Celebrating in hard times
As inflation persists, Malaysian Chinese have to sacrifice some customary practices when they welcome the Year of the Water Dragon.
Food prices have been rising sharply for some time now, forcing consumers to forgo what was normal fare a few years ago for cheaper and less satisfying alternatives. And that includes foods that have symbolic meaning in Chinese culture and are essential in celebrating the new year. Traders and consumers seem to agree that these items must have risen in price by 50% to 100% over the past three years.
Stanley Koh, Free Malaysia Today
Inspiration is to writers what the eureka experience is to scientists. It is not something you can invoke at will. It will come when it wants to. I am hoping it will come to me soon because I have to write my obligatory Chinese New Year piece and the clock is ticking away.
How does one write about a celebration when one finds little to be cheerful about? I tried looking for the muse by scouting around the wet markets and supermarkets. All I got was nausea from looking at the prices of those food items that we associate with Chinese New Year.
Many traders are complaining that business has so far been lacklustre, but an optimistic few think it will pick up at the last minute. They say plenty of households are waiting for their delayed monthly salaries and year-end bonuses.
I wonder why people would bother to celebrate when many of them cannot afford even a decent meal these days.
Food prices have been rising sharply for some time now, forcing consumers to forgo what was normal fare a few years ago for cheaper and less satisfying alternatives. And that includes foods that have symbolic meaning in Chinese culture and are essential in celebrating the new year. Traders and consumers seem to agree that these items must have risen in price by 50% to 100% over the past three years.
Malaysians can only smirk when the government makes its reassurances about controlling the prices of about a dozen food items widely used during Chinese New Year. We hear such promises at the approach of any festival and we never take them seriously. Our understaffed enforcement squads and their sporadic raids are no match against the smart and unscrupulous traders.
Would a boycott of the festival help to bring prices down? To many Chinese, the very suggestion is sacrilegious.
A friend chastised me when I raised the question. “Some traditions continue to have validity despite our living in modern times,” he said. “Chinese New Year is a time to remind ourselves to take stock of our actions for the whole year. The practices associated with it inspire us with wisdom.”
Okay, but what have all that to do with elaborate feasts that drain away your already meagre earnings?
It is all about symbolism. For example, there must be fish for a reunion dinner because the Chinese word for “fish” sounds similar to the word “abundance”. And there must be lotus roots, leeks, kale and cabbage—no matter how expensive they are these days—because they are good omens. And we have not even mentioned the more exorbitant items such as dried abalone and oysters.
However, even in non-inflationary times, Chinese New Year has always been a costly affair. The festivities last for 15 days, culminating in the mother of grand feasts on the night of Chap Goh Meh, which is familiar to Malaysians as the Lantern Festival.
Pragmatism
So how do the ordinary wage earners among Malaysian Chinese cope in these times of high prices for food and everything else?
Well, inscrutability is just one of the attributes of the proverbial Chinaman. He is also pragmatic and innovative. Many are finding cheaper alternatives without sacrificing much of the symbolism.
“For example, some families are substituting orange-coloured lime for mandarin oranges,” said retired trader Richard Soh, 59. “Their emphasis is more on the getting together of families, the spirit of the reunion rather than the food that goes into the stomach.”
