Making your mark

Making the grade: The joy and transformative power of music via deliberate daily practice, commitment to regular piano lessons and perseverance in the face of inevitable challenges along the way to improve one’s musical skills  – piano teacher Lee Jae Phang.
Photo:  A studio recital of Lee Jae’s piano students on Sept 7, 2024. Twenty nine of his students took part.
By  Foong Pek Yee
foongpekyee @gmail.com
sept 25, 2024
A series on ABRSM Piano 2025 & 2026 by Lee Jae Phang.
ABRSM  Piano 2025 & 2026 Grade 1 
ABRSM Piano  2025 & 2026 Grade 2
ABRSM Piano 2025 & 2026 Grade 3
ABRSM Piano 2025 & 2026 Grade 5
ABRSM Piano 2025 & 2026 Grade 6
ABRSM Piano 2025 & 2026 Grade 7
ABRSM Piano 2025 & 2026 Grade 8

Say it with flowers

 

Spring is here: Wan Zi Qian Hong conveys good health, happiness and longevity

By Foong Pek Yee

30 Jan, 2022

SHENTI JIAN KANG, WAN SHI RU YI (good health, all the best in Chinese),  a trader greets customers doing their last minute Chinese New Year (CNY)  shopping.

His sales pitch – good tidings  with flowers – draws customers to his flower stall in the SPPK market in Ipoh on Sunday morning (30 Jan).
The flower –  Wan Zi Qian Hong (tens of thousands of purple and thousands of red ) – an idiom on a garden in full bloom is among his most saleable items.
He says the flower conveys  good health,  happiness and longevity.
A pot of Wan Zi Qian Hong is priced at RM12 and RM35 for a pot of lime tree or  Kum Kut.  
Add value:  Good service brings business
According to him,  it takes six months to grow the Wan Zi  Qian Hong.
The timing is such that they will bloom during  CNY.
I bought his last three pots of Wan Zi  Qian Hong while another shopper snapped up the last two pots of Kum Kut   ( a symbol of prosperity
On a more serious note,  he says farmers and traders are treading cautiously this round.
Besides the pandemic, he says the increase in the price of  fertilisers and  pesticides and labour shortage have also  dampen the market.
A trader who sells cut flowers says there are not many varieties this round.
According to her, economic uncertainty,  financial constraints and  labour shortage saw many farmers cutting down on their production.
Her advice is to buy flowers early as stock is limited.
Among her saleable items is the yellow hulu (gourd) fruit – a symbol of good health, productivity and wealth.
Striking colour: The Hu Lu  fruits of different size  represent several generations together.

Chinese New Year mood in the air

Red lanterns:  A symbol of everything good.
By Foong Pek Yee
23 Jan, 2022
THERE is an air of festivity in Ipoh over the weekend.
With Chinese New Year (CNY) on Feb 1,  the Ipoh old town is a hive of activity.
CNY or  Lunar New Year or Spring Festival is celebrated worldwide.
The  Koreans  celebrate Lunar New Year  or ” Seollal”
The boss of a shop in Ipoh old town which is famous for dried seafood appears  in good mood.
On his most saleable items, he reels out a list – from abalone, mushrooms, scallops, oysters, sea cucumber to pistachio (hoi sum guo  or  happy fruit in Cantonese).
With his eyes glued to the workers unloading goods from a lorry, he went on to elaborate  why business is good in the year of the Tiger.
Upbeat: A shop in Ipoh old town that specialises in dried foodstuff especially seafood, is all set for brisk business.
“People will spend their CNY holidays enjoying good food at home or in restaurants.
“Unlike previous years when there were  people who went for overseas holidays, they cannot do so this round even if  they have the money .”
Along the five-foot way, a man was engrossed writing Chinese characters with good tidings with a Chinese brush on pieces of red paper.
Best wishes: Chinese saying on anything good and written on red papers is an evergreen deco.
Steep in tradition: A bookshop in Kampar old town selling CNY greeting cards  – a rare commodity in this digital era.
Good tidings: A shop in Tambun with its first batch of pomeloes.
But there may be a shortage of pomeloes this CNY – a much sought after fruit because its Cantonese name “look yau” rhymes with abundance rolling in.
According to a fruit shop owner in Tambun,  Ipoh,  the recent raining season which coincided with the trees flowering stage had affected the yields.
Tambun, about 7 km from Ipoh city centre, is famous for producing good pomeloes.
In Kampar wet market, a flower stall owner expects a shortage of flowers from Cameron Highlands as farmers are not producing at full capacity.
“Farmers are treading carefully after losing so much last CNY due to the movement control order,”  says the stall owner who has been in the business for almost four decades.
On consumer spending, he says people are extra prudent nowadays because of the high cost of living and economic uncertainties.
Perseverance:  This man who runs a flower stall for almost four decades tending to his CNY plants.
He says he will soldier on, and last weekend saw him busy meeting orders for bouquets from graduates at the convocation ceremony in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) nearby.