"DID any greeting cards arrive with the post today? It’s less than a week to Chinese New Year and the ones we’ve received so far are fewer than the fingers on my hands," remarks my mother the moment I return from inspecting the letter box.
She looks disappointed when I shake my head. Pursing her lips in dismay, she heads towards the kitchen to join my wife and daughter in preparing lunch. My mother’s words bring to mind the recent technological advancement that has brought about an unprecedented increase in the popularity of sending festive greetings via social media and smart phone apps.
Most people these days embrace these modern conveniences – at the expense of the traditional Chinese New Year greeting card. Not many are still bothered or have the luxury of spending hours at a store carefully selecting a card with messages that best represent their thoughts for a loved one or friend before heading over to the post office to purchase a stamp and dropping the entire ensemble into the post box.
Perceived by many today as an old-fashioned afterthought, the practice of sending Chinese New Year greeting cards is kept alive primarily by corporations to maintain long established business ties as well as senior citizens who take on the role of keeping the flame of tradition burning true and bright.
WARDING OFF A TERRIBLE BEAST
Historical records reveal that the ancient Chinese were the first to send written sentiments regaling the arrival of the New Year. According to legend, these greetings were sent to ward off a mythical beast called Nien which viciously attacked and killed countless villagers each time the year draws to an end.
Cards bearing scripted messages were distributed at the beginning of each New Year as a way of wishing the surviving population better fortunes in the year to follow. The solution to the disastrous calamity may have since been lost to the annals of time, but the tradition of sending cards endured and became deep rooted in Chinese culture.
Realising that there’s still a bit of time left before lunch, I head upstairs to tidy my cluttered study. The place looks like a dump with flea market purchases over the last few months lying all over the place.
In the midst of my unplanned spring cleaning, I unexpectedly come across a large cardboard box filled to the brim with vintage Chinese New Year greeting cards. Almost immediately I’m reminded of their chance discovery almost three years ago.
The cards were found in an attic of a large house in Seberang Perak, a suburb close to Kedah capital, Alor Star. The building, which was abandoned sometime in the 1990s, still fronts the main road and was once used to house several thriving businesses that dealt in a variety of things from construction material to bicycle spare parts.
All the cards in the box were addressed to a sundry shop named Guan Soon that occupied a section of the building on the ground floor. Judging from the stamps and postal markings on the envelopes, the greeting cards were sent from the early 1950s to the late 1960s. This almost two-decade-long duration coincides with the time when sending Chinese New Year greeting cards was all the rage in Malaya.
CARDS FROM THE PROVISION SHOP
Fortunate to find a photograph of the ordinary looking general provision shop from among the mountain of cards, it’s interesting to note that even small business enterprises like Guan Soon received large quantities of well wishes during the festive season.
The names of the companies on some of the cards give an idea of the things that were offered for sale at Guan Soon. As a provision shop, the company must have sold a wide array of goods ranging from household items such as bowls, to daily consumables as well as canned and dried foods to cater to the demands of the people living around Seberang Perak.
After taking a little less than an hour to glance through the entire collection, I conclude that the Chinese New Year greeting cards sent by the Colgate-Palmolive company in Kuala Lumpur over several consecutive years have the most eye-catching and interesting designs.
The company, which was the first in the world to market toothpaste in collapsible tubes in 1896, had thoughtfully printed a calendar of the coming year on one side of its greeting card, while the overleaf highlights the complete classification scheme of the 12 animals that make up the Chinese Zodiac.
Guan Soon must have also sold groundnuts as it received many greeting cards from Thong Thye Groundnuts Factory in Perak. Popular as a snack during Chinese New Year gatherings, groundnuts are said to symbolise stability, long life and good fortune.
The company, which is still in business today under the popular Pagoda brand, was the brainchild of founder, Liew Kee Yin. While setting up his company in 1949, Liew envisioned his enterprise to possess strength and tenacity which enabled it to withstand the test of time, just like the stately Hopoh Pagoda in his hometown in Guangdong, China. Built in the 19th century, the landmark survived numerous natural calamities like floods, droughts and famine.
Like today, Malayans in the past favoured the Pagoda groundnuts which were sourced from the tin mining town of Menglembu. Using a method perfected by Liew, the freshly harvested groundnuts are washed, boiled in salt, dried and then slowly baked to perfection without using oil. The result of this laborious method is groundnuts with a unique aroma, taste and crunch.
Returning my attention to the other greeting cards of varying physical sizes, designs and styles, it dawns upon me that they’re a good representation of our growing nation's rich cultural history. In an era devoid of smart phones and the Internet, everyone, regardless of economic and educational background, gender or social status, sent greeting cards to convey their most intimate thoughts to friends and loved ones alike.
EARLIEST GREETING CARDS
Among the earliest greeting cards in the hoard are several palm-sized photo montages. Popular since the late 1940s, these are actually studio produced photographs that feature prominent local buildings or scenic spots together with a small image of the sender. It’s believed that the inclusion of the latter gave the cards a personal touch and demonstrated a higher level of sincerity.
These photographic forms of conveying festive greetings were exclusive and that made them very expensive. More often than not, these special forms of greetings were considered a luxury that less affluent Malayans from the working class could ill afford.
As a result, the ordinary man on the street in the 1950s opted for printed greeting cards that were more affordable. Priced at only 10 cents each, they quickly became items of choice for Malayans to renew friendships and business relations each time the New Year drew close.
Despite their low production costs, these cards were filled with various aspects of traditional Chinese culture that have been passed down for generations. Most prominent among these is the way the characters were printed. Chinese characters on most cards published in the 1960s were either printed in a right to left text orientation or in the ancient writing style that starts from top to bottom.
Technical developments in printing technology like colour lithography helped to propel the manufactured greeting card industry forward. By the early part of the 1960s, colourful pictorial cards began inching their way into the Malayan market.
Apart from using warm colours like pink and yellow to symbolise peace and tranquility, printers began introducing auspicious symbols of prosperity and longevity into their products. Nearly every card that Guan Soon received had colourful images of carps, flowers, peacocks and even bats on them.
SOCIAL MIGRATION
Malaya, as a newly independent nation in the late 1950s, was at the brink of a period of rapid expansion through industrialisation. People began to migrate from villages to well-planned housing estates in towns and cities as they went in search of greener pastures.
Each time Chinese New Year drew near, greeting cards became useful forms of communication for these people to maintain cultural ties with their village friends who still remained close to their hearts and minds. This way, they remained a socially tight-knit unit despite being physically far apart from each other.
Chinese youths living in towns and cities had better access to English medium schools while their counterparts in the rural areas were primarily educated in their mother tongue. By the 1960s, there was quite a fair balance in the percentage of students studying in English and Chinese streams.
Conscious of this phenomenon that was fast becoming entrenched in the local populace, Chinese New Year greeting card publishers began printing their products in dual languages. This enabled both the English- and Chinese-educated population, two rather different social groups in Malaya, to share in the common practice of sending greeting cards.
A card in my collection which prominently features a large horseshoe with its ends pointing upwards was almost certainly designed to capture the English-educated market segment. Western culture believes that an upturned horseshoe, just like the stylised version on the card, is supposed to bring good fortune when kept as a talisman by its owner.
SILVER SCREEN ROLE MODELS
Regardless of their educational background, Malayans enjoyed going to the cinema which was one of the main sources of entertainment in the 1960s. That era was widely recognised as the golden age of Chinese movies and it was common to find Chinese New Year greeting cards from that time period featuring pictures of famous Hong Kong actors and actresses as well as popular theme song lyrics.
Greeting cards bearing the images of screen queens hailing from the famed Shaw Brothers' stable of stars in Hong Kong like Lin Dai, Jenny Hu, Betty Ting Pei and Lily Ho became precious keepsakes to the recipients. As a way of keeping up with the times, young Malayan female adults often engaged their friends in a game of one-upmanship by emulating their idols' latest dressing and hairstyle preferences as well as fashion sense.
Towards the end of the pile, two interesting cards suddenly catch my eye. Apart from portraying movie actresses, their front cover also feature the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station and the Penang Kek Lok Si Temple.
The printer's subject choice is impeccable. Many people travelled by rail in the past to get home and celebrate Chinese New Year with their loved ones. Sending a greeting card which features the largest railway station in the country was a sure way of reminding the loved one of the sender's impending return.
Penang's Kek Lok Si Temple in Ayer Itam, meanwhile, has always been the focal point for devotees as well as tourists Year who throng its halls to offer prayers and give alms to the less fortunate during Chinese New. Until today, this Buddhist temple, considered to be the largest in the country, remains open until late into the night for a month following Chinese New Year to allow visitors to fully appreciate its many colourful lights and lantern decorations.
"Lunch is ready," my mother hollers from the bottom of the stairs. Her sudden announcement makes me consciously aware of the time. Returning the items carefully back to their rightful storage space, it dawns on me that the greeting cards illustrate the fact that Malayans who lived through the early years of nationhood formed a dynamic society that was united in a common culture of social exchanges.
Born from fears of a mythical creature, greeting cards of the past have allowed us to maintain our unique Malayan culture - one that embraces a modern identity, while retaining a strong grip on ancient traditions in a land that we share with our brothers and sisters of other races.