Riddles are brain teasers. They are fun; in the past, most certainly; even more so in the present when you have a handphone at hand. In ancient China, when there was no modern gadgets to talk of, there was always the Chinese Lantern Riddles to entertain the young and old alike. Even during Han Dynasty, there was the Chinese Lantern Festival which fell at the end of the 15 days of the Lunar New Year celebration. Lanterns would be on display and on these lanterns would be written riddles for people to solve. In modern times, riddles may appear in strips of colourful papers instead of on lanterns and questions probably are easier and touch on contemporary issues. Nevertheless, difficult questions could easily be solved with a touch of the smartphone and a Google search and would even be a rewarded with a little red packet of RM 1 for each correct answer as the case I witnessed in Pokok Assam, Perak, at the beginning of the year.
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