Reported by:
Soon Yu Xuan Sr2ScJ (2022)
To usher in the Chinese New Year, Kuen Cheng High School has held a Chinese New Year Temple Fair with the theme “Happy To(兔tù)-Gather”.
The event began at 8 in the morning, with teachers and students beginning to “HuiChun”, which is a type of calligraphy of writing an auspicious saying or idiom on a red scroll for good luck. After the “HuiChun” event, teachers and students were free to participate in any other CNY fair activities or watch the performances at the basketball court.
The Ethnicity Exhibition was held in the Lee Shin Cheng Hall , along with the Chinese Surname Exhibition and Lantern Riddles games section. To Malaysian Chinese, their ethnicity mostly represents their ancestral homes in China and the dialects they speak.
A student at the Ethnicity Exhibition display
The exhibition included a photo booth, a prized activity and a dialect tongue twister challenge. The exhibition displayed the seven most common Chinese ethnic groups in Malaysia, namely Cantonese (广东, guǎng dōng), Hokkien (福建, fú jiàn), Hakka (客家, kè jiā), Teochew (潮州, cháo zhōu), Kwongsai (广西, guǎng xī), Hainan (海南, hǎi nán) and Fuzhou (福州, fú zhōu).
Artworks depicting cultures of all ethnicities
Students at the photo booth
Prized activity and dialect tongue twister challenge
At the front of the exhibition, there was a survey on the ethnicity of Chinese students in Kuen Cheng. The survey depicts that more than half of the Chinese students in Kuen Cheng cannot speak their native dialect.
Students checking out the results of the survey
Out of the seven ethnicities, the Hakka ethnicity is the only one not named after a region or province. Cantonese people originated from the Guangdong province in China, and the Hainanese population of Malaysia originated from the Hainan province, which is an island in Southern China. Teochew people and Kwongsai people of Malaysia originated from Chaozhou city and the Guangxi autonomous region respectively. The Hokkien and Fuzhou people of Malaysia originated from Fujian province and Fuzhou city.
Besides each ethnicity’s origins, the exhibition displayed each ethnicity’ delicacies as well:
| Cantonese | Dim Sum, sweet and sour pork, claypot rice |
| Hainanese | Hainanese chicken rice, Hainanese coffee, and Hainanese noodles |
| Hakka | Hakka Yong Tau Fu, brewed Lei Cha and braised pork with preserved vegetables |
| Teochew | Teochew Tzok (porridge), Char Kway Kak and Ang Tho Kway |
| Kwongsai | Taro pork, ginger chicken bee hoon, and lemon chicken |
| Hokkien | Alkaline rice dumplings, Hokkien fried noodles, Hokkien prawn noodles, and braised noodles |
Students reading about different Chinese ethnicities
The exhibition was very informative. Besides the origins and foods, it was complete with the dialects, culture, notable people and more of each ethnicity. Malaysian Chinese people are really lucky to have preserved so much about Chinese ethnicities and culture from their ancestors.
The exhibition is filled with students and teachers.