China - Family Matters

As explained in my previous post, our recent trip to China was to witness the opening ceremony of the refurbished ancestral home in Mei Zhou. Relatives from Indonesia, Malaysia and of course, China, gathered on the 12th and 13th of June 2011 to officiate the ceremony.

Planned by the Chinese relatives and funded mainly by the Indonesian relatives, the whole affair was officiated in a very grand manner. Firstly,  a large bus, a mini bus and  two cars ferrying relatives were led by an outrider from Mei Zhou town into the village, which was about a 30-45 minutes drive.

As we approached the village, you can imagine the convoy attracted a lot of attention but that was nothing compared to what we were going to experience next. Upon arrival, the roads were immediately blocked on both sides to allow us to alight and cross the road in safety. Even an ambulance had to stop until we were safely ushered into the smaller road.

And when I say ushered, I mean with two lion dances, a band lined up along both sides of the road, a gun firing vehicle and exploding firecrackers.

The band, the lion dances and the gun firing vehicle on the far right.

Closer look at the "guns"

Here's a video captured while we tried to gather everyone to walk along the lane towards the home. My jaw just dropped from the sheer magnitude of this. Felt like we were superstars!

There were large helium balloons, an air pumped gateway, flags erected, lanterns, huge supply of firecrackers, 1-hour fireworks for three nights (you know, the kind that shoots high up into the sky and explodes into different patterns. It lasted for an hour on the first night. We didn't stay long enough to time the second night.), abundance of food...

Firecracker content from one box

There were at least 6 spots where the firecrackers were set off. This was the supply for one spot.

How one spot looked like after the firecrackers

Food being prepared on the spot. Health officials actually came by to check !

Food preparation for 150 tables for lunch on Day 2

The hour-long fireworks display

Besides the ceremony of placing the ancestral tablets into the prayer hall, the days were spent visiting relatives like an extended Chinese New Year celebration, eating, giving speeches and entertainment.

Speech by the Indonesian counterpart

Speech by the Malaysian counterpart

A portion of the Malaysian group

Some Chinese and Malaysian relatives

The whole Malaysian contingent

Since I could only speak English, I spoke to some grand nephews and nieces (yup) from Indonesia. KS belongs to the 23rd generation while these guys are from the 25th generation. They are about the same age as us and some of them already have kids. They had to call the 2 year old baby in our Malaysian group as Uncle. Looks like we have a lot of catching up to do.

The four guys standing are KS grand nephews

It was great being able to connect with them and hopefully we'll keep in touch.

On the second night, a stage was erected and there was an entertainment show organized with singing, dancing, some traditional, some modern. The entire village showed up.

Our Malaysian clan was well represented by nephew Yueh Ren who performed two traditional songs and gained fans that night. He's performed in South Korea too and some other parts of the region, by the way, so he's no novice! 

The Indonesians gamely went up and performed a Mandarin song. 

This is roughly the layout of the house:

The semi-circle rooms at the back is built upon a hill to prevent invasions so the height of the structure hugs the hill. Sorry for the comparison but it kind of reminds me of the Chinese graveyard, which is the best way I know how to describe it. The semi-circle pond in front is a feng shui thing for every Hakka home.

There were many long hours in between so we amused ourselves with jumping shots as usual.

New recruit! Yueh Ren joined in the fun. After jumping, an amused man came up to us and asked if this was our first time here. Another lady then came up and offered us some food.

And another new recruit, KS cousin :)

 

We certainly had a lot of fun this trip!

China - Touristy Stuff

We recently had the opportunity to visit KS ancestral village in Mei Zhou, China to attend the opening ceremony of the newly restored ancestral home. The home was derelict and in shambles, a decision was made by the relatives to repair and restore the place. The main portion that needed immediate attention was the the prayer hall which contained the ancestors prayer tablets (used for ancestral worship). However, although there is no one staying at the house any more, it was decided that the entire home be upgraded and so the task of repairing the place started a couple of years ago.

So when the place was completed, relatives from Indonesia and Malaysia were invited to attend the opening ceremony which was nothing short of grand. We had an amazing 27-28 relatives from Indonesia and 27-28 relatives from Malaysia who attended this event.

When we reached Guang Zhou, we whisked off on a coach for 2 hours to this place called He Yuan, where a dinosaur egg was found floating along the river years ago. There, we visited an 800 year old Hakka village where people still stay and live like the olden days.

The lanes were laid with smooth stones which were worn down over the centuries that I couldn't resist but walk bare feet.

After that, we were taken to see what used to be the tallest fountain in er... Asia? China? I can't remember. Instead, I spotted this structure which reminded me of the boat in Spirited Away.

The next day, the coach took another 4 hours to get to Mei Zhou where we met up with relatives from China for lunch and then the Indonesians for dinner. In between, we visited an old temple and also another historical place about this person who helped with some uprising. Sorry. Everything was in Mandarin, and the English translations took longer for me to understand so I gave up. All I know was that this guy came to Ipoh to get funds to help with his cause.

After that, we had the ceremony which I will blog about in a separate post.

The last few days were spent shopping and visiting more historical places like a lake which had some story of a man who dreamt of his dead wife visiting him while completely soaked until he built a bridge for her to cross the lake, the very well maintained Opium War museum (if that is what it's called) and the riverbank where the canons which were used to fight against the um, British? Crap. As you can see, my blog entry will be full of inaccuracies. (Wait! KS has done research and gotten the correct names for the places we visited! Yay!)

A really tall bridge near where the canons are located

A horizontal tree growing across the lake at Su Embankment

Gateway to the Lake

Opium War Museum

We also had to be taken to the shop that sells medicine and jade, one of the government requirements for all tours to China. Ushered into a room, we were given displays of unique selling presentations, from frightening guests by looking at them and saying, "I can tell from your face you have problems with your kidneys" to "My wife finally just gave birth to a boy after having 7 girls, so I want to celebrate by giving you a piece of jade as a token of blessings". 

Room view of the Pearl River in Guang Zhou on our last night

Our tour guide, Xiao Qu, and the bus driver who was too shy to take this photo, with the bus.

All in all, I enjoyed myself being in the company of KS relatives. However, if I were to ever go back to China for another tour, I would join one that has an English speaking guide because I probably only got 10% of what was explained. Translations went from Mandarin to Cantonese (which I also struggle with) and occasionally into English until we shifted places to sit near KS mum. Only then was I less embarrassed to keep asking what the guide was saying. 

Visit from Canada

My aunt and uncle from Canada visited us recently and it was really good to catch up with them. :) My uncle is amazing, he had contacts of his friends whom he hasn't met in over 40 years, all in a little notebook he carried around. So every day, he would meet up with one of his friends, schoolmates, ex-colleagues, neighbours and I even discovered I have a god-uncle!

See the guy in black and his wife beside him? He was my parents page boy when they got married. And that was the last time they saw him. In 1968. I kid you not. When my uncle contacted him, his wife was like, "I never knew you had a god-brother!".

His family were neighbours with my Mum and Uncle when they stayed in Melaka back then and he apparently used to stay over at their place quite frequently. So they are now in the Klang Valley and my parents finally have his contact. Wow!

Also managed to catch up quite a fair bit with my uncle. He came over to visit my new place and we chatted for an hour. He was passionately sharing about how proud he was of his kids, how well they are all doing, how proud he was to see the work of their hands. KS and I could feel it emanating from him. It was very touching. Kenny, Kelvin and Karen, I hope you guys know this. :)

It was really great to see them after so long.

Icing on the Cake

I've always wanted to try to make a chocolate cake, complete with chocolate icing. Several attempts failed until I read this blogger's recipe so I thought I'd give it a try.

At the baking goods shop, I spotted some cute sugary sprinkles in the shape of dinosaurs to give colour to my chocolate cake. So anyway, I toiled in the kitchen for a night and carefully spread the icing for a good hour (i hardly ice my cakes, so no practice) the day after. It so happened that night we went out to celebrate two friends' birthdays so I brought the experiment along.

Their comments were consistent and simple. "Cute dinosaurs!"

So my learning from this is, nobody really cares about the cake. It's the decorative icing that counts. :)

Never Say Never

I've often said I would never be eager to go visit China. Despite my parents and my in-laws going there on several trips and having shown us photos and seeing photos of breathtaking views, my interest remained lukewarm. Why would I want to go where you have to be wary of what you buy, what you eat and worse, carry an umbrella whenever you need to use a toilet, that is, if I'll be lucky to have a toilet rather than just a hole in the ground with a heaping load of crap beneath me?

With that, yes, I am now booked to go China in June. And yes, I am eager to go. Simply because it will be the largest gathering of my husband's family at their ancestral home. A couple of years ago, my in-laws went together with newfound relatives in Indonesia and donated some money to build some er... building in that area. Now that the structures are up, there will be a huge opening ceremony and of course, all the donors and members of the clan are invited. So all my Masjid Tanah relatives plus the ones from Indonesia whom I have yet to meet and relatives from goodness knows where will be there.

I have been very keen on tracing my family tree and have started up a family tree online. With the help of relatives who are connected, we have managed to extend the tree horizontally. It's so fascinating to see people from all over the world related to one another, people whom I will most likely never meet in person, but just to know we are all related fascinates me.

So, this trip is one where I can see the vertical genealogy of the family I married into. My name is apparently in the family book there in China. So excited!

Which also means, my trip to US/Canada... :P... ah... never say never.

Not Again!

I think I will always have this demon plaguing me. The "DSLR or No DSLR". So here I am, happily trudging along with life, often bringing my new G12 everywhere I go but I don't take any photos. So yeah, I don't take much photos these days. Uninspired. Plus my iPhone camera takes what is sufficient just to show proof that I was there hanging out with my group of friends.

Then yesterday at a wedding, even though I could have brought my G12, I didn't. Instead, at my table, my friend brought her Nikon D40 with these awesome lens. I took one shot. Just ONE shot. And I swear, I'm in love.

Focussed on the wrong prawn though...

I love the bokeh! But but but... would I spend thousands just so that I can get great bokeh shots? My G12, great as a point & shoot and as a prosumer, isn't able to give me this. Plus, it's not even 6 months since I got it and yet I hardly take photos with it.

Just bear with me as I battle this one out again. I usually am successful at stamping out any spark of desire by vehemently declaring, "Die! Die! DIE!!" but this time, even after chanting it for a full day and then seeing the photo again and again, my valiant efforts are starting to wear thin, my sane reasonings on why I don't need one are flying out the window. *Groan*

Groupsmore

I recently bought some coupons from Groupsmore.com (which was bought over by Groupon not too long ago). My first two redemptions were done last week. The first one was getting 6 Chicken and Mushroom pies and one huge apple pie from this place called Mr Pieman. I heard the owner over the radio a couple of months ago. He explained he was trying to bring the pie eating culture into Malaysia, just like when he was staying in NZ years ago. I resonated with him, remembering my pie eating days in NZ, how affordable and widely available they were.

So I was determined to try them out and when the Groupon opportunity came along, I grabbed it. After all, we host our cell group in our place so it would be a good excuse reason to feed everyone. 

Unfortunately, only one person turned up for that day. And I bought extra just in case 6 wasn't enough. So I had 8 pies and 1 large apple pie. Unfortunately too, it was SO salty, we could hardly finish up one pie each! I drank 6 glasses of water to wash away the salt but it lingered. I will try to find time to give this feedback to the company because seriously, no one would go back for seconds and I'm glad I didn't ruin the brand name had all my guests come.

My second Groupon was for a mani + pedi. I was the only one there the whole two hours and the two staff attended to me. I got sucked into adding more services (paraffin wax treatment) and ended up buying a package for 5 times of mani + pedi. Oh well... I reasoned I would be doing this more often now that I've discovered I like painted toe nails.

One more Groupon to utilize. Will blog about that once I use it up :P