chinese new year, day one
written: 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2004

Got pissy with mom and basically my family when we were leaving the house. First, I got criticised by my dad for painting my nails a nice shade of dark pink. Second, I got criticised by dad again for wearing a short skirt which was too short to him, but fuck, he hasn't seen my mini-skirt yet (which I'm not going to wear during Chinese New Year, of course, for I don't have a death wish yet). Third, when I asked my mom where she put my new shoes, she got on my case for it as I'm supposedly supposed to know where they're kept as they're my shoes but hello, she was the one who kept them, for the last I saw them, they were under the piano chair in the Bata plastic bag.

So yeah, those three things got me quite annoyed and I sat stony-faced in the car all the way to my grandma's, which is on the other side of Singapore. It was hot, the sun was out and shining relentlessly into the car and I got an awesome headache, end sarcasm. Tried to sleep but couldn't. But what the hell else is new?

Things gradually got better after arriving at my grandma's though. I mean, I couldn't continue being stony-faced over there with all my relatives, right? It's just so childish. So I got over it and yeah, things got better. Collected a grand total of S$490 today, the highest amount I've got in a single day my whole life. But then again, I've pretty much received hongbao from all my relatives in Singapore, so I doubt I'd be getting any more.

(A hongbao is a red packet, in which money is put and given by the older generation to the younger. What is the significance of this practice, you ask? Sorry but I don't know. Um, well, maybe it's for benefiting poor sods like me who wants cash of her own but can't have any 'cause she can't look for a job yet, and with hongbao money, it's easy money as all she has to do is to show up at her relatives' houses and smile and look nice. Okay, anyway.)

My uncle actually gave us a hundred bucks. Oh my god. Almost fainted when I learnt that. The usual practice among my relatives is twenty dollars, which is apparently a lot but I wouldn't know.

Wish I could spend chinese new year in Taiwan though, and not just because I have a lot more relatives there as my dad has like 8 siblings or so. They get to light fire crackers over there and it's been a very long time since I've heard the sound of fire crackers, so that I can hardly remember it. In fact, the last time I heard it has to be more than 12 years ago.

And no, I wasn't at Chinatown last night for the fire crackers. My folks didn't want to face the crowd and in the end I was too lazy to go out so we stayed home. I really wanted to go though. The last time I went to Chinatown on new year's eve was ages ago, and in fact, that was the first and last time for me. It was fantastic. The crowd was great and I could barely lift my feet to place one in front of the other to walk; had to drag them and flow with the crowd. I loved it. Made me feel like I was at a rock concert, only without the live band.

But I would rather spend chinese new year in Taiwan than to head to Chinatown on new year's eve. Maybe next year, and I hope so. I miss Taiwan. The other day I was at Concourse, where they sell things like pencils and erasers for kids in bulk. And looking at some of the stuff reminded me so much of my childhood in Taiwan that I got really nostalgic over it. Was almost tempted to buy this pencil case with a magnetic lid, rectangular in size, just so I could have a tangible memory of childhood to look at every day.

That probably made no sense but that's just the way it is.

Anyway, I watched the CCTV new year concert-like thing in my uncle's house today. Waited about two hours for Jielun's performance, which disappointed me as I didn't think it was all that fantastic. He performed ��ȭ/Dragon Fist, which is an awesome song, but it sounded weird as he had to re-record it because the organisers of the event, anal retentive mainland China fuckers, complained about his mumbling, which is a bloody Jay Chou trademark to me, and to make things worse, he was forced to lip-sync and it all came across as awfully... weird. He's not a very good lip-sync-er. And I could tell that he was trying to sing live, as he did something in the beginning when he was coming out, held the mic close to his mouth and gestured with his hands, rapper-style, but there was no sound which really bloody pissed me off. I mean, don't fuck with his performance, all right? He's Jay Chou, he's renowned and even revered by many people and he knows what he's doing. If you want him to perform in your stiff-upper-lip event, at least give him some autonomy to do what he wants to! It was almost painful watching him perform; he looked so out of place. And it didn't help that his outfit didn't match the song at all. He wore some jacket and jeans (I think) and the song is this very gung-ho piece on the Chinese culture, and it's very Chinese in nature so he should've worn the pao he wears during his concerts when he performs this song. Oh well.

Before I bore non-Jielun fans any further, let me change the subject. Um, actually, not yet. Yeah so Channel U had this other show as well and I recorded it and all and I had to fast-forward about three hours of the programme to get to him. And fuck, he was brilliant, absolutely fantastic, singing live so beautifully and wonderfully and... bloody brilliantly! Too bad he only did three songs and bloody Channel U cut out the bit where he talks to the hosts. (Or rather, vice versa, considering his introverted nature.) Bloody hell. Of all the performers to cut, they cut Jay Chou! The Asian king of pop or whatever! They must've been on drugs.

Well it's approaching ten and I'm watching American Idol 3 so let me wrap this up. I was going to write something about how things would be different if I didn't come to Singapore when I was like seven and stayed in Taiwan instead, how I'd still be writing but in Chinese, how coming to Singapore and being proficient in English is kind of sacrificing the sort of closely-knit relationship I would've had with my own language, but I'm too lazy to expound upon all of it right now so I shall just leave you with that.

Happy Chinese New Year to all reading. Even if you're not Chinese.

And I really love being Chinese right now. And I don't care how superficial that sounds. �������! (Glory to the Chinese people or whatever.)

this entry requires chinese simplified encoding

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010