034 Happy Chinese New Year | Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Chinese New Year is easily one of my favorite times of the year. It's like the Chinese version of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's rolled into one. We visit with family, get money, play with fireworks, eat shamelessly, AND get to watch lion dances. There are so many fun parts about our culture and tradition, so I thought I'd write a brief post to share some cool practices that my family and I participate in.

It's probably worth mentioning that my family is Malaysian Chinese, meaning some of our beliefs and traditions are a little different than what is practiced in Mainland China. That being said, practices often vary between states and cities and families as well, so what you read here may not apply to every Chinese person you know. There are like, a billion of us, so it's typically pretty hard to make generalizations about my people anyway, hoho.

So, here are some of the beliefs and practices that my family partakes in...

2014 is the Year of the Horse.

The Chinese Zodiac is a 12 year cycle that relates each year to an animal. Each animal has its own distinct attributes and personality traits, and according to Chinese beliefs, individuals tend to display the same characteristics as their zodiac animal. I'm not sure how much of this is true, and how much of it is reliant on Barnum statements, but I've always enjoyed learning about my animal, the dragon.

According to legend, the order of the Zodiac animals was determined by a legendary race. The following chart shows the different animals present in the Chinese Zodiac, and the years associated with each one. You can learn more about your Zodiac animal here, including information on your Zodiac animal's characteristics, your fortune in love and money, and even relationship advice (some Zodiac animals are supposed to pair better with others).

Photo credit to Molly the Wally.

Cleaning the house before the first day of Chinese New Year. 

As with most other cultures, we like to usher in the New Year with a clean house. The goal (key word here is "goal" lol) is to clean as much as possible, meaning we sweep, mop, dust, wipe down, rearrange, clean, and scrub all we can. This is important as you aren't allowed to do any form of cleaning on the first day of Chinese New Year. In fact, all brooms, mops, dusters, etc. are actually supposed to be kept away from sight as the belief is that any cleaning done on the first day will "sweep away" your good fortune for the year. It's intense.

This year, I divided the housecleaning over a few days, learning from last year's mistake (12 straight hours of cleaning in one day). The biggest change I made to my apartment was rearranging my bookcases in the living room - think they turned out pretty sweet. 

Thanks, Pinterest!

Part of the cleaning the house process also includes making sure all of the containers with your food staples are full. This symbolizes that you will not have to worry about having enough to eat throughout the year. For the Chinese, our food staples include items like rice, flour, sugar, and salt. My mom made me go to Walmart to take care of this.

Yep.

Reunion Dinner is held on Chinese New Year's Eve.

This is the one non-negotiable time a year when the family gets together to eat. It is usually held with extended family (a little easier to coordinate in Malaysia where Chinese New Year is a bigger deal and is a national holiday), but because we live in the US and Chinese New Year's Eve fell on a Thursday this year, it was just the immediate family. 

The New Year's Eve dinner is usually a pretty grandiose affair, again to symbolize the abundance of food for the year, and traditionally includes chicken, pork, and fish. And apparently sushi. Idk you'll have to ask my mom.

Delicious dinner courtesy of mom.

Each dish symbolizes something different, but my favorite is with regards to the fish dish. The dish is served for dinner, but intentionally left unfinished, with the remaining stored overnight. This stems from a Chinese pun, 年年有鱼/余 (nián nián yǒu yú/yú). The Chinese words for fish  (鱼, yú) and profit (余, yú) are homophones, making the phrase mean "every year there is fish/profit".

More family, more eating! :D

Wearing red for Chinese New Year.

Chinese New Year Day is the biggest deal out of the 15 day celebration (that's right - we party for 15 days). One of the major practices of this day is wearing brand new everything, and incorporating red somewhere in your outfit.

There are a few variations of the story behind why we wear red, but I'll share the one that my parents told me growing up. In ancient times, there used to be a terrible monster, Nian, that would emerge from his cave every New Year's Day and terrorize a nearby village. Nian would destroy everything in sight, eating villagers and livestock. One day an old traveler passed by the village on New Year's Eve and heard about the terror Nian was causing. He told the villagers he would face the monster and vanquish him for them. The next day, the villagers gathered at the edge of the village to watch the old man face Nian. Once Nian emerged from his cave, the old man took off his robe to reveal a bright red shirt and pants. This terrified Nian and he ran away never to return. The villagers cheered for the old man, and from then on began wearing red on New Year's Day. They also hung red lanterns and red banners outside their homes, a tradition that is carried on until today.

You can't really tell, but I promise we're all wearing red! 

Visiting family and friends, getting red packets, and eating entirely too much.

You are supposed to visit with family and friends on the 1st and 2nd day of Chinese New Year. For my family that means traveling to Oklahoma City to visit with my uncles' families. My Aunt Shirley makes the most amazing food ever, and always pulls out all the stops for family gatherings, so we were super excited. We made it to OKC on Saturday evening and basically went straight into eating. Below are some of the dishes from our dinner. Each dish has its own symbolism, which I won't bore you with - but you can learn more about it here!

Fried oysters, fried squid, dumplings, shrimp, rendang, chicken,
and yeesang.

Buddha's Delight. Yep - that's hair. Jk it's algae.

Fish curry like back in Malaysia.

Char siu bao, or BBQ steamed buns - MY FAVORITE.
I stole like, 4 of these.

Fish cakes.

Ang ku kuih, or red tortoise cakes.

More Asian cakes! 

One of my favorite parts of Chinese New Year is tossing yeesang! Yeesang is a Teochew-style raw fish salad, made up of raw fish (commonly salmon), shredded vegetables, and a variety of sauces and condiments. It probably goes without saying that there's some old Chinese pun and a crazy amount of symbolism that goes with this dish too. The Chinese words for raw fish (鱼生, yú shēng) are a homophone for an increase in abundance (余升, yú shēng), so yeesang is commonly seen as a symbol for prosperity and growth through the year.

Pretty.

Typically, the "leaders" of the diners will say some good wishes for the year (in my family's case, my uncles and dad), and then everyone will toss the ingredients with chopsticks. It is believed that the height of the toss reflects the height of the tosser's growth in fortunes. 

Seriously super fun.

After tossing the yeesang, my whole family and some family friends settled into a 6 hour eating session basically snacking and talking all night long. It was awesome. 

Adults!

Me, my sister, my mom.

My dad and uncles hanging out.

Families also typically exchange red packets (红包, hóng bāo) for the kids. These red packets contain money, which are to symbolize wealth throughout the year. You usually get one as long as you're unmarried. Kids will typically wish their elders well, saying things like Happy New Year (新年快乐, xīn nián kuài lè), or Wishing You Happiness and Prosperity (恭喜发财, gōng xǐ fā cái) and receive money in return. It's a pretty sweet gig. 

Envelopes of awesome. Photo credit to Melsong.

And that's all for now. After we had our fill of food and visiting, we returned to Arkansas on Sunday. In a snow storm. 

Took us 7 hours to drive a 3-1/2 hour journey. D:

But we are alive and well! Hope you enjoyed the post, and learned something new about Chinese New Year. Gong Xi Fa Cai! :)

025 Leaving on a Jet Plane...Again

I’m sitting in LAX now as I write this – about to board the plane headed to Tokyo! As my sister would say “Boom Skalakalaka!”. She says it incorrectly. We haven’t been very good at blogging lately, but I promised myself I’d actually be consistent this time, so here I am. The past few days have been pretty busy, but I’ve been with family, so it’s been a lot of fun.

The day after we went for Korean barbecue, Christine, Laurence, my brother, and I took my grandma to eat dimsum again! We wanted to take her out to eat to thank her for being awesome and for looking after us, because she’s a boss. It was good to see and talk to Laurence cause I hadn’t seen him in forever…when he’s with Chris, our cousin, they become gay lovers and forget about everyone else’s existence. Laurence came over at around 11 and we took the bus to the Lincoln Plaza Hotel for food.

That's my brotha.

I am absolutely in love with the fact that the area where we live is SO CHINESE.

The food (which we thought would be questionable…we don’t like new places) turned out to be really great. As always – have a billion pictures of awesome Chinese food.

Initial spread. Bomb diggity.

THIS WAS SO GOOD. I don't even know what it was.

Good food is shockingly good.

The kids and I had to be really sneaky about the bill. My grandma kept insisting on paying for us because she believes we’re completely broke (which is close to true, but not quite), so the second the waiter came by with our check, I had to grab it and give him my card, stealth-like. My grandma didn’t know what hit her. It was awesome.

Awwwwww Yeeeeaaaaahhhhhhh

Me and grammy. :3

After brunch/lunch, we headed to get some boba at a local boba place, Quickly. Apparently Quickly is a chain boba place. Idk. California is weird. Laurence and Chris both got boba milk tea, and I just got a peach slush. Legit.

Boba is grosssss. Trufax.

After we got home, courtesy of Christopher, I got a package in the mail. SNOW LEOPARD! Now maybe my computer will be less fail. Excited.

The kids and I just hung around the house for the rest of the day, playing Tetris Friends. I am an addict, and it’s upsetting. I found out that you can play frickin’ AGAINST people on Tetris Friends, so I hijacked Christine’s computer and vegetated for like, three hours.

Hahaha. We are all awesome and lazy.

Grandma made dinner for us as usual – Chinese sausage rice and ABC soup! She is so awesome. She is easily my favorite person on Earth.

YEEESSSSS.

:D

After dinner, Chris and I went to get some Baskin Robbins…we’re Grade A fatties. Trufax.

Fattie.

Also fattie.

The next day (yesterday!) was a lot of fun and super busy. Chris and I got up at around 10 and ate some zhong that my grandma made, which is a type of sticky rice with meat, mushrooms and beans. Omnomnom.

Boss.

We had to get up early (hah – I use the term “early” very loosely here) because Laurence, Christopher, Christine and I were going to Los Feliz to check out a laptop for Laurence he had seen on Craigslist.

We met the seller at a Starbucks there at around 12, and did a pretty decent check on it. The laptop was a 2008 Macbook Pro, with all the bells and whistles, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, still under Apple Care, ladida. All for $1,000. SKETCH, NO? But it checked out in the end, and we went across to the street to the bank to get the moneh. Very gangster-like. The seller guy said that he would meet us there (wut) and once we got the money, we double checked the computer since we had let it out of our sight once. We were not about to be cheated like Luan Legacy. Bahaha. Everything looked good, so the purchase was completed, and Laurence was disgustingly happy. Yay for happy endings!

Got Christopher and Laurence to drop Christine and I off at Atlantic Square so we could get her nails done and do some shopping.

After nails, we went to El Pollo Loco to get some churros. El Pollo Loco is so legit. And I’m not a fan of Mexican food at all.

We headed for some real lunch after at Taco Bell. I was basically trying to eat my fill of American food before going to Japan, where, according to my boyfriend, it is not legit. Got a crap ton of food, yadda yadda. Nothing new.

SO MUCH FOOD! Holy god.

IN OTHER NEWS: TACO BELL’S CHEESY BEEF BURRITO IS SO GOOD. Omg omg omg. Five stars to Taco Bell for KEEPING IT SIMPLE. Beans mess EVERYTHING up. Cheese + Meat + Rice + Tortilla + 99 cents = YOU CAN’T GO WRONG.

We move on.

Went to Fedex-Kinko’s after lunch to get my itinerary/boarding information printed for my flight. Yay! Chris wanted to get some new shoes – Oxfords and gladiators, so we shopped around and of course, mission accomplished. And I shopped too. And got my hurr did. Boom.

Went home after grabbing some Starbucks (AMERICAN FOOD OKAY?) and paying with my Starbucks gift card. Let me tell you – Starbucks gift cards are so legit. If you ever want to get me anything and you’re like, “hmm, I don’t know what to get for Stacy.” It’s easy. Get me these. 

Yeah. Chris had to drink some Pei Pa Koa, which is a magical Chinese medicine that cures everything. She is down with the flu or cough or something.

Stay away from me, sick person!

We ordered some pizza for dinner (MORE AMERICAN FOOD), which my grandma was sweet enough to pay for. Chris and I split a stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut. Bahaha. We’re done eating, I swear.

SOOOOOOO GOOD I DON'T EVEN.

Had a Skype call with Hannah after dinner and we discussed the parallels between boys regardless of age and location. It was awesome. And that same night, my grandma made some essence of chicken soup for Chris and I to drink, which is super, super great for you. She's awesome.

Chris and I went to bed after we played Tetris Friends and I packed.

Intended to wake up this morning at 8, which I did, and spoke to my boyfriend before going back to bed. Yeah. I do that. My grandma came to wake Chris and I at around 10 (whoops) and we ate Chinese noodles and some herbal soup since Christine is still kind of sick. Christopher and Laurence came to pick us up at around 11:15 and we headed to the airport! Got there about 40 minutes later, and said bye to everyone. It was sad times! I’m going to miss everyone!

I got in line at the Singapore Airlines counters, which weren’t open yet wtf, after saying bye. When they finally started checking people in, I was surprised at how long the turn around time was for the checking in...Singapore Air is usually on top of things. Ehhh. Grabbed some McD's for lunch pre-flight (I was like, three hours early), and am waiting at the gate for departure.

Bye, real American food!

My next post will be in JAPAN.

024 I Eat too Much + Lessons of Insults in Asian

Relatively slow day today in Los Angeles. Who would've guessed? Chris and I woke up at around 8:30 this morning as she had a breakfast date at McDonald's with some of her old school friends. I was asked to tag along, so I had to drag my butt out of bed too. Yech. Chris and I found a recording of a song my mom used to sing to us when we were younger, Fattie Bum Bum, and she played it on repeat until I actually got up. It is without a doubt, one of the most obnoxious songs I have ever heard. Ever. Dressed like a hobo because I didn't care, and Chris and I went to catch the 9:20 bus near the house - it's called the ~Spirit Line~. It's awesome.

Boom.

We needed to pick Christine's friends up half way across town even though the McDonald's is right down the hill from where we live. Apparently, they weren't sure which bus to take and needed to be guided...it was an adventure, so I didn't complain.

We like to camwhore on the bus!

The bus driver gave this to me. I have no idea what it is.

Picked Chris' friends up and headed back to where we started. I should have just slept the extra half hour and met them when they got back. Hmm. 

I digress.

McDonald's breakfast, as you know, is legit. So it was awesome. 

I don't care how many calories are contained in the muffin of
the Breakfast Gods.

I left the kids after I finished eating breakfast so Christine could bond with her buddies. Walked back up the hill. Went online - usual suspects: Facebook, Reddit, StumbleUpon. 

I am embarking on a new project: clearing up some space on my MacBook Pro because it's moving at a pathetic speed. Working on moving all my pictures from back in the day onto Picasa so I can finally delete them on my hard drive. This endeavor has proven to be more tedious than expected. I take too many pictures.

Note: HAHAHAHA. Sorry this post is so lame. I really didn't do anything overly exciting. We move on.

Hannah and I continued to cement the basis/plot line for the sitcom she will be writing about our lives. It will apparently be a combination of How I Met Your Mother, Wong Fu videos, Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. Or something like that. Basically awesome.

My Aunty Lydia came over at around 3:30 with lunch for my grandparents, and I got to sneak some food. Boss.

Effin' banh mi, man.

Aunty Lydia took my grandma and I to a nail salon after lunch so we could get our nails did. I was supposed to go with Chris but the loser wouldn't pick up her phone, so she missed out on a free mani-pedi, courtesy of Aunty Lydia. Whatevs. I'll take Chris out and pay for hers later anyway. Such is the duty of being a da jie.

Nail salon!

Purty.

Let's just hope the nails stay pretty and intact for Japan! I can't be chulu (unladylike) for the next few days. BAHA. Men. Who let the dogs out? Omg. This is what happens when you don't sleep enough.

Headed home to pick Christine up for dinner after we finished up at the salon. She had just gotten back from hanging out with her friends, so the timing worked out quite well. Aunty Lydia and Uncle Willam wanted to take Grandpa and Grandma out for a Father's Day meal, so naturally Chris and I got to follow along. 

We went to a restaurant called Chosun Galbee in Korea Town in Los Angeles for KOREAN BARBECUE. And I ate like a pig, yadda yadda yadda. You know all my posts in LA have been/are/will be about food. Aiseh. Just enjoy the pictures. 

Allow me to draw your attention to the big spoon.
Apparently this is a big deal. Idk ask my mom.

Lol Chris and I couldn't afford anything.

"Damned tourists."

Christine and I are what we call orang kampung (village people) or super jakun (backwards) so essentially, we had no idea what was going on 95% of the time. So we let Aunty Lydia and Uncle William take the reins.

Executive decisions being made.

KOREAN DIM SUM? Hahahaha. So jakun.

Yay family.

NOT TO BE EATEN AS SALAD. This is a garnish
for your barbecued meat wtf. We are so jakun.

This part we understood.

This part too.

Meat goes in, barbecued goodness comes out - you can't
explain that.

My sister and her big spoon.

Korean-style hotpot. Nomnomnom.

Idk Aunty Lydia thought he was cute.

Hotpottttt.

Before...

...and after. Never a miscommunication.

Everything tasted PHENOMENAL of course, and the meal was going well until...

Chris found a surprise in her soup.

FISH EGGS. 

It's cool - grandma ate it. Aaawwww yeaaahhhh.

Christine schooled me in the art of camwhoring while waiting for the bill to arrive. Apparently, it would appear that I have failed as an Asian in this department because all my pictures make me look chinky. 

Proof. Where are my eyes? Where are they?

So I was taught to raise my eyebrows to make my eyes appear more bright and happy and also existent.

Fixed.

I am a natural beauty.