Gong Xi Fa Chai~

Ok now, it is the time of the year again for the more than 1 billion Chinese around the world to celebrate the famed Chinese New Year. Every year, during this period, Chinese will embark on a spending spree to buy new clothes, new shoes, new hairstyle, new car(for some), new paint for the house and a lot of new or reddish and loud decorations.

Everything needs to be new for Chinese New Year to represent the Lunar New Year with the hope that the New Year will bring good health, wealth and luck! However one annoying thing about Chinese New Year is the never changing Chinese New Year songs from Mainland China or Taiwan. Local artiste does their part but mostly is a 'rebranding' exercise with different tempo but singing to the old same tune and beat. Though it gives me the festivity mood and generally drumming me the message that I'm going to be older again, it gets annoying when wherever you go the same old beat are played.

And when I say everywhere you go, I meant everywhere you go...from supermarkets, to shopping malls to clothing boutique and even coffee shops. The blaring of the Chinese New Year song is played as though it is a propaganda machine, enticing you to shop more and be more blatant in your spending. There is a statistic that Chinese shopper spends 79.4% more when the Chinese New Year song is played through the PA. Seems like the CNY songs send a strong message albeit a hidden one to spend more and more. Ok, the statistic part is a fakey, but ol'Jon went on a short shopping trip with Nat boy and Silly Bean the other weekend. The end result? 600 hard earned bucks was spend in the first 15 minutes! Shockingly all the while the PA system played the Chinese New Year song and I felt good spending the money. Only when the adrenaline and the propaganda songs passed, I realised my Spending Spree!

Anyway, my 1st grumbling today is about the CNY songs that never seems to improve/change or rewritten. It will be the same old tune year in year out. Check out this new Chinese New Year song from Malaysia famed but foul mouthed rapper namewee;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w0DFvcZ_vw

My 2nd grumbling is the marketing/sales ploy that shops do to Chinese buyer during CNY period, by using the CNY tune to mesmerize and entice shopper to spend and spend and spend. While it worked in the micro scale, I wonder why it wasn't done at the Macro level?

Look at it this way, the Chinese constitute more than 1/6th of the world population. If you're an economist and want to pull the world out of this economic slump, all you need to do is to get some old CNY songs and played it to the 1.3 billion Chinese out there. Instantly 79.4% increase of revenue and moreover the Chinese felt good spending them money! Why haven't any Buffets or Gates or Li Ka Shings thought of this moves is beyond me....and before I cracked my head trying to figure how to entice more than 1 billion chinese into buying my yet to be invented product; I wish everyone here a Happy Chinese New Year and may you enjoy a prosperous year of the Tiger no matter you're White, Black, Brown or Yellow(Chinese la...haha!) Gong Xi Fa Chai.....This year must HUAT x 13!