Going to rain, keep your clothes

It means going to rain, keep the clothes quickly. I used to hear this phase whenever its about to rain at my grandma's house.

Today, I send my artwork for printing so my friend offered to drive me back to the office. Sky is covered with dark clouds. It's going to rain soon but he said he saw something interesting in Chinatown. I kept asking him what is it? He told me he couldn’t use words to describe it. As he drove along Tong Sen Road, i saw this! My first reaction is "Why is this thing hanging there?"

Then we started to laugh 'cause we think it's ridiculously funny. I felt the decoration is a laughing stock. I laughed until my tears nearly came out. Who will want to hang these drapes of pink cloth across the road? They resemble hanging clothing and can you imagine that you are driving under "these clothes"??? I cant help but feeling a sense of "swayness" after going passed by these drapes of pink cloths.

What is the deco designer trying to say about this? What is the significance behind it? I really have no idea. I personally feel that this whole decoration is an insult to the Chinese culture and our country. Yes, it's perfectly alright to be creative. But twisted the meanings and threw away thousand years of Chinese New Year substance, is totally unacceptable.

We are Chinese and yet we cannot portray the real meaning of Chinese New Year. Don't you think its a disgrace? The best part is, the management approve such absurd decoration. You may think that I sound too serious already.

Don't you think that person, as a professional deco designer, he has the social responsibility to our society? Or at least, he should spent a reasonable amount of research, to learn more about Chinese culture. He can't simply hang a few pieces of pink cloths hanging across the road and says that it’s for Chinese New Year decoration.

If such decoration was hanging in western culture, it might be still acceptable because they don't really understand our Chinese culture. Chinese New Year is one of our important chinese traditional festival, how could we approve such kind of ridiculous decoration?

Each design or decoration must have its own meanings behind it. The designer must be able to communicate the culture with our people. Imagine an old uncle saw this, I tell you, he will immediately siam the road. Why? Simply because he doesn’t want to walk under these "clothes".

Do you know why Singaporeans always voice that we don't have our own culture? That's because we are always twisting our own culture, till the point that we are losing our own identity.