Commentary: Why tradition still trumps tech this Chinese New Year
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Commentary: Why tradition nevertheless trumps tech this Chinese New year's day
Precious family unit quirks and traditions still take value as they hold a fast commercialising festive season at bay, says Cherie Tseng.
An extended family unit gets together to traditionally celebrate Chinese New Year. (Photo: Instagram.com/elvinngchoonsiong)
25 January 2022 06:35AM (Updated: 02 Feb 2022 08:09PM)
SINGAPORE: Growing upward, Chinese New Year's (CNY) eve was riddled with my mum's "standard operating procedures"- odd things that she needed united states to do.
At the stroke of midnight, Dad, equally head of the household, would dutifully open the forepart gate to symbolically welcome good luck.
My sisters and I would be sent to switch on all the lights in the house, to signal a twelvemonth filled with brightness and light.
THE LOGIC OF TRADITION
Years later, my sister and I even so echo this ritual – at our respective households – to conductor in the new year's day.
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Of form we wondered the demand to do and then in the first identify, and whether leveraging technology could simplify the process. With smart homes today, it wouldn't take much to plan all the lights to exist switched on at midnight.
But yet, despite these conveniences, we still proceed these former casuistic rituals.
There'due south a part of me that wants to pass on these traditions from my elders – who are non getting whatever younger – to my kids. There is hope that, just like me, they also will unquestionably preserve these traditions and guard them like a family heirloom.
DEFEND THE KITCHEN
Have CNY food for instance. Many families have made the switch to catering instead of toiling in the kitchen, given the convenience of food delivery apps.
From popular hotpot stalwarts Haidilao to western bar-grills like Brotzeit, you can enjoy loftier-quality eatery food in the comfort of your home.
READ: Commentary: The 'multifariousness result' explains why we overeat about holidays
My family has stuck with tradition though.
So that'due south why, my grandma's cooked mee sua (longevity noodles) served with a hard-boiled egg is still a must do. "Must eat then you will always have food to eat in the new year!" she would belt out in Hokkien.
"You are getting old, Ah Ma, let'due south just cater", a cousin said last CNY, even showing her the yummy bowls ofmee suaavailable online.
She balked at our suggestion. "It's not the aforementioned!" she exclaimed, "It'due south not made in my kitchen!" And she'south correct. With our busy schedules, a considerable amount of our nutrient consumed daily already comes from outside.
I also relish the opportunity every CNY to taste grandma's cooking brindled with her maternal beloved.
BAK KWA PIETY
Similarly, one of the highlights of my snacking frenzy at grandma's place undoubtedly involves a bundle or two of bak kwa (roasted sweetmeat), which a grandchild queued for hours to buy.
In an age where e-commerce and food delivery are commonplace, information technology is half-baffling that snaking long bak kwa queues are nonetheless a thing. "My queued-for bak kwa tastes amend because its flavoured with filial piety," my cousin would exclaim.
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These days, bak kwa piety tin even exist bought by paying for someone to stand up in queue for you. Apps like iqueue and even Telegram conversation groups help yous go that washed for a small-scale fee.
I incertitude the un-queued for bak kwa tastes any less sweet.
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All the same, the rush of heading to your favourite bak kwa outlet amid the last-infinitesimal cleaning and shopping, along with the opportunity to make small talk with other shoppers on all things CNY, is just a part of the overall festive atmosphere you can't miss.
Convenience has its place, but sometimes it has to take a back-seat to more emotive causes.
Cherry PACKETS
I utilize the aforementioned line of thinking when it comes to the ubiquitous ruby packets (hongbaos). At grandma'due south house, regardless of marital status, everyone gets a reddish parcel.
Like other Chinese families, the horde of usa would queue up to wish grandma well and she, in turn, would bless us as she hands the states our hongbaos.
Grandma'due south retentiveness is failing. Several years ago, she lost rails of who had collected and who hadn't. Someone quipped that she should consider giving outeastward- hongbaos then that she can track and trace and go cashless.
I am glad to say that on this side of the pussy willow,e- hongbaos are, thankfully, not quite stylish nonetheless even if reports suggest a gain in popularity.
In China, platforms like WeChat and Alipay give out e-cerise packets at festive seasons that people can e-snatch by clicking on their app. Over 45 billion are given out each year, with Alibaba-owned marketplace, Taobao, announcing plans to give out 2 billion yuan (S$390 one thousand thousand) in cash during the Spring Festival holidays in 2020.
Ride-hailing company Catch has a similar game where gifting a S$1 Grabpay e-red packet could win you as much as S$288.
DBS launched a new iteration of loadable QR red packets that "would permit users to preserve the traditional act of giving and receiving concrete red packets, while eliminating the utilise of greenbacks".
READ: More than red packets recycled due to specialised efforts, increased digital transfers over Chinese New year
Despite all these incentives, I will pass on the opportunity to wait "absurd" and technologically-sophisticated in forepart of my cousins this twelvemonth.
Instead, I opt to join the family unit queue to receive grandma's blessings – all the while eagerly anticipating what her wisdom has in store for me this year. A woman of few words otherwise, her blessings reveal what she does non get to say for the rest of the year – how she is happy that yous accept a new job, or how she wishes that you lot would come learn her mee sua recipe.
NO RUNNING AWAY FROM TECH
Information technology would exist naive of me to call back that CNY, similar other traditional festivals, would remain immune to the advent of technology.
Already, you tin pretty much commandeer all your needs from your smartphone.
Spring cleaning? Select from a host of domicile cleaning services on platforms like Page Advisor, a real-time mobile-commerce marketplace platform.
Demand groceries? Between, NTUC, Lazada and Shopee, y'all tin can buy virtually everything and annihilation. You lot tin can even rent a fellow on Carousell to aid stave off that nosy-parker aunt.
Then, betwixt tech and tradition,huat gives?
As much as I want to agree on to these passed-down family traditions, in some areas pragmatism has to take precedence.
For instance, traditionally, CNY is a flavor where many out-of-town family members make the long trek home - a fourth dimension when family unit and friends reconnect and catch up.
In recent years, notwithstanding, many opt to skip the annual pilgrimage. "Also far. So expensive. I'll video phone call." Even though the catch-up over FaceTime is brief, seeing their happy faces squashed in a small screen brings a smile to grandma'south confront.
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That can't be all bad. Peradventure this is what the spirit of CNY means to me – to go that extra mile to preserve traditions, renew relationships and create new memories. If tech helps the states do that, there is certainly some identify for it aslope existing family unit traditions.
As for me - someone who sits at the confluence of technology and storytelling - I notice myself mildly scrambling to hold on to small-scale moments that make this season personally meaningful to me, like precious family quirks that concur a fast commercialising festive flavor at bay.
And so I know that at the shut of this CNY eve, I'll be reminding my husband to open the front gate and hustling my sons to go plow on all the lights.
Cherie Tseng is Principal Operations Officer at a local fintech company, a mother of three and editor with The Birthday Collective.
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