Love versus Prosperity
J-on
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Thursday, February 11, 2010
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By Chin Poh Nee and Karyn Anne Krishnan
On the 14th of February this year, you can either choose to get free money, or spend some money.
Don’t understand what I mean?
Let me elaborate. You can get free money, if you’re not married and celebrating Chinese New Year (CNY). However, money has to be spent if you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s or Chinese New Year – which will you be celebrating this year?
For some of us though, it’s not so much of a choice whether or not we want to celebrate one over the other, as for most who are celebrating CNY, it is family over love.
But then again, these are all merely our presumptions. So, to find out whether students of UTAR would choose a reunion dinner over a candlelight dinner, we prowled the UTAR campus to find out!
“We’ll probably go out for a movie at night.”
Public Relations student Nasrudeen Mustapha bin Pakeer Mohamed, 22, who is from Ipoh, said that as it was going to be CNY, he would be working at Tanjung Golden Village (TGV) and only going out to celebrate Valentine’s Day at night.
“We’ll probably go out for a movie,” he said. “I’ll be getting her a bouquet of flowers and chocolates,” he added.
“It’s difficult to celebrate both CNY and Valentine’s on the same day.”
On the other hand, Business Administration student Ow Cheng Wai, 21, said she feels that it would be a bit difficult to celebrate both CNY and Valentine’s on the same day.
“I’ll probably spend the afternoon with my family and go out with my boyfriend at night.
“We’ll just have dinner and watch a movie,” she added.
How romantic! Unfortunately, not everyone has the privilege of having their partners in the same hometown as them. As Biotechnology student Kenny Mah, 23, mentioned, it is pretty inconvenient if two individuals are separated geographically, perhaps celebrating Valentine’s Day earlier or later.
Raja Rodziah plans to celebrate her Valentine’s a little differently from the rest.
Another unlucky one who is separated geographically from her partner is UTAR lecturer Raja Rodziah, 32. She said that she and her long-distance-relationship-boyfriend in Washington USA usually do not celebrate Valentine’s Day.
“I’ll be volunteering with American Field Service (AFS) and there is this girl who will be going to New Zealand on the first day of CNY.
“So, we are going to her house to celebrate CNY, and then take her to the airport where those who are single can celebrate Valentine’s together,” she said.
Now that is certainly a different way to celebrate the Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day.
Living in a multicultural country, celebrating one festival is definitely not limited to just one race. Not only the Chinese gather with their families on this prosperous day, but other races take the opportunity of the long holiday to gather with their own relatives as well.
Puvaneswari will be taking opportunity of the holidays to catch up with family.
One such example is Public Relations student Puvaneswari Kuppoo, 23, who said that she will be celebrating CNY and Valentine’s with her family as everybody will be home for the holidays.
“My mom will cook for us, that is the best part,” she says.
It seems like come the long holiday, almost everyone will have something to do, and it’s not just limited to collecting money and having candlelight dinners. With that in mind, we here from J-On would like to wish our readers a very Happy Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day!
