YT28 | This 70-year-old Chinese shares how to celebrate Chinese New Year for people of all cultures

Meet Victor Yue, He is a retired Singaporean telecommunications engineer, who now passionately delves into Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) with a focus on Singapore Chinatown and local Chinese Temples. In this episode, we delve into the vibrant traditions of Chinese New Year – from the cherished reunion dinner to the time-honoured practice of paying respects to elders. Explore the various cultural nuances, from the significance of red packets, and festive attire, to how the younger generations now celebrate the Chinese New Year. Tune in for a fascinating conversation on preserving cultural heritage in today’s fast-paced world!

Discussion Topics: This 70-year-old Chinese shares how to celebrate Chinese New Year for people of all cultures

• What’s The Essence of Chinese New Year?
• How have the Festive Traditions Evolved: Changes in terms of family dynamics and cultural practices
• Exploring the 15 days of Chinese New Year celebrations: Focusing on essential days like family visits, brotherhood celebrations, and the Lantern Festival.
• How can People from Other Cultures Celebrate the CNY? Visit Ten Hawk King in Chinatown or the Waterloo Street.
• How can I Celebrate CNY from Home? Decorate your home with pussy willows or have a wax duck for lunch.
• Preserving Our Roots: The Mission of Singapore Heritage Society: Preservation of cultural heritage and the promotion of awareness.
• Fading Traditions: Artisans, Temples, and Festive Skills: We need to document and preserve traditional craftsmanship, temple celebrations, and festive skills that risk fading away.
• Generational Disconnect: Bridging the Gap with Heritage Education- Potential loss of heritage skills and knowledge, especially among younger generations, and the role of education in reconnecting with cultural roots.
• Victor Yue’s Heritage Journey: A Life Well Lived – Delving into Victor Yue’s personal journey, experiences, and reflections, showcasing the diverse chapters of his life and the valuable lessons learned.

Transcript: This 70-year-old Chinese shares how to celebrate Chinese New Year for people of all cultures

Yana Fry: Welcome to another episode of YanaTV. Today our guest is Victor Yue, who is a heritage enthusiast in Singapore. And given that we are having Chinese New Year approaching our doorsteps in a few days, I felt it’s a perfect subject for today’s conversation. So Victor, thank you so much for joining us in the studio.

Victor Yue: I’m glad to be here.

Yana Fry: Chinese New Year is a huge celebration here, like in Singapore and in many countries in Asia. So maybe let’s start by just clarifying so that we all understand the significance of Chinese New Year.

Victor Yue: I think Chinese New Year means a lot basically to the family and the extended family uh, there’s a time when Everybody kind of slows down and we come together and have a meal with everybody.

And so the reunion dinner on the eve of Chinese New Year is the most important part, actually, for the Chinese New Year. And the following day, which is the first day, that’s when the senior will stay at home and the others, the children, the grandchildren, the great grandchildren will then come and visit them and, in a way, pay respects.

And, of course, for the young kids, it’s a fun time because they’re going to get red packets, the Ampao, and they get money. That’s the attraction.

Yana Fry: That’s why I’m sure, remember, I mean, in the culture where I’m coming, we were celebrating New Year, the 31st of December. And, of course, I remember as a child, it’s the biggest attraction. You don’t care about anything else. You just want your present. So, I understand again, maybe just for everyone to understand, to make sure we speak the same language here. If we talk about where Chinese New Year is coming from and what, what is the importance of that?

Victor Yue: I think being the Chinese, we call it a diaspora of China. Most of us our ancestors come to this part of the world over different times. So, for them to link back to home, what they are used to, of course, it’s the Chinese New Year. It’s one of the many festivities that, we look at.

And so, that is very important and of course, for most of us, it’s through the experience of it. You eat, you talk, you, for the traditional Chinese, you pray to ancestors. To the Chinese, it’s very important to remember your ancestors.

So a Chinese is saying that when you drink water, remember the sauce. So I think those are things that help us to carry on that tradition. Even though Chinese in different parts of China, Singapore, Malaysia and around the world might practice slightly differently. Chinese from different parts of China also have their own traditions. Right, you have the Southern, you have the Northern, you have the Cantonese, you have the Hokkien, you have the Teochew, a lot of them.

Yana Fry: Interesting. Uh, do you feel that like in your lifetime, just celebrating many Chinese New Year and they hope many more to come, you probably have seen also it’s changing.

Victor Yue: I suppose when, when we were very young, actually we were very poor, right? So in those days, we would not have the money to buy a lot of things. So Chinese New Year is a kind of opportunity to have something new.

Of course, unknown to us children. The parents have to scrape whatever money they have so that we could have new clothes, So, I think those days are like, we only, we’re happy to see new pajamas, a set of new clothes, shoes, a haircut. It’s a must, it’s a must, you must have a haircut before the new year.

Uh, and so those things that we young people look forward to, uh, nowadays is like, hey. You can have chicken any day, every day. In those days, it’s only during festival time that you have a chicken. So Chinese New Year is the time when we have chicken, and our parents will cook the chicken as an offering to the ancestors because that’s the food they like. And then we have that as our reunion dinner.

Yana Fry: Do you feel that the younger generation now still embraces Chinese New Year differently?

Victor Yue: I suppose it’s, it’s a different way in a sense that, yeah, they still have that reunion in the family, which I think most parents expect them to do. But after that, it becomes more like, hey, party for the friends, right? And they will go out and celebrate differently. Maybe the pub, maybe in a disco in those days. So that’s a lot of changes in that respect, but the core part of it is within the family. Um. They still do come and pay respects to the parents, and the grandparents. The only slight difference that initially was kind of discomfort to the older folks, but now it’s less, is when they wear black on Chinese New Year Day.

Yana Fry: Okay, so you’re not allowed to wear black.

Victor Yue: To the Chinese, black means mourning in a way. So the Chinese love everything red. So when it comes to Chinese New Year, you find especially the ladies will dress all in red. Like yours, all in

Yana Fry: Well, I’m glad they’re matching.

Victor Yue: And even for us, although now it takes a lot of effort for us to go and look for this traditional Chinese one to wear in red.

Yana Fry: The celebration itself of the Chinese New Year. Like could you take us like to some like, I know there are I think 14 days, right? Fifteen days of the celebration. So maybe if you could take us through like a major five days, which are the most important for those 15. But what are those days that are being celebrated and why?

Victor Yue: And on the Actually, it depends on different families and different traditions. Usually, on the first day we don’t cook. So whatever we have cooked the night before, that’s what we’re going to have the next day.

So the first day is very important because that’s when we go to visit. The first is to the grandparents, then the parents, and then amongst the families, and then sometimes friends. Alright, in my case, uh, I went. Not exactly extreme, but I always invite my friends, uh, all Singaporeans, not necessarily Chinese. I have Malay friends, I have Tamil, Indian friends, I have even Caucasian friends expect to come to my house for a night. And then that’s where we have a party that is like, not exactly Chinese because if the Chinese, they come, they’re tired of the Chinese food.

So in such gathering, you find that sometimes the friends, sometimes the cousins come together and they start playing games and of course with some money, you know, to have fun of it. second day and the third day are more or less the same.

Of course, on the third day there’s a belief that we should not be visiting people’s house. Right. Um, I think the seventh day, the seventh day is when. The Chinese celebrate it as all men or all human beings are brothers and sisters. And that’s when I think we had, uh, I don’t know when it started, but we have the raw fish, right? And then we did it according to low hay in Cantonese.

Yana Fry: With the, with the, with the chopsticks, right? And he, and he throw up in the air a bit noodles and the higher it goes, the more prosperity you get.

Victor Yue: and so that has become a very, what do you call it? A very Financier, very fine art of eating so much so that, in the corporate world, the companies will invite their clients to come for that joint celebration and joint prosperity for both the corporates and the clients. Uh, on the eighth night for the Hawkins, they, they will pray to a Jade Emperor, right? The God of the heavens.

And if you go in Singapore, nowadays, less in the old days, you’ll find that they will place an altar outside the house and they’ll pray to the Jade Emperor, which means that the heaven, um, 11 p. m. to the Chinese is the beginning of the new day. So that’s when it’s the ninth day. So actually the ninth day is the actual birthday of the Jade Mm-Hmm. So that’s, that’s, it’s very popular in those days. in my childhood days, the fun part of it is firecrackers.

Yes, so that will be the time when all the neighbours will try and fire as much crackers as they could, you know, and you’ll find the whole streets all covered with papers. And of course, the grand finale will be on the, uh, 15th day, right? Uh, 15th day, to the Chinese belief, is also the feast day of the official of the heaven.

And so that’s a day where if you follow Chinese histories, uh, where the girls are allowed to go out and look at the lanterns, the lantern festivals. And that’s where the girls will look out for the guys, the guys will look out for the girls.

Yana Fry: like a matchmaking evening

Victor Yue: On their own basis, you know, there’s no matchmaker. There’s also a belief that the, the, they will throw oranges into the river in hope of finding a spouse.

Yana Fry: Ah, I see. So it’s like a bit of a ritual, right? Okay. So this is the day 15. So it’s actually a lot about bringing the younger generation together and it’s creating a new family. So it also tells to me so that the whole family is coming together, but then it’s also it’s like the next step is okay, the younger than create their own family. For people who are non Chinese like me, where do you feel they can go to celebrate Chinese New Year? I mean besides Chinatown, right? So what is, the best way maybe to just immerse into the culture?

Victor Yue: You know, in the past, with the visitor’s voice complaint, when I come here on Chinese New Year’s Day, there’s nothing to eat everything closed.

Yana Fry: Especially in Chinatown, everything is closed for the next, maybe, eight days or so.

Victor Yue: I used to joke that on Chinese New Year’s Day, I would go for roti prata. You know, that’s probably the only store where, where the Indians open, and we have prata. And even the past ten. 20 years, whenever I organize a Chinese New Year’s Eve walk through the temples, all the way to Waterloo Street Temple, we will end up having breakfast at like five o’clock in the morning at the Indian restaurant to have roti prata. So that’s my ritual on New Year’s Eve, many temples will open. Many people will want to put their first joysticks, that’s what they say. And at 11 o’clock, it’s time to put your first joystick.

Of course, it’s difficult. Like in Waterloo Street, there used to be a lot of The crowd is so big that it’s almost impossible for you to reach that place. By the time we, we reach that Waterloo Street Temple, which is the most popular one, we will have been there like three or four in the morning, and there’s still a crowd, right? In Chinatown, there’s the Ten Hawk King, that’s one of the oldest temples dedicated to Ma Chu, the goddess of the sea, right? And, uh, every New Year Eve, at 11 o’clock, they would have the monks announce the arrival of the New Year by beating the drums and the gongs.

So that’s a time when foreigners or non Chinese could go and soak in and understand, maybe, how the Chinese celebrate. More or less the same style is being practiced, like in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and even in Chinatowns around the world and of course, food nowadays is like, any restaurant is always open.

Yana Fry: because they have Chinese New Year special.

Victor Yue: And because they do the lo hei, not the yishan, the raw fish, everybody wants to taste it. Now they, they, they have, uh, upgraded that value of that dish instead of the so called, uh, freshwater fish. Now they go for salmon, abalone, you know. Yeah. It’s easier to taste. For some people, they don’t like the idea of raw fish.

Yana Fry: I mean, it’s a matter of preference like any advice and tips, how do you, as, as a foreigner, how do you celebrate Chinese New Year if you don’t have any Chinese friends yet? and don’t know where to go. Okay. You went to the temple and he came home. So what do you do?

Victor Yue: So I, I suppose if, if you want to, to kind of prepare the home. To be more like a mandarin orange is one of them. The pussy willows and all those plants and flowers of the new year. That’s when you see in Chinatown and in Waterloo Street, they will bring them in to sell to the Chinese, and they will buy and decorate the houses with all these plants. Right? They have others like the, uh, they call it the cockerel’s comb.

These are all very beautiful ones. Unfortunately, I don’t think we can have peony because that’s too difficult to bring in. Then there are various kinds of oranges. They have the big ones, the small ones, the kumquats. And of course, tidbits, right? Uh, everything that a Chinese puts on has a meaning, right?

For instance, they will eat, they’ll get groundnuts. So groundnuts in Cantonese, Mandarin is hua shen. Everything shen means grow. So, so there’s a kind of sound. So if you go to Chinatown, probably soon before the New Year, one month, you’ll find that it offers a platter of different kind of, Uh, Tibbits, like melon seeds, peanuts, sweets, and normally we will have it at home so that when we have visitors, it’s something for them to, to, to eat, you know, as they talk.

And of course, some of them we have kind of mixed because, uh, in Singapore, we eat anything, everything from different groups of people. You will find some of this, we call it kueh kueh, those pastries that could be of Malay origin. Paranakan origin and even the Chinese, the Teochew, the Hakkas, the, the Hawkins, they have a different one.

And because Singapore is just a mix of people, we just put them together. Whatever we like to eat, we bring together. And of course, if you go Chinatown, you’ll find that, uh, they have like the Yunnan ham, Mm-Hmm. right? Yunnan ham is very popular with the Chinese and it’s in Singapore because it’s. It’s not so common, you only find them during Chinese New Year, they bring in the whole ham.

You can buy there, you can buy the wax duck, you can buy, uh, the wax, uh, meat and things like this. And, these days there are less people who knows how to cook them, right? So you prefer to go to restaurants, hey, I want to have these things. And things like, you know, ham, it actually adds in the flavor to whatever they’re cooking.

Yana Fry: a lot of around culinary. I can see whether you cook it yourself whether you go to the restaurant, but clearly it’s a lot about food. Okay, so that part. Victor, you, I’m just a bit curious a little bit about your story, your personal story. So you are born in Singapore?

Victor Yue: Oh, I was born , so I was born 1952. I remember when I go to school, I, I sing, I sing the song of, of uk Right. Okay, go save the Queen. 1959. And then in 1963, we became Malaysia. Right. And then we, we have to sing, uh, the national anthem of Malaysia, which is the Nigaraku. Right. So I was in Malaysia. two years later, 1965, we became independent we became Singaporean. So that’s, that’s me in three different, uh, you call it, nationality?

Yana Fry: All in one lifetime, without moving the country, so they all come to you. You

Victor Yue: You don’t have to move.

Yana Fry: People usually move, you know, for different nationalities. That’s interesting your work right now. And this is also like how we connected. And I know that you’re doing something interesting. And since the conversation about heritage, it’s Singapore Heritage Society. So can you tell a bit more what it is about? And what are you guys doing?

Victor Yue: Okay, so the Singapore Heritage Society is one of the, uh. NGOs, non government organizations, non profit organizations. The main objective for society is to try to create awareness and promote support for the preservation of our heritage, our cultural heritage.

Over the years we have Many people coming into Singapore, Chinese from all over China, and even the Malays you find them from different parts of Indonesia, and although we put them as Malay, they could be Javanese, they could be Sudanese, and so it’s very, each of them bring a very rich culture, and as time goes by, we get caught up with our rapidly developing world, we have forgotten about our heritage, so here we hope to get these people to think about it.

They say, Can you remember, or do you know what’s your grandfather’s heritage? Even for me, you know, I was too busy working. Right? Of course, behind that, my mom was always there who goes to temple and things like this. Until I met a an American professor based in a Canadian university who can speak Mandarin and Hokkien. And then, hey, I couldn’t even speak Hokkien that well. Don’t talk about reading Hokkien, you know. And then at that age, that’s about 50 years old, 2004, I start asking myself, what do I have to share with my children? And, and that’s when I start saying, hey, I need to know more about our heritage. So because of that, I was kind of drawn towards the Singapore Heritage Society, where we try, although we are a small organisation, but we have a big Uh, target and objectives.

I’m trying to cover the Chinese part. My Malay friends, my Indian friends will try and cover Eurasian friends. And in between there are many, right? We, we also have a lot of like Americans, Jews, who are actually kind of becoming Singapore, uh, citizens, right? So I think we try to promote where we can. We try to talk with agencies, government agencies, uh, to anticipate, right? Because you know, in Singapore today, you see the building tomorrow is gone. And then by the time we start crying, Oh, you know, that’s a beautiful building, you know, and we have lost a lot of beautiful buildings, but we understand we’re in a hurry to develop.

We are in a hurry to earn money so that we can at least live a more comfortable life. Imagine my days, there are no toilets or no flush toilets in a home.

Yana Fry: Can’t imagine.

Victor Yue: So we appreciate what we have done here. But now I think it’s the time for us to think about whatever we have, can we keep it? How do we keep the memories so that these people can always be there, remember? And of course, most important is intangible cultural heritage. Our practices, dances, our music, right?

Yana Fry: Yes, it is also handcrafted, right? And so it’s just documenting, uh, people of all the generations. Usually, we still remember how to do lanterns, temples, and decorations, like very specific festive festivities, right? Something which also, It seems like younger people don’t want to learn anymore because society is moving in a different direction, but all of those skills are now probably going to be lost when those people go, which is kind of sad to see if you think about it.

Victor Yue: I think the good news is there are some people who’s, uh, beginning to show interest. But the current situation is that they might not be able to earn a living. Just depending on doing this artisanal work. So that’s where we hope we want to do something that, uh, there is a demand. Right? So we, we hope, we hope to generate more interest, uh, with the people, with the schools. Because, uh, the children has to Learn to appreciate it first. Otherwise, there will be the, what do you call it, new generation. Whatever they need.Taobao, amazon. com. You don’t worry about it correct?

Yana Fry: You are In the seventies. You just started this decade and I’m just very curious. I mean, that’s already a very, you know, interesting full life and many things have happened until now. So when you look back at your

Victor Yue: I have a very,

Yana Fry: is one

Victor Yue: I have a very interesting life,

Yana Fry: that you really would like

Victor Yue: very young, where I have to go and pick coffee beans to help my mom to earn some money, you know, one, one box, which is like 50 cents pick, pick to I learned from young we have to try to survive some way, somehow, uh, and appreciate what we are doing, So it’s kind of hard to define one word that, you know, what I have experienced so far, but I’ve learned many things over the way, over the years, from the school, when I was in Boy Scouts. When I participate in trade unions, trying to make it better for my fellow workers.

And then now it’s heritage, trying to make things better for everybody to appreciate their heritage before it’s lost forever, right? We cannot take for granted that somebody is going to produce something for you, you know? We have to create our own artisans. I mean, the COVID is a very good example. When you need a workman to kind of repair and restore a temple, you cannot get anybody there’s hardly any in Singapore, and nobody’s able to travel here from China, Taiwan, or any part of the world looking back, I think, it’s good, it has been a good life. Not, how you call that, it’s not like something that you just have a, uh, easy life all the time. You struggle, but

Yana Fry: And when you look at the younger generation and people, I don’t know, maybe in their, let’s say from 15 to 35.

Victor Yue: I think the easiest way, most difficult way

Yana Fry: say something to them, like to further understand is we follow a Chinese saying, when you drink water, remember the right?

Victor Yue: So even when I meet people or in the schools, we always ask, do you know where your ancestral village is? You know, it’s not that we want you to go back to China or where, but that will keep you thinking where you come from.

And of course the next question is, Hey, ask your mom, ask your grandma. I mean, a lot of Singaporeans nowadays, they don’t, like Chinese, they don’t even know what is the dialect

that they’re from. Basically because the inter dialect marriages has has gone through many rounds, so everybody will always be, have brought you to this part of the world, I think that will get them thinking, and then when they ever go to visit any Chinatowns around the world, they might be able to connect, to understand, because every Chinatown has its own that will Chinatowns.

Yana Fry: I love how about the story.

Thank you so much. It was a wonderful conversation. And I love how we talk today, especially about the ancestors and our families. And it’s so important that we all remember where we come from. And I love how just Victor said, it’s when you drink water, remember I think it’s a wonderful opportunity, whether you’re Chinese or not, now the Chinese New Year is approaching, to just reach out to parents or grandparents, if they’re still alive at least, and say how much you appreciate them and perhaps a few things that you learned from them.

I think people always like to hear that. And we appreciate you tuning in and staying with us here today. Muse Studio for hosting Kiana TV and for you guys to be with Please remember,

Victor Yue: Cai. Gong

Yana Fry: share this video with a friend.