Intercultural Potluck

In the movie Rush Hour 3, Carter has a very interesting conversation with the master in the kung fu studio. There's apparently a misunderstanding between them about the names and cultural difference. And the movie was a great hit though, but the only thing is, in real life, when something like this happened, it is not funny at all, and it may bring danger to our life. So this is why it's important for us to learn about the cultures. But before that, what's more important is learn the culture that we belong to, because if we can't do that, we're not going to figure out the difference anyway. So today I'll talk about the Singaporean Chinese culture, and in my presentation I'll introduce the cultures, how my family and I practice within the culture, and the food that represents our cultures. Since the Age of Discovery, Singapore has become many places, has become the place for many races of people. The geographic positions make Singapore very diversified, and as we know, that diversity means complexity because every race has its own culture and food specifically. But it doesn't stop us from making friends with each other. The majority of people in Singapore are Chinese people, but we still celebrate every race's holidays, and over time we sit together and practice different cultures. Although we have a diverse background, we still cherish and treat our cultures really seriously. There's no exception for Singaporean Chinese people to celebrate Chinese New Year because that's the backbone of our Chinese culture. However, the way we celebrate it and the food that we eat might be a little bit different. Since the age Chinese New Year is a 15-day process, and every day has its own reason to be celebrated. But today we are just going to take a look at the 7th day, which is the People's Day, we call. And according to our ancestors, that's the day that humans are created by the god. But before we talk about that, I want to talk more about Chinese New Year's Eve, because that day is very important to us. Our culture believes that if we step on the right track at the beginning, we are going to be good throughout the whole year. So on that day, my family and I will stay up all night, do some gambling, turn the lights on to scare away the bad spirits. Also, we'll bring some paper monies, paper cars, perhaps paper cell phones and chargers to our ancestors to ask for protection. After we've done all these parts, We are good to go for the 15-day celebrations. On People's Day itself, the most important thing about that day is to be as peaceful as possible because we want to appreciate the God that created us in the first place. And for the— from the children's point of view, that's the best day of their life because they can mess up, but their parents can't do anything about it. Also, we as a family will eat a very special dish together, the prosperity toast. The prosperity toss is basically, is basically like a raw fish salad. It contains 7 ingredients and 4 condiments, but today I'm just going to give a few examples. Raw fish means abundance throughout the year. Pomelo means good luck throughout the year, and pepper means attracting wealth and treasures. Golden crackers means your house full of gold. And lastly, the plum sauce, which means having a loving and sweet relationship with the people around us. The prosperity toss is a way of helping the family to get together because it is a group dish and every family has to be there to share this activity. Also, the prosperity toss helps family bond because every time we eat it, we have to speak a lot of— we have to talk to them about the good things, the positive words. And, you know, Singaporean Chinese culture is about diversity, and the only way to do that is for people to make peace with each other, and the Prosperity Toast is the way to do so. Today we talk about Singaporean Chinese culture, the brief introductions about the culture, how my family and I practice within the culture, And lastly, the food that represents our culture, the prosperity toss. Fortunately, Lee is with Carter the whole time in the kung fu studio, and Lee himself is a Chinese person, so he knows what's happening. So he stopped the misunderstanding and he do the communications, and in the end, they are able to find out the key evidence to solve their case. Thank you.