15/02/2026

ON SUNDAY February 15, 2026 theSunday Special III

Teh believes that the Chinese New Year celebration is shaped by memory and by a quiet insistence that family, once taken for granted, must now be chosen. A festival worth preserving For Gen Z, Chinese New Year arrives differently. It is no longer confined to living rooms or hometowns. It appears on timelines, in comment sections, through shared videos and livestreams. Traditions are no longer learned only from family elders but also from other families, other states and other countries. Exposure to other customs, dialects and interpretations of the Chinese New Year has widened younger Malaysians’ understanding of their own traditions. Like Clouty Kee, his experience of Chinese New Year is not anchored in nostalgia for what has disappeared but in enthusiasm for what continues to evolve. K HH KDV EHHQ D FRQWHQW FUHDWRU IRU ¿YH years, a career that began with a simple desire to make people feel something. Today, he has over 6.2 million followers on TikTok alone. “What drew me into the world of con tent creation is knowing that my videos would make someone smile. Knowing SHRSOH ¿QG FRPIRUW LQ P\ FRQWHQW MXVW makes them giggle and laugh out loud was so satisfying to me,” he said. That instinct shapes how he experi ences the Chinese New Year celebration. For Kee, the festival is always vibrant, expressive and full of movement. “Lots of vibrant colours, visiting rela tives and friends, can’t forget the star of the show, the ang pao . The joy that the Chinese New Year brings to everyone is just insane,” he added. His childhood memories are playful and lightly irreverent. One family tradition involved lifting noodles as high as possible during the reunion dinner, a symbolic gesture for longevity.

Despite the challenges, I hope everyone can make the effort to return home for a reunion dinner.”

Vibrant colours, family visits and the undeniable star – ang pao.

Kee

D L̆ HUHQW HUDV PHHW DW WKH FHQWUH When read together, Teh and Kee’s stories reveal not a cultural gap but a generational rhythm. While millennials remember Chinese New Year as something that once felt auto matic, Gen Z experiences it as something that must be intentionally carried forward. One looks back to a fuller house. The other looks ahead to how tradition can continue to travel. But both arrive at the same conclusion. Chinese New Year, at its core, is not about how loudly it is celebrated or how beautifully it is documented. It is about H̆ RUW $ERXW UHWXUQLQJ $ERXW FKRRVLQJ family again and again, even when life makes it inconvenient. In Malaysia, where movement is con stant and distances keep growing, the Chinese New Year celebration asks the same quiet question every year. Will you come home? As long as people like Teh and Kee continue to answer yes, the festival will remain not just alive but deeply human.

“I took it to another level by standing on chairs just to have the higher noodle pull,” he recalled. Fireworks were another constant. Sparklers, poppers and bursts of light filled the nights, creating moments of shared excitement rather than quiet rever ence. These were not solemn rituals but experiences meant to be enjoyed together. Unlike older generations who worry that technology may dilute tradition, Kee sees it as a bridge. “I do not think modern lifestyles have changed Chinese New Year. We get to share our experiences online and share our traditions with online audiences,” he said. In Kee’s defence, growing up alongside technology has created new ways to pre serve tradition, allowing cultural practices to be documented, shared and introduced to broader audiences. When used thoughtfully, digital platforms do not replace heritage but amplify it, making traditions more visible and accessible to younger gen erations who might otherwise drift away.

“Now, as more of us reach adulthood, it becomes a way of thinning the crowd,” she continued. Careers pull siblings into different cities. Marriage and commitments tangle schedules. Travel grows harder to justify. Chinese New Year still arrives each year, but the house no longer feels as full as it once did. Today, Teh describes a typical Chinese New Year with a mix of humour and truth. “Gathering, reunion and many, many ang pao ,” she said. The joke lands lightly, but beneath it sits clarity about what remains important. At the same time, modern technology has crept into these moments of together ness, with children often sitting side by side, more engaged with their devices than with the conversations around them. But, in her view, technology has not changed the heart of the celebration. It has only changed how certain things are done. “It’s just affecting how to give and receive ang pao , because now there is the e-wallet. But luckily, we still stick to hav ing reunion time together,” she explained. For Teh, keeping Chinese New Year alive has little to do with preserving culture in its purest form. “It’s nothing to do with religious belief. It’s just the reunion concept where family members have a chance to gather together,” she said.

He points to modern lion dance performances en hanced with LED lights as an example of tradition adapting to a new vi sual language. Children danced along with the lions, drawn in rather than disengaged. To him, evolution does not erase meaning. It renews interest. Yet when asked what must never be lost, his answer is unwavering. Family dinner. “I am currently based in KL, but my family is in Sabah. No matter what, I ZRXOG À\ EDFN DQG HQMR\ a family dinner that my parents have prepared,” he said.

If there is one thing she hopes survives every shift in lifestyle and technology, it is WKH H̆ RUW WR UHWXUQ “No matter how hard it is for us to be back during Chinese New Year, I hope everyone can make their EHVW H̆ RUWV WR EH EDFN LQ their hometown at least for a reunion dinner,” she said.

I don’t think modern lifestyles have changed Chinese New Year. We now share our experiences and traditions online.”

Distance, in this case, has not weak ened the tradition. It has strengthened its VLJQL¿FDQFH

Kee with his loving father and brother.

Teh