Walk the talk on tradition
> Customs and practices that have thrived and died a natural death among millennials from various Chinese dialect groups
CHINESE New Year is often associated with wealth, the colour red and extravagance or abundance. Chinese across all dialect groups have common ways to celebrate the lunar new year. However, each of these vernacular groups has a Chinese New Year tradition that stands out – differs from the norm. While these may have been distinct in revealing one’s ethnic background, some of these cultural traditions have begun to lose favour, especially among the younger generation. With that, theSun highlights some of the traditions practised among various dialect groups – those that have stood the test of time and others, disfavoured and long forgotten. HOKKIEN When it comes to differing Chinese New Year r traditions, the Hokkien practice e of celebrating the birth of the Jadede Emperor comes to mind. Thishis festival is deeply rooted in Chinese history and fuses in n with religion.
The tradition in na a nutshell, goes way y back to a time during thehe Ming Dynasty when en the Hokkien people were said to be persecutedted by a band of robbers. ers.
According to folklore, their villages ages were destroyed andnd their brethren massacred, and the e Hokkiens who survived hid in a sugarcane field. Ass the event took placece on the birth day of f the Jade Emperor, the Hokkien people interpreted the miracle iracle of those who survived ed in the field as a sign that the Jade Emperor had protected them.
On the night of the eighth day of Chinese New Year, Hokkiens will be seen praying to the Jade Emperor and making offerings of roast pig, cakes and sugarcane at 11pm. The celebration continues with the burning of “and sugarcane – the sugarcane seen as providing the ancestors with refuge on that fateful night. The celebration is capped off with the lighting of fireworks to signify the survival of the Hokkiens. ” CANTONESE From the largest Chinese dialect group to another, similarly celebra celebrated Chinese colloqu colloquial community, we e explore the Chinese New Year tradition of the Cantonese. The Cantonese h have a variety of cus customs among them themselves, one of wh which is the fame famed eating and tos tossing of yee san sang (raw fish). Accor According to some expe experts, the tradition of e eating raw fish was firs first practised in an ancient China but th the habit was s short-lived in most parts of China, except for a few southern provinces. Nevertheless, the yee sang dish went through a renaissance when C Chinese migrants arrived in M Malaysia and Singapore. Over tim time, the ingredients in yee sang changed and the portion increased. The main ingredients for modern-day yee sang include a variety of vegetables, plum/sweet and sour sauce, crackers and slivers of raw fish. Each ingredient may have a symbolic representation or meaning behind it.
Once the dish is prepared and “put together”, diners will toss (mix) the ingredients while shouting auspicious phrases for luck and good fortune.
HAKKA Moving along, we now consider the nomadic dialect group of the Hakka people.
Most Hakka people in Malaysia are known to uphold the common Chinese New Year traditions and taboos.
However, the Hakka group in Taiwan celebrate an additional festival in the middle of the Chinese New Year celebration known as “Tian Chuan Re”, otherwise known as “Sky Mending Day”. This occasion is celebrated on the 20th day of the first lunar month. It commemorates the day “a goddess mends the sky”.
Hence, the Hakka will cease all activities and are seen celebrating the auspicious occasion making offerings of steam rice cake, fried sticky-rice balls with needles in it (as they represent the tools the goddess stitched the sky back together with).
In Taiwan, the celebration is significant enough for the Council of Hakka Affairs to designate the day as National Hakka Day. “Hakka are usually hard-working people, but they will stop working on Sky Mending Day and have fun,” said a member of the Taiwan Council, Huang Yu-Chen.
TEOCHEW The Teochew people celebrate Chinese New Year like most other Chinese. However, they always include fish and olives as part of their Chinese New Year celebration menu. The affinity for fish is not found just among the Teochew people but it is considered among many Chinese as a must-have, especially the Teochew. According to some Teochew elders, a meal without seafood is not considered a “proper” meal.
Ironically, the reason fish has become part of one’s Chinese New Year menu is because the Chinese word for fish bears resemblance (in pronunciation) to the Chinese word for “surplus”.
The olives however, were used as prayer offerings, along with Mandarin oranges during Chinese New Year since the Qing Dynasty. Unsurprising, the ancestral home of the Teochew people, Chaozhou, is one of the few places in China that produces olives. CONTINUED ON