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January
l February Issue |
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Overcome
or die
This is a folk story on Chinese New Year.
There was once a monster called “Nien” who terrorised the villagers
in a small village in China.
It had a huge and terrible mouth with razor sharp teeth and a body covered
in rock hard scales. Its roar would cause the earth to tremble.
Every New Year’s eve, the terrible Nien would descend upon the villagers
and demand for human sacrifices.
The villagers would reluctantly give in, fearing that it might destroy
them all if they refused its demands. This went on for a number of years.
The village grew smaller and smaller as more people either left or got
eaten by Nien.
One New Year’s eve, however, the villagers decided that they had
to try to defeat Nien or the village would be destroyed anyway. They knew
that they could not kill it with their little weapons. So they got together
to make a plan to frighten it away forever.
The villagers put up red banners as well as flaming torches as they knew
that Nien was afraid of the colour red. On top of that, they prepared numerous
firecrackers to be lit when Nien came.
That night, the great monster Nien came to the village once more to demand
for its sacrifices. However, once the villagers saw Nien coming, they lit
the firecrackers and raised the torches high up in the air.
Nien immediately ran away from the village and hid for another year because
it was afraid of the colour red, the flames and the loud noises. The villagers
congratulated each other by saying “gong xi”. This is how the
term “surviving nien”, or “guo nien”, started.
They are words you often hear during Chinese New Year.
Let us learn from the story.
When we know our choice is either to overcome or to die - sometimes quickly,
but most times slowly - it is silly not to try to overcome.
No matter how bad things may look, there is a way out
• if we sit down and think,
• if we act on the ideas, and
• if we work together as a team.
Lim Siong Guan Head, Civil Service |
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