The Festive Season

What do you like most in festive season? How do you feel in festive season, along the way, year after year from childhood to adulthood? Feelings may be different year after year but the joyful memories remain.

For people whose ethnicity is Chinese, regardless of where they are and what their nationality is, Chinese New Year is the most important celebration in the whole year. In this year of Dragon, 2012, we celebrate it from 23rd Jan for 15 days.

Many Malaysian Chinese (ethnic Chinese born in Malaysia) go out from the country for their tertiary education or work but most of them make the effort to go back to Malaysia for reunion with their family to celebrate this joyous occasion. Malaysia is a country with about 30% Chinese ethnic composition and it retains the Chinese tradition very well although in a modern society. I even heard some Chinese from China said that Malaysia retains the tradition better than the mainland China itself. As usual, I went back home from Singapore to celebrate it with my family.

The Chinese tradition I talked about include listening to new year songs, visiting relatives, saying wishes, giving red envelopes to children and unmarried adults, cleaning home, decorating home and have reunion dinner on the eve, gambling, making food together and eating together.

Visiting temple is not a necessary part of the celebration but some people do visit. To me it is something special to me in the celebration this year. With family, I went to a large temple called Dong Zen Temple.

Bird-eye’s view of the Dong Zen Temple.

Shrine in the Main Hall.

This is the first time I went to the temple and I was amazed by the size and richness of it, in a country where Chinese is not the majority. The bird-eye’s view and the shrine above are much less than what I saw that night because more decorative lightings were on at the outdoor.  Let’s look at some of the photos and videos I took:

Long dragon lighting on the grass, at the entrance of the temple that looks like a bridge.

Another dragon lighting, with real flowers. Does it look a bit like a crocodile? xD This is art!

Center for meditation/training. A dragon boat is in front of it.

The dragon boat lighting from another angle.

Large cartoony light statues, their hands are actually waving!

A mandarin plant just outside the Main Hall.

Dragon statue around the walkway (head).

They really built it AROUND the walkway (body).

Dragon statue around the walkway (tail), with a thousand-hand Buddha behind.

Dragon around a large lantern.

Orchid by the walkway.

Lanterns of fish couple and…(see next photo)

Lanterns of dragon boat and lotus flower, near the lake of Koi fishes.

The Koi fishes with music of a song of Chinese New Year.  The music was broadcasted around the entire outdoor of the temple, it felt very festive while walking there!

Walking on there with more music! The music is non-stop and loud but comfortable enough for talking. This video shows a bit of what I saw and heard while walking.

The exit. Written on the arch “turning back is shore”. It has the implied meaning that, whatever your past is and no matter how bad your present is, if you’re willing to go back to the good thing (either behavior and/or state of mind), everything will still be stable and wonderful. To me, putting these words at the exit also has the meaning like “hey don’t go yet, have you missed out something? Are you ready to venture outside?” in a humorous but serious way.

And that’s all I wish to share about Chinese New Year for this post. I’ll talk more about each of the tradition and what they constitute, what happen exactly and what exactly we do with these traditions. They form an indispensible part of how the Chinese society works.

Besides, I had a wonderful Christmas in Finland with Minna. It was my first time in a place with wintery climate on Christmas so it feels like I had just lived my real Christmas then. I want to live real Christmases in a wintery country more and more!

Of course, Minna will be the better person to start talking about Christmas. I’d love to read what Christmas mean to her and to a Finn. Let’s look forward to her post about Christmases. I believe everyone shares some same feelings about festive season, whatever your festivity is. There is joy, there is togetherness, unavoidably, there is also a bit of missing someone sometimes, and reflection to the past. And maybe everyone eats more than usual and gets fat too, in festive season, I did! I’m so fat now! It’s time to shape up and I better get going! (:

Wish all your festive seasons be merry!

--TK

Making A Whole New World (Cover)

It is such a delightful thing to share with all of you the product of our voice and our love. Now don’t get me wrong, this product of our love is our cover of the song A Whole New World but not anything else. Thank you all for listening to the song, if you have not, you can listen to it here on our blog.

More than 8 months have elapsed since the first conception of making the song together. The joy of producing it and the quality of the product were prioritized against the time used to produce it. It is a dream comes true to me that it is a success and both of us are happy in the process and after making the video. Many of our friends, relatives and family members have commented positively and with enthusiasm. I cannot be more grateful!

The video is not as simple as it seems. It took our individual practices and our combined effort. Minna has practiced well singing the song. She could remember the lyrics by heart and she had taken many takes of her solo for evaluation and improvement. Finally we could take the video together and take the voices using condenser microphone. I did the audio cleaning, mixing and video production.

The day we took our video, we were both not in a mood cheerful enough for producing such a lovely and cheerful singing. I was considering whether it was a good time to take the video. I remember Minna encouraged me by saying that it is this song that we should produce it professionally regardless of how our personal feelings were. Those words were one of the success factors of the video. For sure, the success I said does not mean that the video has become very popular now, but I do feel proud about it because of all the positive comments we’ve got.

I like all parts of our video: the sound quality, the video quality and our performance. I like the camera we used for making the video. It is one of the gifts Minna gave me on my birthday. Of course, the most important gift from her this birthday is her company and her celebrating with me and the quality time we spent together. I couldn’t be happier.

Thank you for reading this post. We’d be delighted to see your comments too!

--TK

Niel holding Finnish flag

Teen Top's Niel is holding the flag of Finland and pointing at it. Did he pick it up among all the flags of the world? Is it something special for him? It's a mystery for me, but this photo warms my Finnish heart.

--Minna♪

Kim Hyun Joong wearing Räikkönen fan shirt

It's SS501 leader Kim Hyun Joong wearing a Finnish F1 driver Kimi Räikkönen fan shirt. Isn't it awesome? Please comment your reaction!

--Minna♪

A Whole New World cover on YouTube

We're happy to present our first cover song on YouTube together! It's been our dream and it's been realised, just like our relationship. Dreams do come true ♥ 

--Minna♪

A Long Dating

It is so simple to think that love is sweet and happy. Yes it is, but there are much more complications and considerations that challenge the bond formed by a couple.

So you long for an unconditional love?

“The will to stay together through good and bad” is the condition to unconditional and everlasting love!

It sounds contradicting that there is still condition to unconditional love, but true. Many things are not logical because it is love. Every relationship has its good and bad times, if one cannot manage and quits at bad time, progress cannot be made. If one manages the bad times and enjoys the good times, the relationship thrives. With the courage in both of us to overcome difficulties at bad times, our relationship grows. The search for the most important person in my life is the search of this one person who has the same courage as me to stay together and go through difficulties. It is certainly not easy to find one with the same courage.

People said that serious union of a couple is a matter of 6 people, not just 2 people. The 6 are: you, your lover, your parents and your lover’s parents. When parents come into the picture, many more things should be considered. Many challenges can be encountered.

I list out here what I think constitute love: “happiness, gifts, commitment, promise, belief, hope, quarrel, understanding, forgiveness”. Everything in the world become so beautiful when you feel you are loved, when you feel you are not alone every minute and every second, when you feel for sure someone is thinking of you all the time.

Before meeting Minna, I have never received any gifts from girls that really make me happy. I received self-made cookies from a girl before, whom I don’t think I’m suitable to, and I did nothing in return but just a polite “thank you” after several days receiving the gift. One girl gave me a Koala bear keychain and I perceived it as a friendship gift and I gave it to my younger sister because my sister really likes Koala bear and I had been thinking to buy her one. Some female friend gave me chocolate. I thank her, eat it and did nothing in return too. Minna’s first gift to me was very impressive and surprising, though it is just a small gift.

When I received Minna’s first letter in hardcopy, I touched the envelope and I felt something hard inside. I knew it was something more than just a letter. When I open it I saw a handmade bracelet with color very suitable to me. I was so delighted and there is no word to describe the good feeling the moment I saw the gift. It is a gift more than just a gift! From the one I love, to me with all her thoughts during, before and after the making of the gift. Thank you Minna. I’ll keep this first gift I receive from you as long as it lasts, if I could, until the day I leave the world.

When do you first feel the sense of commitment to one you date? It is always the case that when people fall in love, there is still much doubt about the relationship, much desire to keep some freedom to look around. In the starting of our relationship I frequently had the thought of leaving it if the feeling goes wrong, but not anymore when I realized the relationship is made of sincere and devoted love. I cannot pinpoint exactly when I have changed and made the full commitment, but I’m sure I have. It is perhaps a period of time that we build our commitment to each other. It is we and only we now. No more doubt and no more insecurity, no more considerations for other potential love. This stage is not easy, and if you still feel insecurity or doubt in your relationship after many years together, it is not a surprise.

Relationship without quarrel or at least argument is not a serious relationship because relationship is something we worked for to understand each other about all the similarities, differences, agreements and disagreements. The chance of meeting someone, who has no difference from you and agrees with you in everything and is not you yourself, is zero! Minna and I went through the difficulties from a number of times of quarrel. If we didn’t care to be serious, we would not have cared enough to endure the quarrel and find the best way to continue with each other. Misunderstandings are forgiven for the sake of both of us. I’m very proud of our relationship because I’m able to go through good and bad with Minna. I have stated my promise with her.

Now, Minna and I hold the same dreams, hope and beliefs about the relationship. We have a long dating. Realizing dreams. No matter where the future leads us to, we’ll go there, together.

--TK

(This is Minna and TK’s story episode 3; episode 1 was posted on 8^th May 2011 titled “The beginning”, Minna followed up episode 1 with “A new fantastic point of view... ♫♫”; episode 2 are “Heart to Heart” and “A son-in-law to love”)

A son-in-law to love

My boyfriend just showed me a fun article that was titled “Meet The Parents: Male celebs you can bring home to dad”. Everybody knows dad is the most critical when it comes to daughter’s partner. My dad was also suspicious about TK.

When I told my parents I’ve fallen in love, mom asked me several questions about the guy and she was pleased with what she heard. Dad reacted first to the part “fallen in love” and suggested I should rather say “I have a crush”. But, I was saying things as they were.

My parents now agree I’ve chosen a good man, and why would anybody disagree? He is a devoted man like the heroes in romantic Asian dramas. To me he is perfect, and I wish all girls would understand they deserve such a good man, who is perfect for them.

I don’t know if there is the right one for all of us, or whether love at first sight is true. Maybe any relationship is successful if people work for it. Perhaps the secret is that dreams of relationship need to be similar. What I think is that both have to be willing to stay together through good and bad. It’s in the marriage vow, too.

--Minna♪

(This is part of Minna and TK’s story, other parts are "The Beginning", “A new fantastic point of view... ♫♫” and “Heart to Heart”.)