Seeing Red Over Red
I have not worn red for CNY in ages, not since I was old enough to decide what I want to wear.
Yeah, it’s rebellion. I do it as a way to spite my busy body elder relatives and ridicule their old fashioned beliefs.
After all, isn’t it more important that I showed up and not the clothes that I wear? If that is the case, I can just buy a red dress to represent me and let my parents take it with them when they go visiting, right? Then I can continue to be holed up with the AC. It’s no fun, ya know, running here and there, under the unforgiving heat of the sun and the traffic jam.
So whenever I do my CNY shopping, I make a conscious effort to avoid red like a plague.
It was something of a coincidence that this year, all the new clothes I bought were in varying shades of grey or black. Hmm…seems to be my favorite color this year for some reason. Maybe because I already have too many white shirts?
Anyway Mom threw a fit when she saw me wearing my black T-shirt to go visiting. I didn’t wear it on purpose, honest. Just that it was hot and that T-shirt was the only thing comfortable enough that I dared venture outside of the AC zone with.
Ya know, I would have been agreeable to change into something else, if she had given me a logical enough reason to.
Instead, she made it a thing about us being Chinese and that’s what we do. That, settled it for me. I’m going out in that black T-shirt, but to compromise, I wore my everyday watch which has a pink strap.
See, I’m not that unreasonable :p
Just give me a good enough reason. But don’t tell me this is something that has been done by the ancestors since time immemorial and superstitious stuff like luck and “sui”. I don’t buy into that.
I wonder if one of these days, it will become unnecessary to physically go visit relatives during CNY? With the advancement of technology, we can greet each other through a webcam, all within the comforts of home with the AC on full blast. Then they can send my ang pow money to my Paypal account :p
