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Published: April 23rd 2013
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We won big.
But let's start at the beginning of this tale. Chinese New Year is nothing like the New Year's Eve celebration we know in the west; it's more like a combination of Xmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year's Eve rolled into one. It's a family holiday, not a go-out-with-your-friends-and-be-silly holiday. After living in China for 5 years, I've still never celebrated the holiday since I obviously have no family in China and I usually travel somewhere warm during the school break. So when I realized I could finally celebrate the holiday, I was delighted. Kuching knows they have a lot of tourist and there's a traditional show down at the park for travelers and locals to come together and celebrate.
We arrived and almost immediately I was selected to be part of a game show. The holiday show consists of games, songs, dancing, and other bits I couldn't understand because it was all in Chinese. I lined up for my turn at what was sure to be some silly fun. They selected the first 12 people for a game of musical chairs and my partner and I waited for our turn. Then they decided they didn't need us to participate and took us across the street for Starbucks. As far as
A Mini-Dragon Dance
The kids next to my hostel were out playing and celebrating. I'm concerned, I'm already a winner.
My friends and I left for a while to see if anything else was going on. There wasn't and many businesses were closed. We went back to the park.
Shortly after we returned they made an important announcement. It was so important that they did it both in Chinese and English. All over Malaysia, in major cities, they'd count down to midnight. Each city would get about 10 seconds on national TV. Because Kuching wanted to put on a good face and they wanted everyone to feel included, they specifically asked if any of the foreign guests would like to participate. Heads rolled around, eyes darted about, everyone not willing to step forward. Except me. I walked up past the seated guests to clapping and cheers. Others soon followed, including a friend of mine from the hostel. We had a sizeable group.
The coordinators handed out cardboard, cartoon snake cutouts (it's the year of the snake) and we practiced our chanting: U-La-La! U-La-La! U-La-La! U-La-La!
We were set.
When it was our turn we all yelled and screamed and waved our snake with all that we had in us.
U-lala!
Let the celebration begin! We went wild. The audience went wild. We were all excited for the new year. We ran to watch the fireworks in the park as the countdown ended.
Afterwards, I went up to ask the hosts who had won. I was under the (wrong) impression that our chanting was a contest between cities. They were a bit confused but said that I could still win a prize. I wasn't quite sure how, since the festivities were over, but I said sure, and waved at my friend to come and join. He quickly ran over to us, I explained what was happening (and how I didn't want to be the only one making a fool of myself), and next thing I knew, he and I were screaming into a camera with the local TV news anchors. And then we were handed a meter-tall gift basket, laden with candies, cakes, fruit, and a bottle of sparkling wine.
We stood around admiring our prize, chatting with the event staff the local celebrities, feeling like the coolest people on earth. We'd just been on national TV! We'd just won a huge prize! We were meeting famous people! It doesn't get any better
than this!
We walked back to our hostel, my friend carrying our bounty, laughing about how much fun we'd had. All of it was completely unplanned and unexpected. The best things usually are, we agreed. Back at the hostel, we woke up another friend of ours to help us eat the basket of snacks up on the rooftop since we were both leaving within 2 days.
The new year is off to an auspicious start!
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