Chinese New Year's Rituals - A Photo Essay

Back in 2009, I posted a story about Chinese New Year's Festivities in Bandung. Since then, I have not posted any other similar stories. Last week, I received a series of wonderful black and white photographs of the Chinese New Year rituals from a young and talented photographer whom I met last year in a couple of photography workshops in which I was asked to mentor.

Ali Mecca, the name of the photographer, is a film and photography student at a Pasundan University in Bandung.













This is the text that he wrote to accompany the above pictures after I edited it:

Under the "New Order" regime (1966 - 1998), the Indonesian ethnic Chinese endured a discriminatory treatment. Their cultural identity was subsumed under the mainstream national identity. They were encouraged to use Indonesian names in lieu of their Chinese names, given a different ID card that differentiated them from the indigenous Indonesian, and were not allowed to perform and show their cultural heritage in public.

The advent of Reform Era (Era Reformasi) changed all that. Under the presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid (October 1999 - July 2001) the government reinstated the Indonesian ethic Chinese civic and cultural rights and made the Chinese New Year a national holiday. Since then, the Chinese New Year has once again become a festivity that is celebrated throughout the country, not only among the Chinese, but also by many other Indonesians.

Does Chocolate Grow on A Tree?

Does chocolate grow on a tree?

Yes, it does. The fruit doesn't look like a bar of chocolate that you'd usually find on a supermarket shelf though. It looks green like the ones in this photo when it's young and yellow and reddish brown when it's ripe.

The chocolate fruit (called cocoa or cacao) is not eaten for its flesh. It is the seeds that are extracted from the fruit. These seeds are then dried and fermented to make the basic ingredient of the chocolate that we know.

I saw these cacao fruits on a tree near my office in the north of Bandung.

S-28 Cafe

I like coffee and going to cafes to enjoy it.

Like many urbanites anywhere, I go to cafes not only to have - drink and enjoy - coffees, but also to socialize or, quite the opposite of it, have some quiet time on my own. Sometimes I also do my blogging from one of these places.



Of all the cafes that I have frequented, I can probably say that S-28 on Jalan Sulanjana 28 is one of my favorites.

Unlike some other cafes which are popular among teenagers, it has a quieter and more relaxed atmosphere: no loud music, no ‘buzzing’ chatters, and – best of all – it is strategically located between my office and home. So, whenever the traffic is bad and I don't feel like driving through it, I can just stop by the place, have a piece of pastry and a coffee, read a book or write a post for my blog, and wait till the congestion is easing.



The decoration of the cafe is quite nice too. I like how they  put a bag of coffee beans and  jars containing different kinds of coffee beans that they serve at the counter.



And I didn't know until quite recently - when I accidentally met an ex-student of mine - that the back room of this cafe is actually also a "Rent Office & Meeting Room." These rented offices and meeting room, according to him (who happens to have  his office there),  provides shared office facilities and even a private secretary and office staff. This can save a lot of overhead and operational costs for a small or a start up business like the one he is trying to start.



Curious, I asked if I could have a peek into his office. It's a nice three square meter office space. It looks like a decent office of a company executive.

Enjoying Young Coconuts

People enjoying young coconuts on the road side at Babakan Ciamis, near Jalan Aceh, Bandung.

Young coconut is a favorite drink, especially on a hot day. Coconut contains water inside that tastes mildly sweet and fresh. The soft flesh also tastes very good.

A Friendly Handshake with A Mascot

A little girl is shaking hands with a friendly Super Mario mascot. I snapped this photo at "Rumah Mode," a factory outlet on Jalan Dr. Setiabudi, in the north of Bandung.

Al Imtizaj Mosque

The Al Imtizaj mosque is a small mosque attached to a trade center on ABC Street (Jalan ABC). It is one of the two mosques in Bandung that have a touch of Chinese traditional architecture. The other one is the Lautze Mosque No. 2 on Jalan Tamblong.

Bust Mannequin

Three bust (head only) mannequins wearing hijab used by a street vendor selling Muslim woman's head cover at Alun-Alun Bandung.

Located in front of Bandung Grand Mosque (Mesjid Agung Provinsi Jawa Barat di Bandung), Alun-alun Bandung is a busy market place where one can find almost anything from foods and drinks to clothes and accessories to toys and games.

Super Scooter

This punk-style, self-modified scooter looks astonishing, doesn't it?

Modified old scooter punk-style like this one is quite a popular statement among the members of punk communities here. Some of the modified scooters look somewhat aesthetically nice and curious like this one. But many, in many my opinion, look just like a moving trash bin. I think most of them are not safe and road-worthy either.

Strangled Skateboarder

Oh, oh ... what happened to this skateboarder? He didn't see a cable in front of him and was strangled in his action.

Fortunately he's not a real living skateboarder. He's just a statue. I don't know if its placement near the electric cable was deliberate. It might be. As far as I know, the electric cable had already been there before the statue was put in the front yard of the building next to the one where the cable was. Perhaps the maker of the statue was very much aware of it and deliberately put his/her work there. It might also be possible that he/she was not aware of it. Either ways, it creates a funny scene.

Hideous Grotesquerie

Is this a Hollywood horror movie character?

Perhaps! But this hideous character was found nowhere near Hollywood. It is in fact just a wax (or polymer?) figure put at a store front of a clothing shop (or 'distro'/distribution outlet as it is called here) at Cihampelas Street.

Scary, isn't it? But in spite of its appearance, this figure and a couple of other have attracted passers by to the store.

Here is another one: