IT MAY sound trivial, but if you wash your hair tomorrow morning before the New Year family gathering, you may land yourself in hot water. You'll be breaking a centuries-old tradition and risk upsetting your elders in the process.
'My daughter-in-law was once scorned by her mother when she turned up on her doorstep on New Year's Day with her hair wet,' says grandmother Chow Kam-ping.
'It's Chinese tradition to never wash your hair on New Year's Day morning. It's like washing one's wealth away on the first day of the year and it's not auspicious.' (The Cantonese pronunciation of hair is the same as wealth.) 'Subsequently, the poor girl was blamed for all the bad things that happened to the family that year. The younger generation know so little about Chinese traditions these days.' But even if they knew them well, wouldn't they argue some of these customs have no place in the life that they now lead? 'That's another thing,' says Chow, 67. 'Today, young people always answer back. In our day, we dared not challenge our parents. It is all to do with respect and tradition.' Thankfully, deep-rooted Chinese traditions still bind the young and old together, she adds.
However, as families gather around dinner tables tonight and tomorrow, some will be aware of the widening gulf between the generations.
Academic research shows Chinese traditions and values that are held strongly by the elderly, such as supporting one's parents, are fading quickly as the younger generation exercises its right to choose in a fast-changing society.
While many of today's elderly have lived through both poverty and war, their children have strived hard to become successful in Hong Kong during the 1970s and 1980s. And their children? 'I have very mixed feelings about the younger generation,' says 37-year-old Angel Chung Mo-ching, who owns a public relations company. 'We cannot generalise and say young people today are not as good as previous generations.
'But, in general, they are more materialistic. When they look for a job, the first thing that matters is the pay and not whether they will learn and grow from the position.' Chung believes today's youngsters are shortsighted: 'In the past, you had to work hard for any sort of reward. But nowadays, young people are pampered by their parents so they don't appreciate what they have,' the university graduate says.
