120 family members ‘celebrate’ funeral of patriarch

Compiled by RAGANANTHINI VETHASALAM and C. ARUNO

MORE than 120 members of a family got together in Bagan Sungai Tiang, Perak, for the funeral of centenarian Zeng Huan Tu, China Press reported.

Instead of bidding a sad and gloomy farewell to Zeng, his descendants stretching over four generations – all clad in red T-shirts – held a joyous ceremony to send him off to his final resting place.

The ceremony – which saw the deceased’s children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren carrying two long red cloths and walking around the small fishing village before heading to the cemetery – caught the attention of villagers, who came out to watch the procession.

Known as “pulling the dragon’s whiskers”, it is a local Chinese customs to honour those who were blessed enough to live to a ripe old age.

> Sin Chew Daily reported that the fourth National Chinese Vernacular School Malay Drama competition, which saw Chinese school pupils performing stage plays in the national language, won praises as it helped pupils learn the language in a fun and creative way.

Former Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka’s Sarawak division chief Abdul Wahab Hamzah, who led the panel of judges, said memorising lines helped participants learn the language faster.

He praised the pupils from all nine teams who participated in the event.

“Their performances were creative and fun. They had great imagination and put on a fantastic show,” he said.

Despite some mispronounced words and a heavily accented dialogue, Abdul Wahab said they did not affect the pupils, who presented the stories well.

The competition, which was held on Jan 5, required the participants to create their sets based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

The novel, together with Journey to the West, Water Margin and Dream of the Red Chamber, are known as the four great Chinese classical novels, which have been translated into Bahasa Melayu.

Named Hikayat Tiga Negara in the Malay version, it is a historical novel written by Luo Guanzhong around the 14th century and is set in the turbulent years around the Three Kingdom period of China from 184 to 280AD.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.