Xin Nian Kuai Le 2562,Gong Xi Fa Cai!^^

I'll dedicate this post to people who celebrate chinese lunar new year,arround the world,especially my friends

who celebrate it.No,I don't celebrate it as I'm not from chinese ethnicity.But yes,I have goodfriends,colleagues who celebrate it. Male and female since I was kid'till now.They have been good friends of mine,through good and bad times.Through some fun and fight. So I'll take this opportunity to share you their joy of lunar new year(as they also share me their special lunar cake too :) ).

Indonesia consists of hundreds ethnicities,including chinese ethnicity.This interaction has been built for centuries,you can even see many of native Indonesian people's physical,some of them resemble to people from chinese ethnicity though they are not chinese ethnicity anymore.I think they have chinese descendant or at aleast from east asian descendant.My mother and maternal uncle,though they aren't from chinese ethnicity but physically they chinese look alike. While my father and paternal uncle are south asian look alike.That south asian look!Some of my paternal cousins even have brown eye colors and brown hair colors.This is also the reason why i'm confused about my skin color.I define my self as tan,but picking tan color for my make up was too dark and greyish.While picking yellow for my make up base will be too yellow.Maybe i should combine both color :P...Aha,great idea!..

Yeah,that's mostly what us,Indonesian people look alike.We're on the equator,so we have middle skin color.Thanx to Admiral Cheng Ho expedition,the expedition brought big influence to Indonesian cultures,even to Islam in Indonesia."Bedug",or a big drum which is made from wood and lather,is a drum that is available in almost every mosques in Indonesia.Bedug is used as announcer of 5 times prayer for moslem here.Before Azan(prayer reminder),person who does azan will hit the bedug 1st,then he will do azan.Just like bell on the sunday church. Bedug,1st time was brought by Admiral Cheng Ho on his expedition here. And,bedug isn't used in other islamic countries like middle east area.So you can see that chinese culture has influenced in our

culture as well.Not many Indonesian people know this,I've just known it from a tv documenter here.

Some of history books that I've ever read,said that the 1st founder of old islamic kingdom in java,Raden Patah was believed to have chinese descendant.His father was a king from old hindu kingdom in java,and his mother was a chinese princess who was"sent"as a sign of diplomatic relationship from Chinese king/emperor that time.For Indonesian people who want to know about this history,search about this history on book stores and don't ask me which book since I read it randomly(from couple of books that I borrowed,tv documenter,

newpapers,magazines,or internet).During that time,some of them mentioned as well about 9 famous ulama(religious leader)in Indonesian history or known as"wali songo".Some of wali songo are believed to have chinese descendant.Could be true,could not.I my self say,it is possible since our nation,Indonesia,has looooonngg time interaction with so many nations in the world.And people in the past, were more open to differences than what people nowadays imo.

Those are some of chinese trace in our history.How about food?chinese cuisine has became part in

Indonesian daily lives.But i don't know how the name of some popular chinese cuisines here are different(though they're still in chinese names)than the original chinese names.Different dialect?I dunno.Here are some differences:

Youtiao,we call it here Cakwe

Tangyuan/Yuanxiao,we call it here Ronde

Baozi,we call it here Bakpao,etc.

Ugh..thinking about food makes me hungry x_x".I better get my self a"nian gao"(sticky cake)or what people in indonesia here call it"kue keranjang"(basket cake).Or,is there any of you who is from chinese ethnicity here is willing to share me your dumpling cake?;)

Xin Nian Kuai Le,Gong Xi Fa Chai..pheng yu!:)