SINGAPORE: Chinese New Year is meant to be a festive time when relatives gather, share meals, and catch up with one another. But has the excitement around this yearly tradition started to wear off?
One woman recently noticed that more and more locals have been complaining online about the stresses of family gatherings.
From awkward conversations to nosy questions, a lot of the posts seem to focus more on the frustrations than the fun, leaving her to wonder if the holiday is starting to feel like a chore for some.
“Why is everyone on this sub so negative about CNY?” she asked. “It’s sad to see tradition dying.”
She added, “Also, is it just me, or do actually both sides of my family know better than to do meaningless comparisons between cousins or ask unnecessary questions about marriage, career, childbirth, etc.? It makes me wonder if there are really relatives still behaving like that out there?”
“It’ll soon be up to us to preserve these traditions.”
In the discussion that followed, many Singaporean Redditors explained that people who actually enjoy Chinese New Year usually don’t post about it online. They are busy celebrating, catching up with family, and enjoying the festivities, so they don’t feel the need to share anything.
One wrote, “Negativity Bias. Those enjoying CNY are either too busy to be posting on Reddit or not going to come here and rub it in the faces of those who are obviously not enjoying it.”
Another commented, “Even in real life, when friends are complaining about how hard things are, and if you disagree, you also wouldn’t go tell them that your life is very good and you’re enjoying it, even if that is truly the case.”
“People will say we’re out of touch and boasting, and here on Reddit, you’ll just get downvoted to oblivion. That’s why most threads here are so negative.”
Some, meanwhile, took the time to share what they love about the holiday.
One shared, “I love CNY, especially since we have a huge extended family and lots of cousins. Even my little niece looks forward to seeing and playing with the ‘jiejie,’ ‘korkor,’ ‘didi,’ and ‘meimei’ from my cousins. Most of my generation only have 1 or 2 kids, so it’s even more important to us that they know one another and have a certain level of kinship.”
A fourth said, “I enjoy CNY! As I get older, I realise it’ll soon be up to us to preserve these traditions and relationships or see them disappear by the next generation. Our relatives are generally very nice; we’re quite blessed in this aspect. On my side, we rarely see each other but enjoy catching up when we do.”
In other news, a man in Singapore is feeling unusually bitter about his girlfriend of a year and a half after realising that he was the only man among his friends who did not receive a single gift from his partner on Valentine’s Day.
On Sunday (Feb 15), he took to social media, explaining that he had gone all out to impress his girlfriend on their second Valentine’s Day together.
Read more: Local man feels bitter as friends receive gifts on Valentine’s day while he gets none
