Eye Candy

Valentine's Day is only 2 days away.  Shops in the mall are trying to entice shoppers to continue the shopping frenzy that started since Christmas to Chinese New Year and now Valentine's Day. After this, most would stop festive spending till Hari Raya Puasa, that would take place in August. That'd be a looong break for retail business!  So, retailers are being as innovative as possible to attract shoppers.

Here's one shop with so called 'Eye Candy' campaign!  Attractive lingerie in red for Valentine's Day!

Have you received your Valentine's gift? If not, how about asking for an eye candy?

Mr. Gintell

Mr. Gintell was attracting kids in the mall!

Flying Red

Red flags are hung all along the street of my neighbourhood in conjunction of Chinese New Year Festival. Even though the celebration ended on the 15th day of Chinese Lunar Calendar (6th Feb 2012), buy the decorations are still up. Probably it's because Lap Chun for this year falls on 4th Feb. Read more about Lap Chun in the given link as my knowledge of it is very little. 

To me, Chinese New Year will not be over till the end of Feb! I can still hear the rhythm of drums from the lion dance and the songs of Chinese New Year playing in my mind. So, the festive spirit is still on-going!!

Flying with the Dragon

This is the dragon found decorating the street of Jonker Walk this year. It sprouts water every 30 minutes instead of fire as this is the year of Water Dragon.

It is said that Dragon brings good fortune and luck. Being a Water element year, thing will move swiftly. Ideas flow, creativity abound, economies bloom and love blossoms in the air. In short, a very exciting year!


So, are you ready to fly with the Dragon?

Box Office

For the Chinese New Year festive period, these are the movies available for the holiday in the cinema:

- I Love Hong Kong 2012
- Underworld Awakening
- Ah Beng The Story: Three Wishes
- Viral Factor

What movies are showing in your local cinema?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Happy Lunar New Year to all! May the year of Dragon brings you endless good fortune, luck, good health, golden opportunities, joy and peace! Gong Xi Fa Cai.

Good times do fly fast. Today is already the 7th Day of Chinese New Year. And it is called the Man's Day, where human is believed to be made on this day. Here's what I found on the internet about the significance of this day:

The seventh day of the first lunar month is named renrì (Traditional Chinese: 人日, Pinyin: rén rì), literally Human Day and is considered to be the birthday of ordinary, or common men. The day is also called Day of Men or Men Day.

According to Chinese legends, Nüwa (Traditional Chinese: 女媧; Simplified Chinese: 女娲; Pinyin: nǚwā) is the goddess who created the world. Two legends refer to her creations.
Nüwa and her brother Fuxi survived a devastating calamity, which had wiped out all other life. Retired to Kunlun Mountain they prayed for a sign from the Emperor of Heaven. The divine being approved their union and the siblings set about procreating the human race.
Note: in some texts or according to other legends, Nüwa is considered to be Fuxi’s wife.

According to a different legend Nüwa created certain animals on different days as she was lonesome and wanted the animals as company. On the seventh day after the creation of the world, Nüwa created human beings from yellow clay. With the divine power entrusted to her, Nüwa made the clay figurines to become alive.

Renri is the day, when all common men are growing a year older and the day is celebrated with certain foods according to the origin of the people.
The ingredients of the dishes have a symbolic meaning and they should enhance health.

To honour Nüwa's creation of animals either vegetable dishes will be eaten or a raw fish and vegetable salad called yusheng (simplified Chinese: 鱼生; pinyin: yúshēng).
Yusheng literally means "raw fish" but since "fish (鱼)" is commonly conflated with its homophone "abundance (余)", Yúshēng (鱼生) is interpreted as a homonym for Yúshēng (余升) meaning an increase in abundance. Therefore, yusheng is considered a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor.

Traditional Chinese: 余, Pinyin: yú, translated: extra; surplus; remaining)
Traditional Chinese: 升, Pinyin: shēng, translated: to raise; to hoist; to promote)