cny2008: day two fortune-hunting

Tradition In A Little Red Ang Bao
Ang Bao (Hokkien) / Hong Bao (Hong2 Bao1 - Chinese): the boon of all kids and single folk (who receives them), the "bane" of all parents and married couples (who gives them away) ... or at least to the parents who're struggling to make a living, anyways :p ... tis always a glorious happenstance to receive them (as awkward as a late-30s dude can get, from a long-lost aunt twice or thrice removed - HAH) and the new year "treasure-pot" grows ever slightly bigger, as slow as it does ... imagining another parallel life i would've been leading now: 'nearly' married twice over, probably with a couple of kids (at least) in tow, and giving away red packets instead of receiving them, the amount of which contained within, would be a mark of thy "status", rather than how much i lurve me relations' offsprings (*cough*) ... but that's another scripted-fiction for another day :p

i reckon tis all about "balance": you get some when you're young, and you give back when you're older ... altho tis less about karma, than it is "tradition", in the end of which is one mortal cycle that is to be maintained, within each family (single surname or otherwise) and lineage, rather than the numerous reports of "the younger generation", who choose to abandon flee said traditions and notions of filial piety, to different parts of the world [Reuters / via] - no disrespect to them tho, as tis each and every persons' right to live their lives they way they want to, and hell, i can relate - for in this particular instance, there is an obvious generational gap between myself and my elders, becoz undoubtedly we share not our life-experiences, except for the said lineage, and of coz the memories of childhood ... but what is not to say the same would happen with "us" and our own future offspring? the cycle has since been tarnished by my generation, and i fear for my next and subsequent. but what are we without our "tradition"? yes, to boldly go where none has tread before, but to what end? to forge a new beginning? to forget our past?

a relative remarked (on one of the legs of our "tour" today), how "lucky" my parents were, that they had kids who would bother to come along for visitations with them, whereas theirs had decided t'was a waste of time it wasn't worth the effort ... personally, i reckon it's cool if there was a geniune notion and intention to catch-up with the elders, and on the other hand, visitations "benefits" the parentals moreso than their children's needs (ang baos notwithstanding) ... in lieu of "giving face" to your parents (which coincidentally happens only once a year), much less spare a thought for their feelings (of abandonment?). perhaps a strange and awkward notion in western societies, no doubt, but a thoroughly permissive one in what is left of a semblance of "tradition", much less as a "culture" ... "bound by tradition"? or "having a tradition survive"?

mayhap it too is about "memories" - i hear my grand-aunt animatedly ramble on about how my dad was running around in the household when he was fours years old (and ye high etc), and i think, would my childhood ever be spoken and related in that context, to my kids? and mine to them? (yes, mortality has a grip on me, part of the aging process, i surmise :p).

of coz, Jia1 Jia1 You2 Ben3 Nan2 Nian4 Te4 Jing1 ("Every Household Has a Tome Difficult to Understand") and really, you get what you put in. far be it everyone gives an ang bao, not becoz you'd wanna wish good luck and fortune to the receiver, but rather you fear being spoken badly off behind your back, becoz the money within the ang bao was too little? ... fortune hunters hoarding their bounty, encased within a little slip of scarlet-colored paper envelope; the drama of humanity, and of the silent battle with generations of heritage and tradition.