Fast Car and Chinese New Year 2016

Hi guys, I skyped my family over the weekend and they asked me how I intended to spend Chinese New Year. I simply told them, it's a working day in the UK. I'm gonna be busy working and then going to gymnastics in the evening, maybe I'll get some Japanese food as I don't wanna cook when I get back from the gym. And my dad was like, but surely you must celebrate? No, I don't - you see, Chinese New Year doesn't mean much to me as I don't really have any Chinese friends here in the UK apart from the small handful at my gym. And even so, I see them at the gym, it's not like we go to Chinatown and do Chinese things together. Nope, being Chinese is not part of my cultural identity at all - I'm just so freaking white on the inside that I don't celebrate Chinese new year, I just don't do any Chinese things these days.

When I was at the gym tonight, I heard the song Fast Car by Jonas Blue featuring Dakota. Now I am not that fond of this version, I'm a huge fan of the original version by Tracy Chapman from back in 1988 when I was just 12 years old. I remember how I pondered over the lyrics and cried as I listened to the story told about the teenage girl trying to take care of her alcoholic father after her mother walked out on the family. It's one of those songs that I know by heart, it is the music of my childhood, that I grew up with. Such beautiful lyrics, written by such a talented song writer and beautifully performed, simple yet so perfect. Please have a listen to Tracy Chapman's acoustic performance here.

Another song that was part of the soundtrack to my childhood was Madonna's Like A Prayer - that came out in 1989 when I was 13. Just like Fast Car, it is one of the songs that I know so very well. So when Madonna performed it in Stockholm just after the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris last year, it resonated with me at once. She gave a wonderful speech just before the performance, here's the Youtube video of it below. It is a long video but well worth watching.

Are there any Chinese songs from my childhood? The answer is simple: no, there are none. This is totally ironic of course, as my father doesn't speak English and he would only listen to Chinese music on the radio. I must have spent so many hours in the car with him as a child listening to Chinese music on those radio stations - yet I can't recall a single tune, a single song because I heard the music but I was not listening. I was probably staring out of the window, daydreaming, thinking about something else and not focusing on the radio at all. My father made no effort to impart his culture to me, he drew the line at making sure that I did reasonably well in Chinese at school because he was a Chinese teacher and I suppose, that was the one thing he could give me: a good understanding of the Chinese language. I mastered the language without ever being fond of it. So as you can see, that's why celebrating Chinese new year has never been significant to me at all. I had long rejected my parents' culture but the joke is on me of course: I had done it to spite them but they neither notice or cared either way.

As for you my readers, what does Chinese new year mean to you? Do you celebrate Chinese new year with your families? I suppose I have memories of visiting relatives as a child and if the public holidays gives you the opportunity to go spend time with with people you like - then I suppose that must be a good thing. That is kinda what Christmas has turned into in the UK, it is not a religious festival at all these days, just a time for everyone to spend time with their family (and in my case, that means a long trip up north to Scotland to see my in-laws). Okay, I'd better end here as it is a working day for me tomorrow as well, unlike my readers in Singapore. Enjoy your public holidays, thanks for reading.