Happy New Year!

Who would have thought that an artist would park himself between the bread shelves and the vegetable stalls on the packed kaki-lima of the shop houses in my village? But that was where I saw this man sketching a picture of a lion. He talked as his Chinese brush flew over the orange-coloured art paper, leaving lines and dots and blobs of black ink.

Mr. Philip Kok showing his magic.

How fascinating, I thought. I put down my just-bought chicken and mushrooms and other whatnot for tonight’s dinner and decided to stay and watch Mr. Philip Kok, a graduate of Nanyang University, put the final touch to his lion.

“That is really beautiful,” I told him as he gave away the lion drawing to a vegetable vendor who had been watching him. Good move on my part for I caught his attention.

He adds his seal to show the sketch is his work.

“Ah,” he said, “I’ll show you how to teach your children how to draw a dragon.” He started with the two dots for the eyes and built little details around them before drawing a long curvy line, the shape of an inverted 'S', to show the dragon’s body. A long line drawn along the worm-like dragon body with a ‘dry’ brush, gave it a plumper look. All the lines and dots were done very fast and in no time the artist was done. The final touch was a seal “to show this drawing was done by me”.

“The ink for the seal never dries up,” Mr. Kok said as dabbed his seal on the dark pinkish reddish ink which has the consistency of Kiwi shoe polish. “It is made by mixing red powder with white wine.” He placed his seal at the bottom of his drawing and… presented it to me!

Wow! What an incredible gesture! “Because you are interested,” he said. And I thought I was being nosey and inquisitive!

A beautiful dragon for me!

My luck didn’t end there. Mr. Kok went on to draw another piece—and he gave that to me as well—to show all the twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac, from the mouse to the pig. As his brush danced on the brilliant orange paper, he talked about the traits of the animals. People tend to have the characteristics of the animal in whose year they were born, he said. (I didn’t tell  him in which animal year I was born for fear of misleading him. I'm nothing like my animal year, okay?)

“The mouse is the cleverest animal,” he said, “and very cunning. A person born in the mouse year makes a good lawyer. The happiest people are those born in the year of the pig. They don’t worry too much. They’ll always have something to eat.”

The crowd at the night market in my village.

Mr. Kok gave me the second piece when all the animals have appeared on the paper. We said goodbye, I gathered my bags and walked home happy in the knowledge that there’s a ‘pig’ in my house; a pig who might just share his food with me in case the New Year  ‘harvest’ proves to be less bountiful.

Happy New Year to all my readers! May the Dragon bring you health, wealth, wisdom, peace and happiness!

KK is all dressed up to meet the Dragon!

Friends, Food and Fun

Long past long ago—we were told yesterday—a Chinese emperor invented the calendar. He decreed that the first day of the lunar Year would be the day the new moon appeared following the winter festival. The lunar New Year was thus born. The winter festival (winter solstice—when the sun is farthest from the northern hemisphere) is now celebrated on 22 December. From this day until the New Year, the Chinese avoid uttering negative words or getting angry.

Evelyn, my friend.

That, besides a few other things,  was what I learnt because I wasn’t really paying much attention. Evelyn, my partner in crime, was busy making comments such as: “Why is the speaker writing all that Chinese script? It’s not as if we can read Chinese!”

The speaker was writing the Chinese characters for Tang and Ming and other dynasties; Huang Ti and the grandson of Genghis Khan-- I've forgotten the name-- besides numerous other meaningless squiggles.

We were told about the Chinese  love of red and noise. Apparently, both figured prominently in scaring off wild beasts, evil spirits, and stubborn ghosts which resided in the corners of people’s houses in the olden days.

Performance at the entrance of SCC

After the talk there was an extended question and answer session where we learned about the Chinese animal zodiac; that young unmarried girls of yore were not allowed to leave their houses; and open houses are not Chinese in origin!

Then we all trooped down to the ground floor and watched a string of lion/unicorn dances performed by… a group of non-Chinese boys! They were good. One performance involved jumping on and off a large box as well as doing acrobatic stunts such as leaping, twisting in mid air and other gravity-defying moves. The noises were deafening—just right to chase away the ghosts clinging to the corners of the buildings.

Then it was time for refreshment. I was breathless by the time my feet had taken me to the fourth floor. My bag felt as though it contained a car-jack although I had nothing in it except two books, three bars of soap, a small camera, a handphone, my wallet, two notebooks, a pen, a coin purse, a compact, two library cards, a small bottle of hand sanitizer and a packet of tissue paper that was weightless. I was hoping that nothing took refuge in my bag after all that drumming and banging and crashing of cymbals.

Later, the dance troupe came upstairs to make noise and chase away more resident ghosts. Then there were speeches. And finally, food.

Pic from Google Images

I enjoyed my rice with curry, mixed vegetables, a piece of roasted chicken and a sliver of the Chinese New Year rice cake. (When I had cleaned my plate, I kicked myself for forgetting to take a photo of the food.)

Later the staff of Sabah Credit serenaded the visitors with beautiful songs. They were amazing!

The Staff of SCC

The staff of Sabah Credit had competed to get top prizes for the best decorated floor. We thought we should take photos of our favourite spots.

I don't really need red to scare anyone!

Amy wanted a picture with the rabbits!