Chinese NY
Past midnite.. I just wanna say GONG XI FA CAI everyone! To friends all over the world who's celebrating (those of you with the same roots!) And the regular question is: did you get much? haha.
Bare with me.
Today is the celebration of Chinese New Year.. and it's the year of RAT.. my brother is a rat.. hehe. After 4 yrs not celebrating it here (Perth's celebration is close to not celebrating at all haha), I feel that this year the town is painted with MORE RED than ever and with more celebration, EVERYWHERE. Chinese NY this year is very inclusive. All programs on TV are red.. with Chinese decorations and the presenters wearing cheongsams or other Chinese costumes eventhough they're not chinese. All the malls and sub-headlines in TV news programs and guests appearances on TV... are Chinese-related.
I think it's amazing! The inclusiveness we have now :) During President Soeharto, Indonesians with Chinese race like me didn't have much room to express our identity.. well it was restricted. Generations before me (my parents, grandparents etc) couldn't keep their Chinese names (what they were born with) and had to change them to Indonesian names.. so finally they made up names themselves. There was a racial segregation between Indonesian Chinese and indigeneous Indonesians.
But now Chinese New Year is an official public holiday :) I myself didn't celebrate it BIG.. only lunch with family and cousins.. was planning to go to mom's hometown but the rain and flood kept us home. Going to do my hair soon.. which is not really because it's a Chinese tradition to cut your hair on Chinese NY (to start it all with smth new - new hair, new clothes, ahh the consumerism).. but mainly just so over the current hairstyle.
tin.
Bare with me.
Today is the celebration of Chinese New Year.. and it's the year of RAT.. my brother is a rat.. hehe. After 4 yrs not celebrating it here (Perth's celebration is close to not celebrating at all haha), I feel that this year the town is painted with MORE RED than ever and with more celebration, EVERYWHERE. Chinese NY this year is very inclusive. All programs on TV are red.. with Chinese decorations and the presenters wearing cheongsams or other Chinese costumes eventhough they're not chinese. All the malls and sub-headlines in TV news programs and guests appearances on TV... are Chinese-related.
I think it's amazing! The inclusiveness we have now :) During President Soeharto, Indonesians with Chinese race like me didn't have much room to express our identity.. well it was restricted. Generations before me (my parents, grandparents etc) couldn't keep their Chinese names (what they were born with) and had to change them to Indonesian names.. so finally they made up names themselves. There was a racial segregation between Indonesian Chinese and indigeneous Indonesians.
But now Chinese New Year is an official public holiday :) I myself didn't celebrate it BIG.. only lunch with family and cousins.. was planning to go to mom's hometown but the rain and flood kept us home. Going to do my hair soon.. which is not really because it's a Chinese tradition to cut your hair on Chinese NY (to start it all with smth new - new hair, new clothes, ahh the consumerism).. but mainly just so over the current hairstyle.
tin.
posted by odorus at 1:40 AM
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