine not too far from Stanford. Had Peking Duck and the usual chinese dishes. Okay, so here in the U.S., after the end of every meal at almost any Chinese restaurant, they give each person a Fortune Cookie. You crack it open and voila ... there's your life prediction for you. The irony is that it's a very Chinese-in-America thing to do. Certainly, it's not a Singaporean thing. I wonder if it is even done in China at all. Haha ... But hey, it's fun. I SO choose to believe the predictions. And I've had really interesting fortunes too. Check out this one I got at the dinner:



Uncannily, it's a spot-on prediction! Weird. Cuz I will in fact be performing on the guitar in front of a crowd next week at yet another Chinese New Year dinner celebration! (Goodness, we just keep eating, don't we?)

By the way, those numbers are supposed to be my "lucky numbers". Great for Toto.

Here's one I got the day before the Eve, when I went to Jing Jing Restaurant alone to eat Guo Tie. Sounds so mysterious. Oooh, I'm excited. I'm just gonna believe it. That's what.



Anyway, at the end of the dinner I decided to pose with the very moody lion outside, using my ugliest face possible (no wait, actually, I do have uglier facial tricks, which I shall unleash upon mankind at a later date ... like maybe the Armageddon). Lisa took the shot, and quite frankly ... I've never heard her laugh so hard before! haha. Is the famous statute replica supposed to represent the evil mythical monster 'Nian' that the villagers fought and killed, and thus started celebrating CNY? I'll just take it that it is, and that's why he looks so depressed. You think you got problems? 'Nian' got owned by a bunch of peasants with pitchforks. And every year, the Chinese just keep telling it to his face that they totally trashed him like a smelly garbage bag a long time ago in Beijing, or wherever the heck he was. And if it weren't enough, they proceed to jump under his skin these days, and force him to dance erratically to the sound of loud gongs, make him shake and stick his butt out violently and randomly like a Paris Hilton, jerk his other bodily parts around like he's got the Parkinson's, and then for no apparent reason at all, compel him to make tedious climbs to considerable heights, only to jump towards leafy green vegetables. Multiple times too! It's gotta hurt the ego, you must admit. Poor 'Nian'. *pat pat*



The next day, we had a little Tang Yuan gathering. It was pretty decent, I think. :-) And I just realized there that one of my friends, whom I didn't think would be musical, actually has an innate muscial talent. :-) Nice.

Musical ability. That's something I appreciate in people very much. I would blog about music in a very romantic way now, except that it's way early in the morning already ... and there's probably a better time for that. Haha. Right.