New year traditions: Fact & Fiction

Peculiar practices abound over Chinese New Year such as wearing red, avoiding the broomstick, gambling into the wee hours, tossing yusheng and hanging banners upside down. How many of them are authentic and actually originated in China? Teo Pau Lin sifts out the facts from fiction by consulting a panel of Chinese heritage and culture experts, who include fengshui master Tong Noong Chin, calligrapher Khoo Seow Hwa, Lianhe Zaobao's former Chinese society columnist Au Yue Pak and renowned master chef of Orchard Hotel's Hua Ting Restaurant, Chan Kwok.

FACT: Wearing new red togs

RED outfits have been de rigeur since ancient times because a mythical monster was believed to emerge from its cave to devour humans every Chinese New Year.

Legend has it that one year, it polished off an entire village, save for one family, whose members were all clothed in red as they had just celebrated a wedding.

It was deduced that the monster was afraid of the colour red and so Chinese down the generations have been advised to wear red to keep it at bay.

The colour black, in particular, is shunned as it symbolises bad luck, as well as all-white outfits, which resemble funeral clothing, says former Chinese society columnist Au Yue Pak.

In addition, wearing new clothes from head to toe has always been believed to augur a new beginning.

FICTION: Goodie trays filled with love letters, kueh bangkit, kueh lapis, pineapple tarts, White Rabbit sweets

CRISPY egg rolls continue to be made all over southern China. But Singapore and Malaysia's version, called love letters, contains coconut milk - which suggests that the Straits-born Chinese or Malays imbued it with a local twist.

For the same reason, kueh bangkit, which is made from tapioca flour and coconut milk, is likely a Peranakan or Malay invention. Experts concur that kueh lapis is definitely of Indonesian extract.

All food experts agree that pineapple tarts are of Straits Chinese origin.

As for the made-in-Shanghai White Rabbit milk candy, which has made its way into many Chinese New Year goodie trays here, it is a common sweet eaten all year round in China.

Its synonymity with the festive season in Singapore continues to baffle Mr Lim Cheng Eng, managing director of Hock Lam, which has been importing the brand of sweets since the 1960s.

So what do Chinese mainlanders really munch on during Chinese New Year?

According to Chef Chan, traditional festive fare there consists of steamboat, jiaozi (meat dumplings), carrot cake, Chinese sausages and preserved meats, which are popular among Northerners trying to stave off the wintry cold.

Southerners, meanwhile, fill up on steaming claypots containing chicken, duck, vegetables or Chinese sausages, and kok zai (mini peanut puffs).

FACT: Offering two mandarin oranges when visiting, and receiving two from the host in return

IN THE Zhou dynasty (1100BC-770BC), it became fashionable to offer a present to a friend or relative, which would then be returned in kind a few days later, says Mr Tong.

This reciprocal practice later morphed into a Chinese New Year custom whereby visitors to a home present the host with a pair of mandarin oranges - which resemble gold nuggets - as a token of their prosperity wishes.

The host, in turn, reciprocates by plying the visitors with another pair of mandarin oranges when they leave.

This exchange symbolises the Chinese saying you lai you wang, which means the congenial, give-and-take relations between two parties.

FACT: Cruising pasar malams

SINCE the Song dynasty (960-1279), the Chinese have traditionally visited temples on the eve and the first day of Chinese New Year to worship the prosperity gods.

Set up around each temple on these days were street performers, medicine men and pedlars of food and household items.

It was a highlight for most families, who spent the rest of the day browsing and buying things at these stalls.

No wonder the modern-day equivalent of cruising Chinatown's night bazaar still feels therapeutic.

FICTION: Hanging prosperity banners upside down

IN THE Han dynasty (206BC-AD25), people sent New Year cards or posters to friends or relatives with calligraphy greetings like fu, which means prosperity.

If the recipient was not at home, the messenger would paste the card or poster upside down on the door, to signal that prosperity had arrived at the household.

This was a clever pun because dao, the Chinese word for 'upside down', sounded like the Chinese word for 'arrived'.

Today, the practice of hanging fu banners upside down harks from Taiwan, where it is widespread, says Mr Khoo. But it's not strictly accurate.

In ancient China, he says, the recipient usually removed the upside-down greeting and hung it right side up indoors. That symbolised that he had accepted the arrival of prosperity.

FACT: Spring-cleaning before Chinese New Year

YOU can blame the age-old practice of last-minute spring-cleaning, scrubbing and polishing on an ancient battle between the mythical Chinese gods.

A few days before each Chinese New Year, the Kitchen God - who blesses every household with food and health - is believed to return to the heavens.

One year, in the celestial courts, a villain god tried to create trouble for humans by reporting to the Emperor god that they had started to rebel against him.

The Emperor god then ordered the villain god to descend to earth and mark out every rebellious household with cobwebs for punishment.

The Kitchen God overheard the decree and quickly returned to earth to warn humans to clean out all their cobwebs so they would be spared.
But alas, they were not spared the drudgery of extra housework.

FICTION: Only married people can give hongbao

THE practice of handing out hongbao (red packets) started centuries ago in China when older folk gave coins to younger family members as yasuiqian (which literally means 'money to suppress ageing') to help them hold off the advancing years and retain their youthfulness.

According to fengshui master Tong Noong Chin, it soon developed into a custom where anyone who holds a job - even the unmarried - gave a red packet to their grandparents, parents as well as young children in the family.

This practice continues today in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In Hong Kong, married people give hongbao in pairs while singles, widows and widowers hand out one hongbao to each recipient.

It is peculiar to Singapore and Malaysia that only married people are expected to give out hongbao. And they do not give the hongbao in pairs.

FACT: Giving hongbao to maids, subordinates and other service workers

AS A reward for their year-round hard work, it was a Chinese custom for bosses to give employees hongbao on the first day of Chinese New Year.

In fact, a few days before, bosses traditionally treated their staff members to a lavish dinner. While meant as a group morale-booster, fengshui master Tong Noong Chin says the meal was also meant to send a veiled warning to the worst performer.

Chicken was served and the worker was asked to sit facing its head.
The hint: Buck up or get chopped.

FICTION: Gambling day and night

RAMBUNCTIOUS sessions of mahjong or cards are no traditional Chinese New Year practice, more like a congenital Chinese vice.

As calligrapher Khoo Seow Hwa puts it, 'Chinese people just love to gamble, whether it's at weddings, birthdays or Chinese New Year'.

He adds that early immigrant coolies in Singapore may have taken to gambling during Chinese New Year because it was one of the few holidays they had back then. Besides having time at their disposal, most also felt 'rich' enough for a gamble, having freshly collected their annual hongbao from their bosses.

In addition, some people in Hong Kong and South-east Asia believe that staying up all night after the reunion dinner helps bestow their parents with long life. So they gamble all night to help pass the time and stay awake.

Another urban myth is that making loud click-clacking noises, from shuffling mahjong tiles, helps repel bad luck.

FACT: No sweeping or cutting of hair

THE minute the clock strikes midnight to herald the first day of Chinese New Year, there is a strict taboo against sweeping the floor or cutting one's hair.

It is believed that good fortune arrives at every household at the stroke of midnight. And sweeping or cutting one's hair symbolises carelessly throwing your luck away. In fact, one should not even go anywhere near a broom.

It is also ill-advised to quarrel or mention death in any form as it attracts ill fortune.

To follow tradition to a T, rubbish should be kept in the house until the third day of Chinese New Year, when it finally becomes acceptable to dispose of the trash.

And to be really safe, one should only consider getting a haircut after the 15th day of the Chinese New Year, which is officially the last day of the celebrations.

FICTION: Munching on bak kwa

BAK KWA (barbecued pork) is a Hokkien delicacy.

It originated from Fujian province, where the people were very poor and where meat was a festive treat reserved for the Chinese New Year.

To make the treat last longer, the pork was sliced thinly, marinated with sugar and spices, air-dried and cooked over a hot plate.

When the delicacy made its way to Singapore and Malaysia, it evolved into more fatty minced pork-constituted slices or a leaner but tougher sliced pork version.

Both versions in Singapore are air-dried, then grilled over charcoal, and they taste much sweeter and smokier than the genuine article.

FICTION: Eating yusheng

THIS raw fish salad has been the speciality of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province for centuries. But the real McCoy is eaten there all year round, not just during Chinese New Year.

It is also a lot more pared-down and less colourful than the Singaporean version, says the renowned master chef of Orchard Hotel's Hua Ting Restaurant, Chan Kwok.

The real version has lightly tossed peanuts, ginger strips, spring onions, soy sauce, lime juice and oil, with raw fish placed on top.

When Cantonese immigrants to Singapore brought the dish here in the 1940s, they liked eating it during Chinese New Year as more family members could be roped in to help with the tossing.

Along the way, they also jazzed it up by introducing a riot of colourful flavours - carrots, red and green-dyed radish strips, sweet plum sauce and candied orange peel - as well as the high drama of tossing the ingredients while shouting out New Year wishes.

The use of salmon, according to Chef Chan, only started about 10 years ago, in tandem with the rise in popularity of Japanese sushi. Before that, the more ubiquitous ikan parang was used.

Today, the yusheng ritual practised by Singaporeans is virtually unheard of in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan - except maybe in a handful of Chinese restaurants in international hotels which have introduced it as a gimmick in recent years.