Culture Chronicles #3

Where I share five fun cultural delights from China and Malaysia every month.

An elderly lady enjoys a quiet moment in the middle of MidValley Megamall’s Hari Raya decor.

It is Hari Raya Aidilfitri in Malaysia, otherwise known as Eid al-Fitr around the world. As usual, malls around Malaysia will try to out do each other with their decorations. This year, I only had time to visit Midvalley Megamall, a major mall in Kuala Lumpur. This is because I was in Penang for Cheng Beng.

Ramadan Bazaar

I had this big plan to take a video of a Ramadan bazaar before Hari Raya happened, but my phone betrayed me by croaking after I snapped this photo.

During the fasting month, Ramadan bazaars will be the highlight of the day. They usually open around 5pm, sometimes earlier, and patrons will flock to the open markets to buy food for buka puasa (breaking fast).

But yes, I’ve had such a busy, busy April with work and with Cheng Beng preparations that I could only visit the bazaar once (sobs).

More Penang. Like, can we have enough of it?

Speaking of Penang, it was so sad to leave it to return to Kuala Lumpur. (In fact, I’m writing this newsletter a day after I returned.)

I almost wanted to extend my trip but I know it’s not feasible. Work beckons. My possibly dead garden back in my apartment also awaits me.

Penang always fills me with nostalgia and joy. I spent my early childhood there, so my memories are filled with trishaw rides with my grandma who is always in her best nyonya kebaya.

Every time I walk around Georgetown, I’m amazed by the mix of the very old with the old and new. Buildings from our British colonial past stand next to old shophouses that have seen different governments, and even a few wars. You can walk down a street filled with modern shophouses, only to be greeted by a century-old temple nestled in a corner.

View of the modern skyscrapers from Gurney Drive.

Five stones

One of my fondest memories of my paternal grandma was walking back hand-in-hand with her, collecting red sago seeds which she will sew into little bags so that I could play batu seremban (“five stones”).

During the 80s, because we didn’t have the Internet or social media. That’s what we did for fun. Cultivate hand dexterity by tossing and balancing bags of seeds with our hands! (Yeah you can guesstimate my age now lol.)

Ngajat dance

I try to highlight as much of Malaysia as possible, but it can be tough because we are such a diverse nation, so it can be difficult to feature them all. So, one of my favourite ways to highlight a culture is by featuring its dances.

This is the ngajat, a dance from the Iban-Dayak peoples from Sarawak. (Ngajat means “to dance” in the Iban language.) I confess I’m not an expert in their dances, but I just love watching the various dances from Malaysia and will definitely share them with all of you in future editions.

This is a short newsletter as I try to get my holiday brain back online to more serious things. Hope you enjoyed it and learning something fun and new anyway :)

Also, I would like to wish Eid Mubarak or Selamat Hari Raya to those celebrating it. :)

PS: I also need to apologise in advance for spelling/grammatical errors if there are any. I’m not kidding when I tell you that I still have holiday brain.

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