Qixi Festival

According to the Chinese Lunar calendar, the 7th day of the 7th month is known as 'Qixi' or The Night of Sevens. It is also referred as Valentine's Day. This festival is based on a traditional myth. I believe this festival is not well known among the non- Chinese and I am going to briefly explain the myth.

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Since there are a few variations on its mythology, I am going to explain the most popular one.
It is actually a love story between a young cowherd, Niulang and a beautiful girl, Zhinu (the seventh daughter of the Goddess). One day in the late summer, Zhinu escaped from the heaven and came to the earth. Here they fell in love and were married. They lived together happily without realizing an awaiting fate.

This was eventually found out by the Goddess of Heaven (Zhinu's mother). She was very angry and ordered Zhinu to return to the heaven. Zhinu was then forced to continue her job in the heaven as a weaver.

On the earth, Niulang was very upset as his wife disappeared. Suddenly, his ox started to talk and tell him the way he could go up to the heaven and meet Zhinu. The ox asked him to kill and put on its hide. Niulang followed the instructions, with tears, he carried his two children off to the heaven. The Goddess discovered Niulang and was very furious. She took out her hairipin and scratched a wide river in the sky to separate Niulang and Zhinu forever. This river is believed as the formation of the Milky Way between Altair and Vega.

Once in a year, the magpies pity the two lovers and will fly up to the heaven and form a bridge 'Que Qiao' or known as 'the bridge of magpies'. This bridge allows Niulang and Zhinu to reunion for one night and this is the seventh night of the seventh month.

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This love story gives me a different idea on the Valentine's Day. Most people celebrate the Western Valentine's Day of 14th Feb. without realizing this beautiful Qixi festival. I hope this brief explanation on the Qixi mythology helps in the understanding of this Chinese Festival. Since Chinese mythology involves many Gods and Goddesses, it is a good idea to read up more for further understanding. The story between Niulang and Zhinu is truly a heart wrenching love story.

Here are some pictures of Niulang Zhinu:

Don't take life for granted

This quote is really something to think about.
People today always take life for granted. Besides not appreciating life, we always complain about the imperfections in our everyday lives. Minor argument with boyfriend, lost of handphone, late for classes etc are something so trivial and yet they are being treated seriously, in a bad way. We always complain and think how bad our lives are; we also used to comparing our lives to people in better condition. Having a property of three billion is not enough because your friend had inherited three hundred billion from his father? Having more than two meals a day with vegetables only is terrible because others have five meals of meat daily?

Why not we look at another side and compare our moderate lives with those beggars on the street, homeless men under the bridge and abandoned old parents in the old folks' home? Remember, no matter how many trillion people are having better lives than you do, there are many more who are suffering from drought, hunger, diseasesa, poverty, illiteracy, natural disasters and others. How lucky you are comparing with these unfortunates?! After all, we do not know how much successful and rich people had gone throught before achieving what they are having now. Wealth does not grow on trees, people work for it. If we are so envious of these successful people, why not we stop blaming every little problem in life and strive toward our goal instead?

'It's really nice to wake up in the morning realizing that God has given you another day to live'. Even the fact that you are still surviving is something to be thankful of. Don't take life for granted, be grateful. Today is the tomorrow someone on the sick bay wishes for......... but never arrives.

Life Brief Candle poem

Today I'm going to blog on a famous poem by William Shakespeare. It's Life Brief Candle from the play called 'Macbeth'. The poem is extracted from the Act 5 Scene 5.

A short summary of Scene 5:
Macbeth (a Scottish Lou rd and General under the King of Scotland, Duncan) received the news of the death of Lady Macbeth. Out of despair, sad and loneliness, he reflects on the transience of life.

The poem sounds pessimistic, however, it allows us to look at Life in another perspective and understand the reality of Life.

The bright and vigorous flame of a candle, once distinguished it's hard to be lighted on again; once the candle is melted, here ends the life of a candle. No matter how bright it used to be, it's seen no more. 

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadows, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more; it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

Here's the paraphrasing of this poem (each segment of the poem indicating one line):

Lines 1-3: Each tomorrow, indicating each day in the future is going to move very slowly.

Lines 4-5: Th past shows these men the way to death.

Lines 6-8: Life is just like a shadow following men through lives. 

Lines 9-15 Life is somehow dramatic, yet meaningless. 

Typical CNY dishes

CNY is always one of my most favorite festival. It's already the 4th day of Chinese New Year. Having one week of holidays for CNY is definitely not enough! Too many relatives to meet up with, too many outings with friends and most importantly, too much food to eat! I'm going blog about some common CNY dishes. For Chinese, I believe these dishes are not something new because we have them every year! For non-Chinese, it's a good exposure on our festival dishes and you can even try on them in any Chinese restaurant, especially during CNY, if interested :)

The most famous CNY symbolic dish is Yuseheng or also known as Prosperity Toss. It is actually a Teochew-style raw fish salad. It is a mixture of shredded vegetables with different sauces. Yusheng in Chinese is raw fish. 'Fish' in Chinese is conflated with its homophone 'abundance'. Therefore, Yusheng is a symbolic dish for abundance and prosperity.

The first dish served for CNY meal is usually Yusheng and this is followed by shark fin soup. This is a popular soup among Chinese cuisine and is served at special occasions, not only for CNY. The shark fins provides the uniqueness of texture in the soup. This soup was originated from the Ming Dynasty. Since the welfare of sharks is being taken care of, other ingredients are used to replace shark fin.

Jiaozi or Chinese dumpling is common among CNY dishes as well. Since the shape of the dumpling resembles the shape of gold, it symbolizes wealth and prosperity.

Nian Gao or Sticky Cake is popular, too.  According to tradition and belief, this steamed fruitcake is fed to the God of Stove so that he will report favorably on a family's conduct throughout the year when he returns to the heaven before new year.

Yusheng (Prosperity Toss)

Shark fin soup


Jiaozi (Dumpling)


Nian Gao (Sticky Cake)

You might be thinking how these traditional food inspire me. Food is one of the element in a culture. Besides a necessity, food is a study. It is definitely a knowledge that requires much application and creativity. Imagine having little to no advancement of technology, with bare hand, our ancestors created so much nice dishes that are passed from one generation to another. Don't we need to show our appreciation to our ancestors? And I guess the best way is to understand the origin of these traditional food, learn the recipes and pass them down to our next generation. In this way, we won't afraid the extinction of this beautiful Chinese culture. 

Beauty of Local Language

                         

IT'S DEFINITELY A MUST WATCH VIDEO!!

Language has no right or wrong. Language itself is an art. It should be expressed the way its users prefer. Grammar rules, right word choice etc are restricting the freedom and creativity of its users. As you can see from this video, so much creativity has been put into this local language of Malaysia. At the same time, this local language shows the identity of Malaysian. The slangs, mixture of different languages and vocalized pauses give rise to the diversity in this unique language in our country.

Culture is the root of a nation; so is language. Instead of thinking these languages as lack of proficiency, why don't we take it as a whole new language of US? So, be proud with MALAYSIAN LANGUAGE. No matter how broken Malaysian English is, it's OURS; it's MALAYSIANS' :D