Chinese new year

Shop houses in Penang

Chinese new year is not until the 23rd January but preparations start early.
In a Chinese temple in Penang I across a Chinese couple, sitting on two low stools, with a little table between them. On the table was a pile of pieces of paper, printed with gold squares on one side. They were rolling these pieces of paper into tubes, then folding in the ends, to make loose packages, which they dropped into a box.
"What is that?" I asked
"Difficult to explain" the woman said "Money for the next world.
Because it is the new year we come to the temple to  honour our ancestors. Then we must ask if they are happy for us to offer them this money. If they are happy we burn the money in a ceremony."

 They had finished folding the gold money and now started on a pile of "silver money".

In the evening an inflatable green dragon advertising Calrsberg went past the restaurant where I was eating with some friends, accompanied by a line of cheerful young Chinese men with drums. A few Malay men were joining in.

Yesterday evening I went to the cinema in Penang, to see a Tamil film, much to the amazement of the Indian (mainly Tamil) audience. "Can you understand?" several people asked me.
"I can read the subtitles" I said.
The screen in the cinema is enormous, the seats comfortable and the air conditioning too cold. The audience laugh uproariously all the way through the film.  We went into the cinema at 9pm and came out at half past midnight.