Thursday, December 30, 2010

A chinese wedding

As i have mentioned in one of my previous blogs, i have recently attended a wedding and i am now posting the blog of that event as i have promised before.

Raymond, the groom, has been my friend since we were 13 year old. There were several others in our gang and we were all notoriously known for our mischievous but witty traits. If you are a follower of Taiwanese TV drama or Japanese manga, we were a little bit like the F4 (okay, we did not beat people up, we did not drive convertible sport cars to school and not all of us had the looks to match but you get my point).  After high school, we went separate ways to pursue higher educations.  Most of us were world apart but somehow managed to remain close. Friendship is a funny thing.

When i heard Raymond is getting married i was very happy for him. He has been a good friend, very much like a brother i've never had. He is also a charming lad who mingled very well with the ladies. My dad used to call him Romeo. I knew he will find a girl who has a good heart just like him. When i heard he got engaged to Jiin Ee, i knew the day has come.  Jiin Ee went to the same high school as the rest of us. I remember her as a sweet girl who was soft spoken and yet very confident in whatever she did. She had very good grades in school too.

I have never photographed a wedding before but have always wanted to do so. There is something about wedding photography that mesmerises me.  You can imagine the excitement i felt when i knew i finally have my chance of photographing a wedding. Photographing the wedding of my close friend? That's just the icing on the cake.

This was a church wedding with Chinese customary details.  A strictly traditional Chinese wedding is more tedious.  In a traditional Chinese wedding, the bride has to wash her hair in Pomelo water, apparently to cleanse her of any evil energy (i find it a bit derogatory to infer that there is evilness in women). The bride will then have to be dressed in red and wear a rather elaborated hat called the Phoenix crown. Chinese weddings have evolved over the years. Nobody bother with the tedious details above anymore. But all following events are still part of a Chinese customary wedding.

The bride waits at her house while the groom gathers his entourage. The latter usually includes the groom's brothers and close friends. The entourage of boys drive to the bride's house early in the morning to "obtain" the bride. We are not talking about a simple pick-up-and-go task here. It is more like a military siege operation to extract a target (which in this case is the bride).  Like any "extraction operation" this is not easy. The bride is kept within the "fortress" guarded by an army of girls, the equivalent of the groom's entourage.  The get to the bride, the groom and his friends are required to perform and complete certain tasks or tricks at the girls' demand. These usually include doing push ups, singing, drinking some secret cocktail (usually very horrible to drink due to the content). Last but not least, the girls always demand Ang Pau (red packets filled with money) as ransom.

Once the extraction business has been completed, there will be a tea ceremony at the bride's house where the newly wed serve Chinese tea to the elders from the bride's family. The couple will then return to the groom's house for another tea ceremony, this time involving the elders from the groom's family.

Finally, the dinner banquet on wedding night.  This is a big feast, easily with more than 300 attendants.

Here are some photos i have taken at the wedding.





Tang Yuan: Traditional Chinese dumplings served in sweet ginger soup.
  
Chinese bun for breakfast.

Gotta feed the lads before the hard work begins


Chinese love red and gold as colours. It's suppose to bring good luck.



Suit up.

 



The groom arrived at the bride's house.


The groom's entourage followed closely behind but we found ourselves locked out.




We were forced to do some push ups but with a twist. We were required to eat a plate of groundnuts while doing push ups.

 

After giving up the last lot of ransom....
 
And performing a very girly dance...

Raymond finally got his bride.


A brief tea ceremony at the bride's house.



And we were off to the church.

The church ceremony is over. Time to head over to the groom's house.




Another Chinese tea ceremony at the groom's house.  The newly wed received red packets in return.


The tea ceremony ended in the early afternoon. We had a break and some rest. There was a small dinner banquet at a local hotel which we all attended. I did not have my camera handy that night, hence no photos to share.

Hope you like all my photos. I intend to shoot more weddings if my day job does not get too taxing in the coming year.  So do follow this blog closely.




  



Saturday, December 25, 2010

Melaka Part 2

Here comes the part 2, the part without the awful rain, the part with the sunshine (okay i admit there wasn't much of that either, the sky was overcast). Anyway, i got to where i wanted to be. After the rain, all the tourists were out on the streets again. The Dutch village was absolutely packed full of people. Finding parking nearby was impossible. So dad had to stop by the road and wait in the car, while me and my mum left for the photoshoot.

Melaka was founded by a Malay-Hindu prince from the Srivijaya empire. His name was Parameswara. Srivijaya was once a strong empire centered at Palembang of Sumatra. The 1000 year old empire was attacked and destroyed by the rise of a new empire, the Majapahit empire led by a man called Singhasari. The Srivijayans fled to Singapore and stayed for a couple of generations until their old nemesis from Majapahit empire came chasing again. The Srivijayan prince of that time Parameswara eventually fled to Melaka.  Back then, Melaka was a small fishing village. Parameswara was sitting under a tree one day and witnessed a fight between a dog and a tiny mousedeer (locals call mousedeer a Sang Kancil).  The mousedeer defeated the dog. Parameswara took it as a sign, an omen perhaps that Melaka was special. He started building his empire again and eventually turned Melaka into one of the busiest port of the region. One thing i must point out though.  I have read somewhere that the so called ferocious dog that fought  and was defeated by the mousedeer was actually a Chihuahua! I doubt the Chihuahua was any bigger than the mousedeer. Hell, i actually think Chihuahua looks more like a mouse deer than a dog anyway. Maybe the prince had a few too many Sauvignon Blanc the night before and has mistaken the second mousedeer for Paris Hilton's Tinker Bell. Let's face it, back in the old days they probably did not have a morning hang over pill, haha. I apologise for making fun of history. But i just can't help it when i read about the Chihuahua.

Back to the photos that i have shot...

 The famous Mousedeer that fought the Chihuahua. I wish it had been a Rottweiler, not a Chihuahua.




Tan Beng Swee clocktower.

Stadthuys, meaning Town Hall in Dutch.



Rickshaw (becak) men at work.

Christ Church, Melaka.



Melaka was ruled by the Portuguese from 1511 to 1641. In 1641, they were defeated by the Dutch, who ruled Melaka from 1641 to 1798. The British took over after that.  Not much of the Portuguese buildings are left these days.  The picture below shows where the old Portuguese wall was.




 
I was please i had a willing model for the photoshoot. Here are a few photos of mum...






I left Melaka, feeling tired after a day of running around and driving. But i felt satisfied. I can now cross one tourist spot off my list. I can say i have visited Melaka as a tourist, with a full set of awesome photos as proof. Til the next time my friends, cheerios and Merry X'mas.




Melaka Part 1

I was born and raised in Malaysia. The funny thing is when you grow up in a country, there is a fair chance you have toured half way around the world but have not thoroughly explored your own country. I have only been to a hand full of tourist spots in Malaysia. Yes, shame on me.  I am a busy man. For me, holidays are rather hard to come by. So now that i have over 3 weeks of holiday at home, i have decided i should venture out a little from Johor (the area i am living in). When tourists talk about Malaysia, they often talk about the world renowned diving paradise Sipadan, breathstaking view at Tioman island and Redang island, land of mouthwatering food Penang, and the monsterous sky scrapers from the Malaysian capital city Kuala Lumpur. But they also talk about the famous historic city of Melaka (also spelled as Malacca).  Melaka is a small state, 148Km from Kuala Lumpur and 95Km from Batu Pahat (where i live). More than 50% of its population is Malay, around 30% chinese (including the Babas and Nyonyas), with the rest comprising Indians and people of Portuguese and Dutch ancestry.

The main attractions of Melaka include the Stadthuys, St John's hill, Christ church of Melaka and Melaka maritime museum. I particularly like the red buildings left over by the Dutch. I have always wanted to photograph them as i think they look pretty. 

So i was all excited and geared up with my Nikon D90 heading towards the area. There was a bad traffic jam on the way. A short journey from the town center to the Dutch village turned into a 30 mins "snail race". I didn't waste time. I got the car window down and started snapping candid pass by shots of some old buildings. Here's what i got....




This is how a traditional Baba & Nyonya house will look like.

A drive by shot of a small lane.


An old window.

Yes a window again. I have a thing for window...





Just when we were getting close, guess what..........it started pouring down.  I couldn't believe my luck. Maybe it was a sign that i should wait for the evening sun (photographers call it the golden hour for photoshoots).  So we had no choice but to detour to a nearby shopping mall Jaya Jusco to wait the rain out. It gave mum opportunity to pick up some imported Kim Chi too. Apparently you can't get quality Kim Chi like that in Batu Pahat. Mum and dad are totally hooked to Kim Chi these days.  While i was entering the mall's carpark, i noted an interesting sighting. There were "No parking" signs along the entire stretch of the road we were travelling on and it was interesting to know how well Malaysians follow the rules. See the following photo. I thought it was hilarious and disappointing at the same time.


Please don't insist on Malaysia boleh. I am telling you TAK BOLEH PARKING!!



The shopping mall was decorated for X'mas with a gigantic snowman greeting us at the main entrance.  I did not think much of the snowman initially until i stepped closer and read the sign. Have a look at the first photo below without looking at the second. Can you spot anything unusual? Now look at the close up photo (second photo below).


The giant snowman was made of recycle bottles. How cool.

I did not give up on my photoshoot plan. I loitered at the mall for an hour and a half, the rain stopped. See part two of this blog.