Photo: AFP
WITH the merry bangs of firecrackers we bid the past year farewell and, with our hearts full of happiness, we greet the new year. As the Year of the Mouse is ushered in, on behalf of the Embassy of China in Malaysia, I wish all Malaysian people a happy and blissful Chinese New Year!
Chinese New Year is the most jubilant traditional festival of the Chinese people. During this period, Chinese people all over the world return home, reunite with family, pay tribute to ancestors and visit relatives and friends. Chinese people who have been busy working for a long year can now recollect the past in gratefulness and look forward to the future in high hopes. We also send each other our best wishes of good health, good fortune and a good life. Chinese New Year, in a sense, is a manifestation of Chinese cultural values that have been passed on from generation to generation for 5,000 years.
In Malaysia, Chinese New Year festivities are extended to the non-Chinese through the “open house” tradition, an impressive feat showing not only the charm of diversity in harmony in Malaysia but also the special cultural and emotional bond between China and Malaysia. It is on this foundation of traditional friendship that China-Malaysia relations can thrive.
