Happy Chinese New Year
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my Chinese blog readers a prosperous Chinese New Year. May this year of Ox bring you lots of fortune, wisdom and not to mention lot of luck.
This year, 2009, is the Year of the Ox.
The Pearson Education database shares an old Chinese legend:
"In ancient times, Buddha asked all the animals in the kingdom to meet him on the eve of Chinese New Year. Only Twelve came. Buddha named a year after each one." So the animal-years have continued to rotate on a 12-year basis.
One of the most famous person born during a Year of the Ox, is President Barack Obama.
Those born under the Ox’s sign are said to be stable, fearless, obstinate, hard working and well-respected. Oh, and friendly! Good qualities for a new president.
So I wish all the kind-hearted people in the world a happy Chinese New Year.
My Favourite Chinese New Year Song (I LOVE it!!!!!!!!!!!)
Im also born during Ox year. 🙂
happy chines new year….
Gong Xi Fatt Choy! May this year makes us a prosperous year ahead as the bullish all the way.
I wish to learn from you how u did ur blog one day.
Thanks. You are welcome!!!
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A roaring business for Tiger Year
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With exactly a month left to the Year of the Tiger, festive decorations are doing a roaring business in the city’s Chinatown area of Jalan Petaling.
However, it appears that the sale of the other items has yet to bite into the festive revellery.
Several wholesalers said it was still early and expected shoppers to throng the area by month’s end.
“The higher grade oranges which are sweeter will begin coming in next week,” said Wong Chee Leong, who has one of the biggest fruit stores there.
He said, apart from oranges, which is a must for the Chinese as it literally means gold, other fruits such as orange pumpkins, gourds and sugarcane would also sell well.
However, consumers could expect to pay more this year because fruit prices would increase by 25 per cent, he noted.
Wong said retailers had learnt from experience not to bring in oranges too early because they would suffer losses due to slow sales.
Student Leong Mun Yee, 19, too, had noticed prices this year were on the higher side.
“It is better to recycle the used decoration items for this year’s celebration,” said Leong who was shopping for a pair of Chinese calligraphy couplets at a decor shop.
With the Tiger taking its turn in the Chinese zodiac, most of the decorations such as banners and toys were featuring the animal.
S. Murugan, 34, a worker in a florist shop, said the bulk of supplies would arrive in the final week before the Chinese New Year, which is celebrated on Feb 14 this year.
“Chinese bamboo and cherry blossoms from China and Taiwan are among the most sought-after in this period,” he said.
Roses from India are also expected to sell very well because Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year fall on the same day.
Those who want to buy flowers for their loved ones will have to pay more. The price of roses which now goes for RM14 for two dozen, will be sold for RM2.50 to RM3 per stem
fr:thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/1/14/nation/20100114103123&sec=nation
Welcome luck with a tiger dance this CNY
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Chinese celebrating the lunar new year festival next month can choose to have a “crouching tiger” in their homes this year.
Instead of holding the customary lion dances, they can now opt to have a “tiger dance” performed by a 10-member troupe from the Cosmic Sport and Cultural Club.
The troupe, which is a subsidiary of the Penang Hong Guan Sports Gymnasium, has been practising the dance since last November in preparation for the Year of the Tiger.
Gymnasium adviser Siow Ho Phiew, who is a lion dance master and craftsman from Kuala Lumpur, made two “tiger heads” for the performance himself while his wife helped sew the pieces of cloth together for their “bodies”.
“I found out that the tiger dance has been a tradition in China after some research,” he said, adding that local film producer-director Chiu Keng Guan had approached him for help in Malaysia’s first Chinese New Year movie Woohoo!.
Siow, 55, said it took him a week to build a “tiger head” out of bamboo sticks and paper, which was even decorated with whiskers.
The troupe’s tiger dance made its debut here during the Chingay parade last month, wowing the crowds with their superb moves and gestures.
Club leader Law Choon Lim, 17, who started learning lion dance at the age of five, said members had to spend three days learning the choreography in Kuala Lumpur before heading back to Penang for the Chingay parade.
“The ‘tiger head’ is slightly lighter than a ‘lion head’ and the dance is choreographed at a slower and steadier pace,” he said, adding that the club had ordered two “tiger heads” from Siow at RM2,000 each.
Choon Lim said the troupe was already booked to perform at some houses for Chinese New Year, with each performance costing at least RM400 instead of the usual fee of between RM200 and RM300 for a lion dance.
Tourist Rob Fleming, 47, who watched the troupe practising the tiger dance at its club at Chulia Street on Friday, said he was fascinated by the tradition.
“I have never seen a tiger dance or a lion dance before. This is simply amazing,” he said as he tried putting on the “tiger head” with the help of Choon Lim.
fr:thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/1/17/nation/5490941&sec=nation
Size does matter with Mandarin oranges
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When it comes to Mandarin oranges for the Chinese New Year, size does matter. The oranges comes in a large range of sizes and prices.
They are available in boxes of 32 for XXXL size, 40 for XXL size, 46 for XL size, 54 for L size, 60 for M size and 66 for S size.
“A box of 40 XXL oranges is sold at RM32 but the price might go up by between RM1 and RM2 towards Chinese New Year,” said fruit seller Goh Ah Hoe, 56, at the Cecil Street market here.
“However, most people prefer bigger-sized Mandarin oranges, so I’m only ordering the XXL size,” he said, adding that he had only ordered an initial 10 cartons of oranges.
“Usually the demand goes up two weeks before Chinese New Year so I’ll be ordering more at the end of the month.”
A drop is expected in the number of Mandarin oranges for sale in the country with the poor harvest in China due to bad weather.
The good news, though, is that prices are not likely to go up.
Wholesaler Chop Tuan Guan Sdn Bhd sales executive Tan Chee Tat said the unusually early snowstorms in north-central China had resulted in poor harvests.
“Some supermarkets and market traders have started placing their order before the demand picks up,” he said when met at his store in Jalan Dr Lim Chwee Leong here yesterday.
Tan said only a few cartons of Mandarin oranges have arrived and they are waiting for more containers to reach Penang on Jan 19.
fr:thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/1/17/nation/5490942&sec=nation
Ride the unpredictable Tiger if you dare
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When the year of the Earth Ox started 11 months ago amid the wreckage of the global economy, investors were hoping that things would mirror the bovine theme and plod along slowly and steadily while world returned to normal.
Well, we know how that turned out: Deep despair gave way to wild exuberance early on, as thundering herds of bulls roared back into the stock market to give the local bourse its biggest rally in a decade.
The Ox year ends in about four weeks, and investors have started pondering about what the coming Year of the Metal Tiger might bring.
Tiger years going back the past century offer few assurances. Indeed, they frequently heralded the start of huge conflicts or financial disasters.
Take these three Tiger years:
• 1914 marked the start of World War I; five years of conflict, tens of millions dead.
• 1950 was similarly traumatic, when North Korea invaded South Korea, which drew China and the United States into the conflict.
• 1998 was when the Asian financial crisis reached its heights. Millionaires became paupers when they were unable to service US dollar loans after currencies like the Indonesian rupiah and Korean won nose-dived.
To stop the free fall of the ringgit, Malaysia imposed capitals control and forced a shutdown in the then thriving Clob market which traded in Kuala Lumpur-listed shares here.
So it is no wonder that pundits — from economists to geomancers — are quaking with the prospect of another Tiger year about to unfold.
“The tiger is a most feared animal in the old days… This may be a year dominated by natural disasters, financial difficulties, political instability and environmental matters,” said geomancer Lynn Yap.
Bearish stock pundits would concur. They believe the cracks in the global financial system triggered by the credit crisis have been papered amid the massive intervention orchestrated by the US Federal Reserve and other central banks.
The day of reckoning will emerge in the coming months as central banks strive to find exit strategies to mop up the trillions they have thrown into the financial system before another massive asset bubble emerges.
China’s central bank sounded an early warning last week when it suddenly raised the level of cash that banks must set aside as reserves. The move was widely viewed as its opening salvo to cool the country’s over-heating economy.
The unexpected step spooked investors by raising the prospect of reining in the liquidity which sparked the huge rally last year.
It caused Shanghai’s share market to fall 3.1 per cent last Wednesday and sent ripples across the region, with Hong Kong falling 2.6 per cent and Singapore down 0.95 per cent.
There is the concern over the growing numbers of unemployed in the huge consumer markets of the US and Europe, and the spectre of protectionism as countries try to stop the flow of lower-cost goods to protect jobs at home.
This could make the Chinese yuan’s linkage to the ailing US dollar even more of an issue, as any further weakening of the greenback would make Chinese-made goods cheaper.
An even more worrying threat on the Tiger year’s horizon is the risk of sovereign debt default in a major developed country, an event that could re-ignite the financial crisis.
Forget about Greece or even Italy, whose debt travails have been filling the airwaves, some would say.
Instead, focus on what may happen to Britain, which may have to borrow another £700 billion (RM3.8 trillion) over the next five years to finance its spending. This level of borrowing would bring its national debt to almost 100 per cent of gross domestic product.
But Britain can borrow only as long as lenders are willing to lend, and some pundits reckon these lenders are getting increasingly nervous.
To compound the problem, Britain is facing a general election by mid-year and worries are growing that giant hedge funds will turn their guns on sterling if the poll turns out to be inconclusive.
This raises the prospect of a re-run of 1974 — another Tiger year — when a hung Parliament triggered a series of crises which eventually caused a run on sterling.
But unlike that time, when a run of the pound affected only Britain, this time, any plunge in sterling will have a far-reaching impact on the global financial system.
Still, Tiger years have not been all gloom and doom.
Like the tiger itself, which is unpredictable and may pounce without warning, the coming year may well prove fortuitous to those brave enough to seize opportunities thrown up by the turbulence stirred up on the international financial markets.
Given that trends set in January tend to influence subsequent trading patterns in recent years, the buoyant market in the past two weeks points to a positive year ahead.
Fortune had smiled on Singapore in previous Tiger years and this year may prove the same.
In 1950, Singapore enjoyed a rubber boom after the outbreak of the Korean War, while 1974 marked the start of more good times when sky-rocketing oil prices cemented the city’s reputation as a leading Asian banking centre.
The last Tiger year — 1998 — saw Singapore shrug off the gloom cast by the Asian financial crisis to forge a transformation of its financial landscape that started with the merger of DBS Bank and POSB.
Not surprisingly, as the next Tiger year approaches, another evolution is taking place in the local financial markets. Global lenders such as Barclays Bank are on a huge hiring spree here, with the growing allure of Singapore as an international financial centre.
Sure, there are plenty of uncertainties to make investors wary of being mauled by the Tiger — sovereign default, hyper-inflation, and even natural disasters like a major earthquake in Tokyo or California.
But we have seen how the impossible had a way of becoming possible in the past two years — as wild exuberance gave way to deep despair and back again.
Fortune will smile on the brave-hearted who dare to ride the Tiger and thrive. Gongxi facai.
fr:themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/world/49933-ride-the-unpredictable-tiger-if-you-dare
Mall is a hive of CNY activity
THE Gardens Mall in Kuala Lumpur welcomes the Lunar Year of the Tiger with a touch of spring, a line up of good-fortune offerings and a series of exciting activities.
Be mesmerised with a feast of fashion trends and Chinese New Year delights at the various outlets during this festive season as well as musical revues and dance performances at the concourse of the mall from now until Feb 16.
Be enthralled by the acrobatic performances by the Guangxi Art Troupe from China.
Their performance will leave even the fittest of shoppers in awe. Enjoy a unforgettable performance of skill, flexibility and balance by China’s all time favourite acrobats as they perform thrilling stunts.
For the weary shopper, classical musical performances will serenade you with the captivating sounds of music using classical Chinese instruments. The mall will also be filled with the tranquil cadence of traditional Chinese compositions by the Chinese orchestra, infused with an interesting blend of wind instruments and percussions, accompanied by cymbals and gongs with featured pieces including Er Hu and Gu Zheng.
Usher in the Tiger Lunar New Year with promotions and activities such as mall’s Gift-With-Purchase.
Spend RM500 and above (RM450 and above for The Gardens Club Members & HSBC Credit Cardholders) in a single receipt at any of the mall’s speciality stores to receive an exclusive designed bowl set and the mall’s ang pow packets. Customers who spend RM130 and above in a single receipt at any speciality store are entitled to specially- designed ang pow packets.
Pick your favourite outfit for the New Year as mall’s own 2201 Fashion Avenue will be releasing their latest collection from local celebrated designers such as Cocchio, Millie’s, Terrenz, Alvin Tay and Karl Ng.
Do take a stroll down to the Lower Ground Floor of the mall as Cold Storage and Marks and Spencer will be having their festive promotions as well.
Schedules for the musical revues and dance performances are as follows:
·Chinese Acrobatic Performan-ces (Feb 1–14)
2pm & 5pm on public holidays and weekends
2pm & 6.30pm on Fridays
·Chinese Classical Music Ensemble
3pm on public holidays and weekends
Additional shows at 1pm on Feb 1 and 5pm on Jan 30 and 31
·Seven Fairies Drummers
1pm on Feb 6, 7 and 13
·Lion/Tiger Dance performances
4pm on Feb 19, 20 and 21
fr:thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2010/1/27/central/5542273&sec=central
Bus and train trips to various destinations for CNY period fully booked
JOHOR BARU: With the Chinese New Year just a few weeks away, many bus and train tickets for the balik kampung exodus are being snapped up fast.
Checks at various ticket counters at the Larkin Bus Terminal and the Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad train station in the city showed that almost all the tickets to various destinations are already sold out.
Plusliner Express Johor Baru branch operations officer Norashi-dah Ali said tickets to Seremban were sold out.
“People started to buy the tickets from Jan 11 which is a norm as they want to avoid last-minute inconvenience,” she said.
Transnasional (Johor Baru) supervisor Wan Mohd Zaid Wan Hussein said tickets to the east coast have been sold out as well.
“The tickets for the up-coming Chinese New Year celebration was open two months before the trips.
“Tickets for trips to the northern part of the country are also selling very fast,” he said, adding that 70% of the tickets to Kuala Lumpur have been sold.
Wan Mohd also said that Trans-nasional would look into increasing the number of trips if there was a need.
KTM Berhad marketing manager Nordin Kimi said travellers started buying tickets for the CNY trips as early as last Dec 15.
“Trips from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur were the most sought after for the Chinese New Year.
“People are getting smarter by planning their trips early to avoid last-minute hassles,” he said, adding that KTM will be increasing the number of coaches for the Chinese New Year.
He said many people were turning to train service as their chosen mode of transport as it was perceived as the safest mode during festival periods.
For more information on KTM trips or tickets log on to ktmb.com.my or call their KTMB centre at 03-22671200.
fr:thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/1/28/nation/5559542&sec=nation
Merry evening
Nancy Sit and Sandra Lang will serenade you with golden oldies for their Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner Show.
GOLDEN oldies enthusiasts who are looking for a more exciting way to celebrate their Chinese New Year Eve are in for a treat. Hong Kong personalities Nancy Sit and Sandra Lang would love you to join them at their reunion dinner show in Genting.
Those attending the show, which includes an eight-course dinner, can look forward to getting red packets from Sit with her picture printed on them.
StarTwo spoke to the two bubbly ladies in separate phone interviews recently. Speaking from Hong Kong, Sit shared that it was the norm for her to distribute red packets during Chinese New Year (CNY) and she gets much joy doing so.
“I love giving big red packets and seeing happy faces. It’s not how much you put inside that matters, but the good fortune it brings to the recipient.
“I usually distribute red packets at work as well and some TVB crew members tell me that they go to work during CNY just to get red packets from me, which they keep on them all year round as an amulet for good fortune.”
The duo were delighted with requests from Malaysian fans for them to sing Malay and Hokkien songs during their show here. Sit picked two Hokkien songs she was most familiar with – Ci Pak Ban (One Million) and Ai Pia Jia Eh Yia (Must Fight To Win).
“As for Malay songs, at present I can only recall Burung Kakak Tua and need some practice. But, Sandra and I are used to singing in different languages. We’re very smart and learn very fast!” offered the veteran entertainer as she burst into laughter.
Sit, who will turn 60 on March 30, will also be celebrating her 52nd year as an entertainer this year. A popular face on Hong Kong TVB shows and Cantonese films, Sit started as a teen idol together with Connie Chan Po Chu and Josephine Siao Fong Fong.
She recorded many albums and even served as mentor to the late Anita Mui, who went on to become one of the most memorable superstars in the Chinese entertainment industry. She then left showbusiness to raise a family after getting married in the early 80s, but made a successful comeback in the late 90s after her 13-year marriage failed.
Admitting that she has learnt to slow down a little due to a recent illness, the vivacious entertainer is now involved in other ventures.
She will be arriving earlier in Malaysia to meet with school principals for her pet project Ka Yin Mama Arts Centre, which is being successfully implemented in Hong Kong and Singapore.
“We are providing training to children so that they become more confident. It may be an enrichment programme in the performing arts, but they do not necessarily aim to become entertainers.
“I myself grew up with that sort of training since I was a child and can honestly attest to its various benefits,” said Sit, who is also working on Ka Yin Mama Shopping Bar and Ka Yin Mama Food Court.
Lang, who spoke from Vancouver, Canada, is a Cantopop singer who began her career in the 60s as a member of Hong Kong’s first all-female modern English pop group Chopstick Sisters (Fai Ji Ji Mui Fa). Joining TVB as a solo singer after the group disbanded in the 70s, Lang has also starred in many TV drama serials.
Lang readily agreed to accept her good friend’s invitation to do a show together.
“I love singing and we’ll be singing all sorts of songs but I won’t tell you what they are now. It’ll be more exciting for our audience if we maintain a bit of mystery. People must have some surprises every now and then so that life is more fun.”
Amid lots of hearty laughter, Lang also wished Malaysians a Happy New Year and added: “Everyone should laugh and smile more, it will make you happier and keep you younger and healthier.”
The Nancy Sit And Sandra Lang Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner Show will be held at Genting International Convention Centre on Feb 13 at 6pm.
Tickets for the show are selling at RM280, RM380, RM480 and RM580 per person. There will be a 20% discount on the first 400 tickets purchased (limited to the RM280 – RM480 price bracket). Genting WorldCard members get a 40% discount on the first 100 tickets purchased.
Show tickets are inclusive of an eight-course dinner and admission is one person per ticket, including infants and children of all ages. For ticket reservations and concert enquiries, visit genting.com.my or call 03-2718 1189.
fr:star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp?file=/2010/1/28/soundnstage/5496131&sec=soundnstage
No price increase – yet
GEORGE TOWN: With barely two weeks to go before Chinese New Year, most hair salons are not planning to increase their prices – yet.
Hair Imperial salon owner and head stylist Austin Ooi, 40, said he would only increase the blow-drying and washing charges on the eve of the New Year.
“I’ve been in the industry for 17 years and have never raised my prices for hair cuts just because of the festival – you will definitely lose your regular clients.
“I’ll only increase my styling fee if I have acquired a new skill or if I’m introducing a new value-added service.
“However, on the eve of Chinese New Year, I may charge a few ringgit extra for our washing and blow-drying services,” he said, adding that it was normally the smaller salons that increased their prices and some outlets may even double their rates.
“The bigger outlets would risk making their customers unhappy especially now with so many hair salons mushrooming – competition is so stiff and the market is just recovering,” he said at his salon in Bayan Baru.
Emphasis Salon owner, who only wanted to be known as Kim, said the market was slow compared to previous years.
“In Prangin Mall where we operate, there are more than 40 salons and I don’t see business picking up.
“We rely on our regulars. I don’t think there will be many salon owners who would dare double their rates this year,” she said, adding that she would only increase her charges by a few ringgit.
Prestige Hair Salon stylist Kelvin Kok said the salon had increased prices by RM2 to RM10 for its services.
“We will only double our charges on the last three days of Chinese New Year,” he said.
fr:No price increase – yet
By CHRISTINA CHIN
sgchris@thestar.com.my
GEORGE TOWN: With barely two weeks to go before Chinese New Year, most hair salons are not planning to increase their prices – yet.
Hair Imperial salon owner and head stylist Austin Ooi, 40, said he would only increase the blow-drying and washing charges on the eve of the New Year.
“I’ve been in the industry for 17 years and have never raised my prices for hair cuts just because of the festival – you will definitely lose your regular clients.
“I’ll only increase my styling fee if I have acquired a new skill or if I’m introducing a new value-added service.
“However, on the eve of Chinese New Year, I may charge a few ringgit extra for our washing and blow-drying services,” he said, adding that it was normally the smaller salons that increased their prices and some outlets may even double their rates.
“The bigger outlets would risk making their customers unhappy especially now with so many hair salons mushrooming – competition is so stiff and the market is just recovering,” he said at his salon in Bayan Baru.
Emphasis Salon owner, who only wanted to be known as Kim, said the market was slow compared to previous years.
“In Prangin Mall where we operate, there are more than 40 salons and I don’t see business picking up.
“We rely on our regulars. I don’t think there will be many salon owners who would dare double their rates this year,” she said, adding that she would only increase her charges by a few ringgit.
Prestige Hair Salon stylist Kelvin Kok said the salon had increased prices by RM2 to RM10 for its services.
“We will only double our charges on the last three days of Chinese New Year,” he said.
1Malaysia ‘cheongsam’ a CNY hit
In the spirit of 1Malaysia, many cheongsam on sale for the Chinese New Year have a “Malaysian twist” to them.
One shop at the Central Market here sells the sought-after wear with Indian and Malay motifs.
Shop worker S.K. Mani said: “We wanted cheongsam that comes with the 1Malaysia concept, so we mixed and matched different cultural themes.
“We also have baju kebaya with bamboo designs, a motif usually associated with the Chinese,” he added.
Cheongsam, he noted, could “adapt” to modern times and had today become very contemporary.
Another shop owner said the rush to buy New Year clothes started some two weeks back.
The younger Chinese prefer modern designs but traditional wear is still a hit with foreigners, she said.
Lucky Nyonya owner Tony Lim said the best-selling items were the Indian and Peranakan-themed table runners.
“They have a very distinctive Asian feel to it,” said the 40-year-old.
“The Peranakan culture has Indian, Chinese, Malay and also, of course, some Dutch influence.”
Another best seller at Lucky Nyonya are the Chinese lanterns made by Lim’s mother.
Apart from clothes and lanterns, other sought-after Chinese New Year goodies are flowers and ornaments.
Nu Lycie proprietor Daniel Wong said the plum blossom flowers were still the most popular items.
“Business is certainly better compared to last year,” said the 42-year-old.
“So far, I’ve managed to sell 15% more than what I did in 2009,” he said.
Thanks to the Year of the Tiger, tiger-themed ornaments and trinkets are mostly sold out, he added.
fr:thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/1/30/nation/5561414&sec=nation