A Chinese Christmas
By Arthur B.W. Yong J.P.
Many people throughout the world celebrate Christmas. The majority of my relatives and friends in Australia and overseas celebrate Christmas. However, I also have many friends who do not celebrate Christmas due to different religious beliefs. My eldest daughter, Shwu Lin was born on Christmas day at the Mercy Maternity Hospital, East Melbourne. Our family always get together to celebrate Christmas and her birthday. Many Chinese people are very particular about choosing Chinese names. It took my wife and I a bit of time to choose our daughter’s name, which is a Chinese name and a name not frequently used. We preferred a name with a nice sound and a good meaning. I used a Chinese dictionary, which I brought with me from Penang in 1969. “Shwu” means kind and elegant and “Lin” means ingenious and delicate.
Before Shwu Lin’s birth, I read extensively about pre-natal and post natal care. I sat patiently awaiting the arrival of our baby in the waiting room of the Mercy Maternity Hospital on Christmas Eve with the other husbands. Melbourne’s Carols by Candlelight at Sidney Myer Music Bowl was on television in the waiting room. The TV did not have good, clear pictures. The screams of one poor mother, undergoing a long and painful labour made us anxious.
In the waiting room, I listened to many Christmas songs. Back in Penang in 1965, a few of my Chung Ling High School friends tried to influence me to become a Christian. On Christmas Day, my friends and I went to a church to participate in fun and entertaining games, where you could win prizes, learn to sing Christmas songs and receive Christmas gifts. I learnt to sing Silent Night, We Wish You A Merry Christmas, Jingle Bells, O Come All Ye Faithful, Joy To The World, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer and White Christmas.
[edit] Penang
I recall in 1967, I was a volunteer for the St. Johns Ambulance Association in Penang. I learnt about emergency delivery of babies during my first aid training. I passed my Higher First Aid examination in 1968, when it was first introduced for the Association. A few of my Chung Ling High School friends were volunteers of the St. Johns Ambulance Association. My friends, Siew Fu Chien, Kheng Khim Chan and I created a short comedy show to celebrate Christmas. Siew Fu played the husband, I had the role of an expectant pregnant wife and Kheng Khim was a ‘medical doctor’. I borrowed the female clothing, shoes, make-up and lipsticks from my sisters. I used a pillow for my stomach. What a laugh we had with all my friends and audience that night. I regret, despite my father and my uncle previously owning a very well known photo studio, Kong Beng Studio in Penang Road, Penang, I did not manage to obtain a photo of this show.
I lost count of how many times I walked the Penang Road. In Penang Road and its side streets, there were restaurants, coffee shops, cake and biscuit stores, hawker stores, Penang Market (selling meat, seafood, vegetables, fruits, flowers and Asian groceries), shopping complex, hotels, cinemas, Chinese temple, bus depots, fashion stores, music shops, barbers and hair-dress salons, optometrists, medical clinics, pharmacy, Chinese medicine shops, department stores, photo studios, book stores, shoe shops, taxi and trishaw stands, sports stores, souvenir shops, clothing stores, jewellery, electrical and furniture stores, banks, a primary school and police head office. There were people from different cultural backgrounds who worked, lived and studied in this area. They spoke Chinese dialects, Mandarin, English, Malay, Indian, Asian, European and Japanese languages. Occasionally the native people traded in Penang Road near the cinema. Many local residents and tourists shopped in Penang Road to prepare for Christmas celebrations.
[edit] Preston
Back in 1969 and 1970, when I shared a house in Dundas Street, Preston with an Australian landlady, Mrs. Anna Keane (migrated from Ireland), some other students and Aussie guys, we had turkey, ham, vegetables, fried rice, Asian food, sweets, a little bit of alcohol, soft drinks, tea and coffee for our Christmas meal. We put on party hats and watched Carols by Candlelight in the family room. There was an exchange of Christmas presents and cards. During the period, when I was a student tram conductor at Preston Tram Depot and a biochemist at the Alfred Hospital and the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, there were always problems with rostering employees to work on Christmas Day. Christmas penalty rates weren’t enough incentive to entice people to leave their family and loved ones. The major activities of people preparing for Christmas are compiling a list of relatives and friends, purchasing Christmas cards, deciding where to shop for Christmas gifts, when and where to have holidays, where and with whom you plan to have lunches and dinners for Christmas Day and working out what recipes to use in cooking to celebrate Christmas. I knew a few friends who did not spend money purchasing Christmas gifts. They preferred to give the money to charities.
I went to the 1st Asian Pacific Congress of Clinical Biochemistry in Singapore in 1979. In 1985, I attended the 3rd Asian Pacific Congress of Clinical Biochemistry in Bali. Both of these conferences were held in the months before Christmas. I had the opportunity to shop in Singapore and Bali and bargained for goods. I purchased a few items for Shwu Lin’s birthday.
It is such a nice feeling for most people when they receive Christmas cards from relatives and friends, especially from overseas and interstate. Every year, I receive many cards from my relatives and friends. I display them in our family room or near the Christmas tree. With the change of technology, many people emailed Christmas greetings with e-cards and Christmas songs. But, it was more personal to read the greetings in hand writing and other news.
This Christmas, I have planned to play a few Christmas songs for my radio show, Chinese from the North, 88.6 Plenty Valley FM in Mandarin and English (Chinlish) on Friday night, 18 December, from 10 pm to 12 midnight. My volunteers, guests and I will chat about activities such as how people, whenever they migrated to Victoria, used to celebrate and plan to celebrate on Christmas Day. There were always Christmas movies on TV. I imagine many people would have seen Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Home Alone and Santa Claus.
Many people took their children to see the Christmas decorations in the windows of the Myer Department Store in Bourke Street, City of Melbourne. Musicians and members of the Salvation Army play carols in the mall. There are many shops in the City of Whittlesea, where people can purchase their Christmas gifts. There are shops at Thomastown Shopping Centre (High Street), Lalor Shopping Centre, Bundoora Shopping Centre, Mill Park Stables Shopping Centre, Mill Park Shopping Centre, Epping Plaza, Epping Homemaker Centre, Westfield Plenty Valley Shopping Centre South Morang, AXIS Homemaker Centre South Morang, University Hill Town Centre (opposite RMIT University). I purchase Christmas cards in bulk when they are on sale.
For the last few years, my wife, youngest daughter (Mai Lin) and I have travelled to Epping to celebrate Christmas Day at my eldest daughter’s house. All of us like preparing home-made meals for Christmas.
In the holiday season, I suggest to you: spend wisely, eat well, drink moderately and drive sensibly. If you follow my advice, have big ears like me, you will probably live up to ninety years old!
Reference
Yong, 2009: Arthur B.W. Yong JP, “It’s Christmas!”, Town Crier, Volume 237, December 2009, p. 31.
