Do you know…

Malaysia‘s CNY
Suara Kritikal R&C Jasmeen
 Malaysian CNY Movies 马来西亚贺岁电影
• Internationally, multiple CNY themed movie will hit the cinemas during the festive season.
• The Malaysian creatives had produced several movies throughout the years! A few of these listed are
the highest grossing Malaysian movies of all time
• Ola Bola (2016) features the glory of Malaysian football team’s during the 1980 Summer Olympics
• The Journey 一路有你 (2014) tells the story of a blossoming relationship between a British son in law
and a traditional Malaysian Chinese dad while they were on a quest to send out wedding invitations
• Woohoo! 大日子 five youngsters gather together to practice the tradition of tiger dance for a prayer
ceremony, only realizing that the ‘tiger head’ was destroyed days before the ceremony
• Great Day 天天好天 （ 2011 ） at an old folks home, two old men would constantly bicker over who
has the greatest children. One of them sets out a journey in hopes to settle the score, but was met
with a truck driver who faces his own problem with a senile mother.
• Note to media team: summaries are just for your perusal, do not need to include them if you do not
find them necessary. Personally would hope that you can include posters of the movies. 
 Petronas advertisements
• Every year, Petronas will release heart warming short films during festive season.
This includes CNY!
• Heart warming themes across the years include
• 一起 “ Yi Qi” (2021) means “together” in English. When signs of peace and
harmony are disrupted, a group of dancing lions found that all evils could be
drove away as they stick together because they got each other’s backs.
• 宝被 Bao Bei (2020). Intentionally as a pun, “Bao Bei” means “sweetheart” in
English. In mandarin, written as “ 宝被” , 宝 means “treasure” and “ 被”
means “blanket”. Which tells the story of a grandmother using pieces of
treasured old clothing to hand sew a blanket for a new born baby.
 Spring Cleaning 大扫除
• One of the most important Chinese custom.
• In ancient China, people would spring clean their houses to get rid of germs and
virus to avoid diseases.
• As time passes on, it becomes a custom to clean the house before every new
year.
• In China, spring time coincides with CNY, thus fulfilling the “spring” in “spring
cleaning”
• On a Fengshui standpoint, cleaning out your house get rids of all the bad luck
that may come with it
 Some other superstitious
• Not sweeping the floor on the first day of CNY as it is believed that good luck will
be swept away
• Avoid breaking anything, if do, chant 碎碎平安 . “ 碎碎” (means broken in
English) is homophonous as “ 岁岁” (means every year in English), while 平安
means peace. Even though breaking something signifies bad luck, chanting 碎碎
平安 lets you ask for blessings for peace and harmony in the year ahead
• 吃斋 . 吃 means eat in English, whereby 斋 (means vegetarian diet) is
homophonous as 灾 (disaster). It is believed that eating plant based meals
( 吃斋 ) on the first day of the new year lets you eat up all the disasters that
there is in the year, and you’ll have no disasters left in the year ahead.
 Chap Goh Meh tossing mandarin oranges
抛柑
• This is an ancient custom. Often performed by youngsters, they will write down their
contact details on mandarin oranges and throw them into a river or lake, and those
intended may pick them up at the downstream, and that’s a match!
• Several spots were you can do this (reference:
https://hello.tourplus.my/festive-seasons/5-major-locations-to-toss-mandarin-oranges-
during-chap-goh-meh-in-malaysia/
)
• Padang Kota Lama (Esplanade), Penang
• Taman Jaya, Petaling Jaya, Selangor
• Kwan Yin Tong, Ipoh, Perak
• Jetty Bastion Middlebourgh, Melaka
• India Street, Kuching, Sarawak