Chinese New Year in 2009

This is the year of the Ox, but it sure doesn't feel like it. It is far more bearish.

And, in the tradition of the good luck and bad luck duality that I enjoy, I lift the following straight from Wikipedia:

Good luck
-Opening windows and/or doors is considered to bring in the good luck of the new year.
-Switching on the lights for the night is considered good luck to 'scare away' ghosts and spirits of misfortune that may compromise the luck and fortune of the new year.
-Sweets are eaten to ensure the consumer a "sweet" year.
-It is important to have the house completely clean from top to bottom before New Year's Day for good luck in the coming year. (however, as explained below, cleaning the house on or after New Year's Day is frowned upon)
-Some believe that what happens on the first day of the new year reflects the rest of the year to come. Chinese people will often gamble at the beginning of the year, hoping to get luck and prosperity.
-Wearing a new pair of slippers that is bought before the new year, because it means to step on the people who gossip about you.
-The night before the new year, bathe yourself in pomelo leaves and some say that you will be healthy for the rest of the new year.
-Changing different things in the house such as blankets, clothes, mattress covers etc. is also a well respected tradition in terms of cleaning the house in preparation for the new year.

Bad luck
-Buying a pair of shoes is considered bad luck amongst some Chinese. The character for "shoe" (鞋) is a homophone for the character 諧/谐, which means "rough" in Cantonese; in Mandarin it is also a homophone for the character for "evil" (邪).
Getting a hair-cut in the first lunar month puts a curse on maternal uncles. Therefore, people get a hair-cut before the New Year's Eve.
-Washing your hair is also considered to be washing away one's own luck (although modern hygienic concerns take precedence over this tradition)
-Sweeping the floor is usually forbidden on the first day, as it will sweep away the good fortune and luck for the new year.
-Saying words like "finished" and "gone" is inauspicious on the New Year, so sometimes people would avoid these words by saying "I have completed eating my meal" rather than say "I have finished my meal."
-Talking about death is inappropriate for the first few days of Chinese New Year, as it is considered inauspicious.
-Buying (or reading) books is bad luck because the character for "book" (書/书) is a homonym to the character for "lose" (輸/输).
-Avoid clothes in black and white, as black is a symbol of bad luck, and white is a traditional Chinese funeral colour.
-Foul language is inappropriate during the Chinese New Year.
-Offering anything in fours, as the number four (四), pronounced sì, can sound like "death" (死), pronounced sĭ, in Chinese. Pronunciations given here are for Mandarin, but the two words are also near-homophones in Cantonese. See tetraphobia.
-One should never buy a clock for someone or for oneself because a clock in Chinese tradition means one's life is limited or "the end," which is also forbidden.
-Avoid medicine and medicine related activities (at least on the first day) as it will give a bad fortune on one's health and lessen the luck one can obtain from New Years.

TED Talks: Who was General Tso?

During this holiday time of eating, I came across a very interesting presentation about Chinese food in America. I have long differentiated between authentic Chinese food and 'Chinatown' Chinese food, and I have pointed out that the beef-and-broccoli dish is part of the 'Chinatown' Chinese cuisine. The video below elaborates further.

Jennifer 8. Lee, a New York Times reporter with a number 8 for a middle name, "talks about her hunt for the origins of familiar Chinese-American dishes -- exploring the hidden spots where these two cultures have (so tastily) combined to form a new cuisine." (from TED.com)

Some of her facts may be wrong, but it's still an interesting thing to think about. Is this unique to Chinese food because of the broad reach of the Chinese? And what defines a dish to be even partially Chinese anyway?

Yay, Chinese!

As you might have found out already, the new iPhone 2.0 software update and the iPhone 3G came out last Friday. I was looking forward to the update for iPod touch, and the features I was really looking forward to were the new scientific calendar and the improved calendar. Perhaps the biggest thing about the new software is the support for applications. I have already purchased two games for the iPod touch (which I expect to also work when I get an iPhone down the road).

One of the most interesting features to me is the support for East Asian languages now. See below for Chinese (Traditional). There are two ways to do it: (1) writing (more like drawing) the word with your finger, which I found a bit easier to use for simple words, but difficult at the same time because of my lefthandedness*; (2) using pinyin to spell out the sound of the word, which I prefer because I am better at speaking than I am at writing the Chinese (usually**). The nice thing is, there is the option to type whichever way in between sentences or word phrases with the simple touch of a button. It's nice when I see a word but don't know since I am able to still writing it onto the iPod. Very nice . . .





* I tend to write the wrong way, drawing lines right-to-left rather than the proper left-to-right. The iPod seems to take into account the direction in which a line is drawn, so I saw I kept receiving words that did not look anything like the one I had "drawn".

** My Chinese is overall still pretty bad, unfortunately.