My Chinese New Year in Guilin

My CNY celebration was exciting! Initially, my plan was to escape CNY from China and spent it in Vietnam, but due to certain unforeseen circumstances, I was back in China -Guilin on the eve.

The atmosphere was so different back at home. Everyone was busy preparing for the coming New Year. Families went out for reunion dinner; markets were filled with housewives, buying chickens and pigs to be slaughtered for the occasion. Kids and adults alike went setting off fire-crackers on the streets.I went to join the crowd and set off fireworks too. That night, it was drizzling, and I was quite wet. However, the rain did not dampen my mood. Just like a kid, I was so excited, ready to blow off the place with my 24-shots fireworks. I was at the 'Jia Tian Xia' square, together with many people, in the rain. This is one of the official places where one can set off fire-crackers/fire works.

I heard from some locals, that the police usually will close an eye if it comes to festive season. In urban areas, one can only set off fireworks if there is a big festival. However, in rural areas, you can set off as many fireworks as you want. Interestingly, here comes the paradox again, that rich urban people have money to buy the fireworks, yet are all banned from them; whereas for the poor villagers, they would rather use the money to feed mouths than to spend on fireworks.

It is so spectacular to see so many people gathering together to set off many different kinds of fireworks. I was so elated and it was very heart-warming to see families gathering together and releasing fireworks of different patterns in different forms. And as each fireworks exploded in the dark sky, I can see that they were telling the happy story of each family here.

I video-ed the entire firework display, and I can hear myself letting go all the "whaaas" and "whoahhs" throughout the entire firework exhibitions. It reminds me of our national day firework displays. The difference is that this time, I get to set off my personal fireworks instead.

Well, although China is THE PLACE to spend your Chinese new year, (just like I had spent my Deepavali in India 7 years ago). I also realised that it is the person who you spent your Chinese new year with that makes a difference. It doesn't matter where you spent, it is who you spent with that counts. I still hope that in future years to come, I can spend my Chinese New Year with my family, with my parents. While watching the skies lighted up with many different colours and patterns of the fireworks, I miss my family and wish they are here with me to enjoy this picture.

This is the time I really miss home.

Why bother about queuing?

We, being Singaporean, are so used to queuing for anything. We queued for ‘hello kitty’ toys; we queued while buying TOTO or 4D. We queued to go into concert hall to see our idols, we queued for coupons and free gifts back at home.

Here, there is no such word in the Chinese dictionary. I always wonder why it is so difficult for the Chinese to queue.

Although I am enjoying myself, appreciating sceneries and experiencing the culture here, it just gets on my nerves when it comes to queuing. And it can be tiring at times when all these happened...ie. getting pushed around by locals while getting tickets for buses/trains. They will just shaft their hands into the tiny window hole with money to get their tickets while I am just right smack in front the window trying to place order. And when I really get pissed, I will always use my big backpack to block them off and made exaggerated moves in hope to "accidentally" whack them with my bag.

I get trampled over by rushing locals who don't give a damn about queuing to board the train. (I am glad that I have a gigantic backpack behind me to crush them if they plan to get close to me...) and while queuing for toilets, these Chinese will just rush in front of you, caught you by surprise and without leaving you any chance to react as they disappeared into the door-less cubicle.

Soon, it dawned on me that by observing rules and being an ambassador of Singapore gets me to no where. I realised that a lot of time, queuing system doesn't work here. Sometimes I hate to be like them, pushing my way to get myself seen. However, I know that if I play ball and be a 'civilised' person, I can't go anywhere or do anything here. I don't want to be like one of them. I hate myself when I see that side of me, ie. pushing my way together with the people here and using my bag as a shield to knock them off. I felt disgusted with my actions, and these thoughts have left me sleepless in some of the nights.

It is a tough struggle, and in fact, a very great and deep internal struggle. I never fail to ask myself on how much I will go to defend my principles. There were countless times my patience was challenged and I almost wanted to let go of my strong integrity sense. I can see the immense effort I have to put forth in order to integrate into this society which I have been staying for so many months. Although it seems that it doesn't pay to be civilised, I still don't want to join the dark force. I hate this statement, "If you can't beat them, join them!" I guess ultimately, God will see and people here will see too.

Although it may be quite a long time before they realized that there is such an action of lining up behind one another. As many times as possible, I still try my best to queue and make my presence known. I was once cut by others and I went up to the man and told him that I was queuing too. At times, it works. But of course, many continue to turn a deaf ear. Still, I am happy with my choice and I will see how long I will keep to that choice.

Getting used to the communal life here

I am a person who needs personal space. I mean privacy. However, since the day I stepped onto this land of the Dragons, I came to realise that when it comes to building toilets, the people here can save a large sum of money by not fixing up the toilet doors.

I really felt so awkward peeing in front of a long queue. Although, yes, we all are the same species and there is nothing special about each other's body parts. However, being quite a conservative person, I cannot release myself under the many pairs of eyes.

Ok ok, I know it’s not an appropriate photo to show, however, I feel the impact of my point across will be greater if the photo is there. Hehe, good way to score sympathy points!

Well, I then realised the more you try to shun and look suspicious, the more these aunties will stare that you. And I mean really stare at you when you squat above the hole. So, I tried my best to behave perfectly normal, and take off my pants as casually as possible.I think, the more you think people will look at you, the more they WILL.. As time goes by, I have been getting used to peeing without a proper door, with everyone peeing together, side by side with each other. Nothing uncommon and nothing in wonder.

In fact, many times when I visited the touristy area where toilets have doors, I have actually forgotten that there is a door and didn’t close it!

All I can say is the toilets in the rural areas were really stimulating to my sight and smell...I wonder if its something to do with their diet, because the wastes were splattered all over the place, and I wonder why they can't aim properly into the shit-hole? I could see maggots oozing out from the pile of waste below me. There were some faster ones, which have consumed more wastes, and blessed with more energy were already up on the walls!!

Being my size, I have to move in and out of these toilets in an extra slow and careful manner. Every turn I made in the toilet is done with precision and exact degree, so as not to scrape the wall. I pictured myself as an elephant dancing ballet in a tiny room meant for elegant swans.

And obviously, the smell from these items is so stimulating to my olfactory system that I cannot smell any other smells for the next 20 secs after I come out from the toilet. A lot of times, I would rather do it out in the wild, just behind a bush or something. I have learnt to close my eyes and hold my breath...

Somehow, after talking to farmers, I also realised that what seems as 'wastes' to us is actually 'gold' to them. They need these wastes for their vegetations and plantations, which directly affect their livelihood. I gave myself even better reasons to do my business in the wild so as to save the trouble for the farmers to bring out my wastes to the plants. I can help by directly fertilizing the plants, hot and fresh! So once again, I have learned to look at things in different perspectives, as in, some things which seem to be useless to you, can be very useful to somebody else.

My dear friend, Nana, told me that Jim Eillot once said this -" He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose" She came across this statement in a show, "End of the Spear". I find this meaningful too.