Mandarin Oranges for the New Year

In general prices of the other oranges are about one of the few items that is falling. In fact I feel sorry for orange farmers. That is the big picture. This reversal is good for the farmers but not an unmitigated one. Surely there are farmers with no oranges to sell.

As a kid my mom would buy a whole box of them. There would be about a hundred or so in the box. We exchanged many and ate even more.

Now we have all grown up and even starting to grow old. The house is much quieter and the new year traditions are eroding. Now I buy the minimum just in case I need to exchange them. Most likely they will not be eaten and thrown away.

We don't even turn up at relatives' homes any more but the office ones cannot be avoided especially the boss' invitation eh?

I think it is already happening and the trend is getting more pronounced with the years: people are going on short trips instead of keeping to CNY traditions.

The Indians and Malays preserve their traditions far better than the Chinese here. We better reinvent ourselves. As it is, we do not know where we are heading. As an ethinic group we had been transformed once into Peranakans.