Culture in Danger?

This year, the police is particularly tolerant in allowing the Chinese to celebrate their CNY. It was said that fire crackers which were officially banned items are openly sold in stores and many outlets. This is understandable as the general election is just around the corner. Any restriction imposed may cause anger and even backlash resulting less votes for the government.

Unicorn and lion troupes were having a field day doing their rounds in housing estates and shopping complexes collecting angpows.

We happened to be in Suria Shopping Complex after sending Sam and Paul back to Singapore. The noise was deafening as there was a unicorn troupe and another lion troupe doing the “bai nien” simultaneously. When I tried to take a shot at the moving unicorn, a young male troupe member, shouted in Malay to his companion who was maneuvering the unicorn, “Hendi, ambil gamber!

It is a well known fact that over the last couples of years, the people actually handling the unicorns or the lions and performing the kungfu are no longer Chinese but  Kadazan, Indonesian and even Pilipino. Many probably do not speak a word of Chinese and know little about “Chinese culture”. I search the internet for the definition of the word “culture”. This is what I found:

Quote

"Culture is the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. Culture is a powerful human tool for survival, but is a fragile phenomenon. It is constantly changing and easily lost because it exists only in our minds. Our written languages, governments, buildings, and other man-made things are merely the products of the culture."

Unquote

While human societies and cultures are not the same thing, they are inextricably connected because culture is created and transmitted to others in a society. Culture are not the product of lone individual. They are continuously evolving products of people interacting with each other. Cultural patterns such as language and practices will disappear unless people are willing to continue using and maintaining them.

Is unicorn and lion dance a Chinese culture or a Chinese heritage? Can the Chinese claim exclusivity when this is now “sub-contracted” out and propped up by non-Chinese? This is interesting question for thought.

While this is being debated, the Chinese can find comfort that their culture and heritage is being kept alive and sustained by people of other ethnicity who are simply more than happy to do what they are doing! May be one of the incentives is the angpows they can collect!