The Damned World

I was at the River Hong Bao earlier today. It was an annual event and I was looking forward to it.

We all heard the news that it would be the first time that River Hong Bao is at held at a floating platform. It all sounded very amazing until you reached there and see what it was like. It gave me a different "amazing".

For a start, we arrived at around 525pm in the evening. We always visit the River Hong Bao every year to hang out together as a family therefore we are very familiar with its tradition.

Not surprising that they made slight changes every year. For example this year, they only open at 6pm. Thats a huge change as normally they started receiving people in the morning. And we should be amazed with the floating platform but apparently we preferred that they stick to the tradition of the garden-like layout.

The platform was too restrictive. There is a weight restriction of 3 tonnes. There were only a few displays. Many things were missing. You don’t have to be a child to notice that there were no fun fair and games. There was no roller coaster rides or those big blown up castle for kids to jump around on. There were no games where you could win a huggable made-in-China doll.

Another tradition that was missing was the heritage and showcases of Chinese crafts. We used to have like Chinese calligraphies and paintings, carving of sculptures and name stamps, drawing of self portraits, fortune telling, Chinese medication and oilment, Buddist crafts and accessories. There used to be a hut with replicas of the portrait of emperors from different dynasties and an area showcasing articles and photographs of our forefathers celebrating Chinese New Year in the early days where my parents could tell us about as we walk in it.

What was available were just lanterns that lid up after sunset,

a wishing well (surely they won’t forget this so that they could rip some money off you for no price or effort),

a huge statue of the God of Fortune (oh did I mentioned that he looked as though he had a green, sick face during the day?),

a food market that sold Satays, Kebabs, Ramly burgers, soft drinks (a great way to show tourist and kids what are Chinese traditional food ain’t it?)

Let’s us remind ourselves, who were the people who visit the River Hong Bao..
We have:

A huge number of families,
Tourists,
Foreign workers.
I can confidently say that the majorities, which were families, would be disappointed.

The kids got no fairs to play at. Daddy couldn’t win any prices for the kids. For family with more grownups, we have got no Chinese culture to learn about. Tourists were going to regret wasting their money in times of financial turmoil to visit Singapore to see some mere lanterns displays.

If seriously they had ran out of idea on what to exhibit, may I suggest the following humble ideas.

1. Have some models dressed up in traditional festive Chinese costumes from the good old days. Or if the costumes are too expensive to be wore on a human, use a mannequin lah. Of course it would be kind to explain why the costumes are designed in that way

2. Show us articles or poster how other countries celebrate this festival.

3. What are the must-dos for Chinese New Year (e.g. what the kids got to do, what the adults got to do and what the elders got to prepare before it.)

I had took some photographs and i would post them up some other days.
Tomorrow would be the visiting day to receive red packets..