Things Malaysians do during Chinese New Year

1.  Getting stuck in traffic.

Yup, getting stuck in traffic while trying to go back to our respective home towns to visit our parents/grandparents.  The capital--Kuala Lumpur will be almost empty around the eve and the first day.

2.  Giving mandarin oranges to whoever we see.

Ah, I almost forgot about this.  During Chinese New Year, everyone who visited anyone brought oranges as a sign of good fortune.  The oranges represent gold and good luck.  Plus, they were quite a treat to eat during the hot weather.  Oh yea, the ones in the clear plastic wrap were the more expensive ones.  So if you wanna show off your status, better get that one lol!

3.  Eating lots and lots of cookies

Cookies!!  There are too many types of cookies that Malaysians eat during Chinese New Year.  We also have cookies from the various ethnicities in Malaysia like Kuih Bahulu, Muruku and Kuih Bangkit.

4.  Having lion dances in front of our houses.

Diversity!  Just look at that picture.  No matter what race you are, as long as you can do the lion dance in style, you'll receive a big angpao.

5.  Playing firecrackers

The above image is called "pop pop", it is the level 1 firecrackers for beginners.  Once you're an expert, you graduate to more advance ones like "bumble bee" and "dragon egg".

6.  The number "8" everywhere

Number "8" in the mandarin language is "ba" which somehow rhymes with "fa" which also means to gain good fortune.  Everywhere in the malls to grocery store, prices will be like 0.88, 8.88 or 88% discount off!

7.  Visiting relatives and friends

Chinese new year is a time to spend with friends and family.  So, what better way than to go visit all your long lost cousins, uncles and aunts.  Occasionally, you'll meet someone like the picture above who claims that you have "grown so big".  Well duh! It's been years!

8.  Getting Angpao



Red packets or as we call them in Malaysia--Angpao are filled with money where only the married are allow to give the non-married.  Hence, it's good news for children and teens because we get all the money.  Aww yeah,  I remembered getting of an average of about RM350 (about $100 USD) per year for Angpao.  Most of it came from my parents of course!

9.  Listening to Chinese New Year songs




Every year, the local TV and radio station will make our own version of Chinese New Year songs. Sure, some of them might be bad but hey it still brings the vibe of the festivity season.  That's what counts right?

10.  And last but not least--eating some damn good food and Yee Sang/ Lou Sang.

Yee Sang/Lou Sang is a dish filled with sliced fresh vegetables, pickled fruits/vegetables, peanuts, fried fritters and raw fish.  The fish can be your personal choice but most people go for Salmon. Occasionally, people also add in abalone.

Things that matters

I received an email asking me to think of something that matters to me a lot.  I started thinking about it and wonder what was really important to me.  At first i could not choose anything as I was always a happy-go-lucky kind of person who never really stop and appreciate a "thing".  Well I were to really answer this question, it would be my hand.  Yes my hands matter to me the most, more than my eyes, ears, mouth.  When I started to think about everything that I enjoy doing in life, I realise that it is because I have a pair of hands that I am able to do what I am doing.  I thank God so much that he gave me a pair of perfect hands with ten awesome fingers, I simply could never imagine how my life would be if I woke up one day without my hands.  I love to play music, of course not on a CD-player or anything but with my hands.  It's the one thing that I would never give up on.  I love touching the keys of the piano, hitting in hardly, softly producing the dynamics of the song.  I am in total peace when I'm playing the piano, every key that i struck is some kind of reminder that I am so lucky to have my hands.  My hands, such a wonderful thing.  Call me weird but I love it when people praise me of what i can do with my hands. Haha.

Potato Land

     Where do I come from?  Have you ever heard of a place called Malaysia? Yes, I assume you never heard about it.  Yes it's not some famous country like China or Russia or something.  I guess you would know over neighbor? Singapore? I hail from the country above North of Singapore.  If you could turn your mini globe on your desk to China and follow down south, you will find that it ends with a small potato like tail. Our country is sometimes known to be Potato Land due to its shape on the world atlas.  Malaysia, a country free from natural disaster, a place outside of the pacific volcano region, a place where generations of immigrants came to be to form this country of multiracial people.  One thing special about Malaysia is the culture,  through years and years of assimilation, the culture of each race soon got jumbled up and formed the fusion of all the different cultures that we have in Malaysia.  Even though we are of different heritage, we Malaysians share the one true Malaysian Culture.  What do Malaysians like to do?  Well there many things actually, but one thing's for sure is that Malaysians do know to enjoy the different varieties of food here.  

     Here's my very own story, every weekend on Sundays my family would all go out to have breakfast at our local favorite Indian hawker stall.  One of the most famous breakfast delicacies in Malaysia is of course non other than the Roti Canai, the Roti Canai is a piece of plain flour grilled on a pan with some palm oil, that's it.  Well, many foreigners are skeptic about the taste of the Roti Canai,  most of them could not comprehend how a dish it all its simplicity could turn out to be such a famous and delicacy in a country.  Truth is, its not that simple and the story does not end here.  What I haven't told you all is that the this so called "bread" is to be dipped with either a choice of curry or dalca which is a kind a vegetable and nuts stew.  The hot and mouth watering scent and taste of the curry is what make this dish complete, Tearing the bread into smaller pieces with your bare hands and dipping it in the all so wonderful curry and eat the whole thing of your fingers just like that, yes that's how we Malaysians roll and it has not change much since decades.  

     Somehow, this dish reminds me of who we are, who am I today.  If you ask me, I must say that the somehow the food in Malaysia unites the people here more than any politician's campaign is capable of.  In the hawker stall, where friends and family gather in the morning weekend, exchanging the latest football updates, complaining about the government together and gossiping about people around them.  Yes, I simply cannot deny that the people in the community are united by Roti Canai in Malaysia.  The Roti Canai also reminds me of keeping a humble attitude and to know where is my roots and my origins, I am just simply proud to be a Malaysian first 

Happy Embarassment

         The thing that I would like to add about my life is my love for music.  Since a mere child, I have always been awed and amazed by the beautiful and enriching sounds that a piano can produce.  Consequently, I requested my mother to allow me to take piano lesson to learn how to play the piano.  I must say that I have never regretted this wonderful decision in my life.  Everything was as usual until the day when I attended one of my friends birthday party.  I was already a grade 5 in the classical piano at that moment which was counted as an intermediate level piano player.  Reality calls upon me when one my friend requested me to play the tune of the “happy birthday” song so that everyone could sing along together.  From here, it struck me, "I can't play it, I do not have the music notes to it!" that was what I thought to myself.  How embarrassed I was being unable to play a tune so simple in front of everybody eagerly waiting for my mini performance.  It is then when I realize that learning something in theory or learning something straight out from a book is never the end of the story.  The true journey begins once you step into the real world.  The real beauty of knowledge is when you apply it in a real life situation.  Knowing how to read music notes was essentially useless at that moment and I was so caught up with the theories that I did not see the importance of self-improvisation. 

            From that day on, I trained myself to play songs just by listening to them.  It took me quite a while but I slowly gained the confidence and skill to play the piano by ear.  Today, I have just taken by last graded exam and at the same time I am able to play all of my favorite music without referring to the music notes.  Playing by ear has truly taken my hobby of playing piano to a whole new level of enjoyment.  I also understand that this situation applies to the various knowledge that we learn in school.  It is ultimately not how much you know but how much can you put your knowledge to good use.  Ever since then, I always pushed myself to apply what I have learned in real life.  The result of this manifestation is undeniable as I had seen amazing results when I actually applied my knowledge in life-like situations.  For example, during my school science fair where I took all my scientific knowledge and applied it into the designs of my inventions.  Both my passion for music and inventing had taken me to greater heights in understanding and appreciating knowledge.  I am currently sharing this knowledge of mine to the people around me and I certainly hope that I could expand my audiences and share my talents of playing by ear and my innovative ideas to others.  That said, my most satisfying goal would be to inspire and motivate others through the fascinating experience and stories of my life.

Average, just average.

We all live in a world that tell us what we have to be and whom we are to be.  Since we were mere infants, we were taught to be an achiever, to be someone successful, to be someone who is rich and famous.  There are thousands of famous people in this world, people who are achievers and had achieved greatness.  Bill Gates, Steve Jobs are one of the most profound people in the world of computing and software.  And there are famous athletes, ranging from everywhere in the world, east to west, north to south, Asia to Europe.  Hollywood are filler with celebrities whom are rich and famous and had literarily achieved everything that is deemed successful in life.  We have people like Tom Cruise, Lady Gaga, Angelina Jolie who had achieved so much in their life, what possibly could they want anymore?  They practically have all the greatness in them already. 

In Malaysia, people are constantly finding that moment to leap out and get rich and famous, people trying to get rich by participating in get-rich-schemes, people buying shares to try their luck, students studying night and day in hope to be successful one day.  Parents in nowadays are so worried how their child would be left out and tried to inject the "greatness" in them at very young ages.  Its common to see parents sending their child to tons and tons of classes like tuition classes, piano lesson, ballet, art classes, mind development seminars and the list goes on and on.  Sometimes when everyone is telling us to go for the greater heights, the greener pastures, we often forget the fundamentals of life.  People are not born great or are they born instantly rich of famous. 

Well, some people are born rich do but that's not my point here.  My point is that not everyone can be blessed with wealth and fame, in fact most of the people on earth today are people like you and me, born in an average loving family.  Average, yes average people, nothing "great"about them.  Nothing great, in fact I think that greatness is overrated in today's society.  Scholarships, job opportunities, universities' admission all require us to have a kind of 'greatness' in ourselves.  So what if I do not have anything great about myself? So what if I am just a average person living life.  Average is the person that goes to school everyday with his school bag and longing for recess the moment he stepped into the school compound.  Average is the teacher who had taught 25 years and chose not to be promoted to a school official but decided to dedicate her life to educate her beloved students in mathematics.  Average is the Dad who came home late after a hard day's work and tiredly sank into the sofa.  Average is the friend who listen to every little problem you have and promised to kick that jerk's butt if anyone offended you.  Average is the Mom, who waited one hour outside of the school before the school bell rang just the fetch her little girl home everyday.  You see being average is not as easy as you think, being average is a whole lot more than that.  

Today, I want to express that being average does not make you a loser.  Being average does not mean that we are anything less the "greater" people.  Being average is just a way to say there's so much more for me to achieve.  Opportunity are not given to us, we are not born rich, we are not born famous.  We the average, fight for our own opportunity.  Everyday passed should be celebrated and everyone should understand this that......AVERAGE may turn out to be the greatest greatness after all.

10 things about me

1. I love technology especially stuff about robots.  I'm extremely interested with robots who can achieve human-like capabilities and one of the greatest and most versatile robot is of course my favorite Honda Aino.

2. I love to play music by ear and without score sheets.  Funny how i developed this habit, I started learning classical piano when i was 10 and had learn to play music by only score sheets and nothing else.  It struck me so hard when I could not play even a birthday song at my cousin's birthday party when I was a grade 5.  From then I have learn to play by ear and learn to recognize songs play their chord patterns and progression. Now, I'm quite glad to say that I can indeed play by ear and will of course improve my skills to greater heights.

3.  I am a huge fan of both Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein.  Think that the theory of relativity is boring? Well, read some books my friend=) Its extremely fascinating I can say.  Things like String Theories, Big Bang, different dimensions, dark matter, worm hole, gravitons. Wow I can do this all day.

4.  May be weird for a guy but I appreciate and enjoy poetry a lot.  Whether its in english, malay or mandarin , I love to ponder over poetry and classic stories of all sorts.  I had even tried to write my own pieces of poems. hehe=) I may not be Shakespeare but I am certainly learning and enjoying poetry very much.

5. I hate doing housework. Who doesn't? Especially hate it when I have to do it and my siblings don't.

6. I prefer sentimental and more emotional movies than just plain action movies.

7.  I love youtube. And i watch viral videos all day long.

8.  I think I can call myself a public transport expert as I have used all the types of public transport and successfully decipher all the routes and shortcuts of the whole system.

9.  I am a smart phone expert and can talk to you about mobile phone operating system all day long. Androids, IOS, webos, and so on.

10.  I love discovery channel, Nat Geo and other documentary channels. Go man vs wild, mythbuster.