What does the bright red paper dolls with chubby faces hanging on the walls, the mediacorp artistes on TV and the silky terrier with the punky hairstyle have in common during Lunar New Year? Yes, they all greet us with gongxi gongxi gesture. Ok, to be fair, some of my friends who always try to be funny do it too, and also those MPs who go constituencies visiting to distribute ang bao do it too. And mommies too!

I found out that mommies are all fervently demonstrating to their kids how to bring their little hands together, clasp them, then move it up down up down, hoping that the little ones would learn that action just in time for the Lunar New Year. I have been to many mommies’ sites and the gongxi gongxi classes have sprung up everywhere. It is definitely on the to-do-list of ushering the New Year.

Of course, how could I be left before this fun. Since I couldn’t get her to say gongxi gongxi, must well teach her the action for some amusement. We are almost there, should be just in time to get it 100% action on demand on the actual days. That should make the old folks happy. And if some uncle or aunty pretend to forget about giving Yauyau a red packet, some gongxi gongxi would remind them not to act blur.