When I was taking a stroll in Penang's Queensmall Bay early this year, I came across a little fair selling all things Chinese. Red strips of papers with Chinese characters written on it reminded me of this traditional Chinese practice of pasting duilian on the doors and walls of the homes. Duilian is couplet written on vertical strips of red paper in the best calligraphic style possible. Dui Lian by the way, should not be confused with chun lian. The latter is actually a special type of duilian. Since it was just after Chinese New Year when I was at Queensbay Mall, I thought the couplet I have seen should be chun lian since chun lian is used for decoration during for Chinese New Year celebration and unlike duilian which is permanent, chunlian is a temporary decoration. Both however, have positive, inspiring phrases which lifted the spirits.
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