{"id":29925,"date":"2026-02-20T10:51:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T02:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=29925"},"modified":"2026-02-20T10:51:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T02:51:34","slug":"this-week-in-postmag-lunar-new-year-and-the-meaning-of-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=29925","title":{"rendered":"This week in PostMag: Lunar New Year and the meaning of home"},"content":{"rendered":"


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It\u2019s comforting \u2013 in an admittedly dystopian way \u2013 how well my algorithm gets me. Over the past few weeks, I\u2019ve gone down a rabbit hole of horoscope content (both Eastern and Western) on Instagram. Wondering what the Year of the Fire Horse might hold for an Aquarius rabbit? My second-hand knowledge, absorbed from online pseudo gurus with questionable levels of expertise, can tell you (it\u2019s looking bright, if you can believe them).<\/p>\n

I learned that the Fire Horse has something of a reputation. In Japan, it\u2019s a birth year known for producing particularly unruly women, considered too free-spirited and too unpredictable. So much so that in 1966, the last Year of the Fire Horse, birth rates plummeted. All of that\u2019s to say, feelings run strong about this year, so brace yourself \u2013 or better yet, take notes.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve themed this issue loosely around the Lunar New Year, with stories around homecoming and tradition. Victoria Chan tracks mahjong\u2019s stylish, savvy comeback<\/span> among diaspora Gen Zers and auntie aspirants alike. Once associated with smoky dens and long afternoons, it\u2019s now a vehicle for connecting with heritage and creative reinvention. At the game\u2019s centre is a new breed of organisers and artists reshaping its future. In London and Toronto, Connor Wan Cing-tsuen founded mahjong clubs where diaspora kids who never learned the language can still discover their roots, and in Hong Kong, Karen Aruba and her family are preserving the vanishing craft of hand-carved tilemaking. Her father, Master Ricky Cheung, is one of the city\u2019s last artisans still doing it by hand.<\/div>\n

Elsewhere, associate editor Gavin Yeung follows the heat trail of the Philippines\u2019 first Michelin Guide, which has sparked a homecoming of another kind. Chefs, once trained to perfect French sauces, are now flavouring dishes with fish paste and cooking in traditional clay pots. Filipinos had to fall in love with their own cuisine all over again, said the late chef Margarita For\u00e9s \u2013 and after reading the piece, it\u2019s something I\u2019m very much looking forward to doing myself.<\/p>\n

In Taishan, Christopher St Cavish visits the ancestral villages that once exported generations of Cantonese migrants to the world, including Hong Kong, before \u00e9migr\u00e9s returned in the 1920s and 30s. It\u2019s a fascinating blend of East meets West with Greek columns, Islamic arches and wedding cake facades rising out of the Guangdong countryside. In kitchens, cast-iron pans sit alongside woks. And a particular Taishan speciality? Waffles filled with cured sausage and salted egg yolk.<\/p>\n

Keeping with the Fire Horse theme, Charukesi Ramadurai travels to Sumba<\/span> and finds tradition galloping on. Quite literally. Her report from the Indonesian island reveals community, spirituality and a strong reluctance to be remade in Bali\u2019s image. They are growing tourism slowly and deliberately, with hotels such as Nihi and Cap Karoso investing in education, healthcare and clean water access for locals. It\u2019s a place still rooted in tradition \u2013 complete with a silent month called Wulla Poddu and the Pasola festival\u2019s horseback battles \u2013 but one that\u2019s finding ways to let the outside world in without losing itself.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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It\u2019s comforting \u2013 in an admittedly dystopian way \u2013 how well my algorithm gets me. Over the past few weeks, I\u2019ve gone down a rabbit…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4840],"tags":[469,13821,2732,5280,947,791],"class_list":["post-29925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-globetrotting","tag-home","tag-lunar","tag-meaning","tag-postmag","tag-week","tag-year","wpcat-4840-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}