Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Taboo's In Baba Nyonya culture

Now i going to touch a bit about baba nyonya ... OK what is the defination of baba nyonya ?
The word "Peranakan" is also commonly used to describe Indonesian Chinese back in those days In both Malaysia and Indonesia local languages, "Peranakan” means descendant. "Baba" refers to the male descendants and "Nyonya" the female.

This is the general information that i found In most the resource but i m quiet interested in finding what is the TABOO of baba nyonya, it make me curious that why until now they still follow this kind of liture ?there are many taboo in different kind of situation in baba nyonya culture. Let say about !

Taboos in Baba Nyonya Marriages

there were a few of taboo In marriage that need to be follow, example :

* Pregnant women are prohibited to touch the items (gift, stuffs, wedding beds etc) or join in the preparations for the marriage ceremony. They are also strongly prohibited from entering the wedding chamber!

* Ever fearful of demons on her wedding day, over her wedding gown the Nyonya bride wore a Phoenix collar - an embroidered multilayered neck band with long tassels and ribbons dangling down the back from which small reflecting mirrors hung, facing away from the bride to protect her against evil spirits.

* If you have just given birth and have not celebrated the baby’s full moon, the mother and baby are not allowed to join in the marriage celebration or should I say they are not allowed to step in the front door of the groom and bride to be’s house! Even the family members staying in the same house are not welcomed as they are also deemed as “not cleansed“ yet until the baby’s “Full Moon“ celebration.

* Family members who are still mourning the passing away of their family member are also not allowed to join the Peranakan Marriage ceremony as it was deemed very inauspicious to the marriage couple.

* It is a major offences to the peranakan family during the olden days if the guests are wearing a whole black attire or white attire while joining the marriage ceremony as these attire are strictly mend for “sorrow occasion“ or funeral attir

here were some information that i found out about baba nyonya taboo in marriage ..

*At the full lunar month muar-guay ceremony, that is, thirty days after the birth of the child Nyonyas would hold a ceremony whereby nasi kunyit (steamed glutinous tumeric rice), chicken curry and red bean cakes in the shape of tortoises ( ang-koo) together with either ang-t'oe or ang-ee and two red hard-boiled chicken eggs would be offered to the ancestors and the rest distributed to relatives and close friends. This tradition, no doubt influenced to a certain extent by the local Malays in the use of nasi kunyit and curry ayam is still being practised by the Hokkiens today. The muar-guay ceremony also marks the end of the pantang (taboo or abstinence period for the baby's mother) as was also practised by the Malay women after child delivery. The Malays refered to nasi kunyit as pulot kuning or nasi kuning and they used it lavishly at thanksgiving ceremonies (kenduris ).

Celebretion

*Children were often encouraged to stay up late on Chinese New Year eve to usher in the new year and also to promote longevity for the elders and one's parents.

* Ti kuih with lots of love and dedication. So not forgetting, when making this delightful Kuih, there are some taboos or “pantang“ words that need to be observed.You simply have to be mindful of what to say and not asking anything related to cooking.

Why the baba nyonya need to using ti kiuh to chow kong - kitchen of the god

their all believe that Chow Kong made his yearly journey up to heaven to report the happenings, good or bad to the Heavenly God. A bad report by the Kitchen God means a family will suffer from bad luck during the year to come.
So to prevent the Kitchen God from reporting anything bad about the family, we served him with the ever sweet and sticky Kuih Bakul. It is so sticky; he won’t be able to speak fast.

It sound like bribing the god !! haha !!!

*their all belief that spotless clean house and decorated with Chinese New Year decorations. This is to ensure that good fortune will be abundance for the coming year.Believes that the God of Fortune will only visit houses that are clean and tidy!

*the Peranakan do not simply place oranges and pineapples on the altar but tie and decorate the fruits with serrated-patterned red paper before offering it to the gods.

*“sohjah” our elderly as a form of paying respect to them= giving ang pau time !!
During the sohjah , Older ones will say “Pande-pande surat” (be intelligent), “cepat-cepat kahwin” (get married faster) or “cepat-cepat beranak” (Faster give birth to baby) while the younger ones would reply by saying, “panjang-panjang umur” (may you have long life).

*While sweeping the floor, care must be taken to avoid touching anyone with the broom for it was considered bad luck or suay. The offender should say pai and the whole incident would be forgotten. Usually, during the first three days of the Chinese New Year, no sweeping was done for fear that good luck would be swept away.

MORE Taboo in baba nyonya

1. Time was an important factor to the Nyonya. Certain religious rites must he performed within the appointed time or hour otherwise chiong might occur. Time for prayers, time to fetch the bride accompanied by its numerous rituals and time for the hearse to start moving and time for burial were predetermined by the priest performing the funeral rites.

2.If given a knife or any sharp instrument by a friend, or relative, a small red packet (ang pau) must be given in return as a gesture of goodwill so that their friendship might not be severed by the knife. Similarly if given a plant, the gift should be reciprocated by an ang pau.. Good luck or wealth was also attached to the Adenium flower or foo koo hua.

3 .If visitors entered by the front door, they must depart by the same door, otherwise the host's daughter might end up a spinster!

4.At death, all mirrors and other reflecting surfaces were covered or concealed while all household deities were covered with red paper. Superstition and fear had it that the ghost of the deceased might catch the soul of the living relative to accompany it to the underworld

5.Pat kua boards or octagonal mirrors surrounded by the eight trig rams for extra protection were hung above main door-ways. It was believed that evil spirits, approaching with intent to harm, would see themselves reflected in all their hideousness, got so frightened by their own reflection that they scooted off without causing any mischief. This old-fashioned practice prevails to this day.

6.Many a superstitious Nyonya would refuse to have a group photograph taken of her and two others for fear that the one in the centre would be the first to die. It is said that one grandma, upon seeing her grandchild placed in the centre in a group photo, not only gave the child's parents a lecture but unhesitatingly removed the child with a snip of her scissors

7.While the Nyonya generally favoured things in identical pairs such as lanterns, oil lamps, candle stands, vases etc. the mention of the number 4 (see) which has the same sound as ‘death’ is discretely avoided.

8.It was taboo for children to point at the full moon, for which the feared punishment was a cut around the ear by the Moon Goddess

9.Positioning oneself at the corner of the dining table was considered taboo, it was as if a sharp knife was pointed at the person seated there.

10.Cutting one's finger nails, toe nails or hair at night was considered taboo; it seemed that ghosts would pick them up and haunt the owner.

11.Being believers in hong sui (geomancy) the Nyonya believed that in death the best possible site for a grave would be one that chay snuah kn’ua hai (sitting on a hill, viewing the sea). It was believed that living family members and future generations to come would enjoy prosperity and long life if their ancestors occupied such a propitious site.

12.It was considered inappropriate to give a piece of salt fish kiam hoo (which could be a reference to a corpse) to a friend or relative though it would be all right as a cooked dish

Still got alot of information about the taboo of baba and nyonya so the conclusion is all the taboo i found out is mostly In chinese culture i will share more information about the taboo of baba nyonya if you are interested too !!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Users testing Web design 2

CELLNIQUE WEB REDESIGN
This were the progress of my redesign website, the brand called Cellnique,
if got any comment/ suggestion on the website,please tell me and also answer
some question below:

1. Is the website is attractive to you to buy this product?
2. What feeling that the website bring to you?
3. What is the website telling about ?
4. Is the website very hard to navigate?
5. Do you think is easy for 1st time users to go surf this website ?
6. How is the design ?
7. More suggestion


INTRO PAGE

there were 2 word on the middle in the page, when the user

point on the word it will glow and lead the user to either this

2 page: Main page & Problem Page

MAIN PAGE

In this webpage, the bottom bar is the button that can

goto the another page and when you put your cursor on it

it will rollout some photo and simple discribe.


PRODUCT PAGE
When after you press the button of prooduct, it will drop
down a bar that can let you to see the product of this company
And it will popout and show what is the benefit of this product

PROBLEMS PAGE
In this page, it will show to you about what the problem can
be solve/ come from, i make it easy to understand and make the
word more shorten so that the user can read it easily.

LOCATION PAGE
For this webpage, i try to make it simple as possible and
try to make the users east to know where to go and how to go
to this company and get it .


COMMUNITY PAGE

For this webpage, Users can check us out through another website
and i change the arrangement of the button so that it
look more interesting for the users.



ABOUT US PAGE
I change the layout to become more elegent and simple feeling,
after the user press the word in the bar it will show some information
about the comapny and some award photo that this compant won.


*Artwork below are merely for academy purpose only*

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Strategic Brief for cellnique

Project Defination

For this web redesign project i'm doing about a brand called Cellnique, treatment on skin problem product/brand. Their slogan is Beauty is about the passion of your well-being-Live it Lavishly! I need to propose a new conecept towards enchancing the interface of the brand of my client which is the cellnique. Cellnique is created in 1997 that belief effectiveness of combination of medical and skin care product.In this project i need to redesign the website because of the website overall colour is too metallic, and bring the customer a scientific feeling that not suit the propose of the brand, the rollover effect is not too attractive to the users and also quiet messy in link their website but still the information is neat and clear .I 'm using 8 week timeline to finish redesign it. For the propose of redesigning this website is brin this brand to a higher standard and bring the user to the path & imgae of this brand.

Current Site's Analysis Goals

For this site should bring the users to know about what is the product usage, how to contact the company, explaining the skin problem that people/users is facing, where can the users find this company,what is this product about and more and online buying product. From the web area i think need to improve were rollover effect button need to more attractive, the link of the extra information need to be together, need more animation to bring out the bio-tech feeling, make use of the space in the web( some part is quiet empty), should bring more webbanner and led user to the website, and at the product page of explaning is quiet boring and should try another method to let the user to get attention.

Client's Analysis

cellnique is a skin care product/ skin treatment company,there were 2 mission that this compant wanted, the 1st mission of cellnique company is to creating a platform to materialize of passion in Redefining beauty industry by doing thing difference and professionally. For the 2nd mission of cellnique company is to built an Awesome and remarkable world class organization in the world.
vision for cellnique is to built beautiful lifestyle brand with international Appearence & standard and with cult like communnity.Business target of this company is to the people that having skin problem and need treatment on their skin, and for their market aim is the mainly on women. For this cellnique USP(unique selling point)- which is using the purest natural active ingredient and proven bio-tech in the product formular and treatment proceduces, combination of medical and skincare product. About the position of this product, on malaysia culture base which is a high class product that aim for Asian skin types.

Short & long-term Site Goals

For the long term goal, cellnique is bring the users to trust the brand itself and bring the brand to a higer level class, the user will not misunderstanding about this brand nevertheless built beauty lifestyle brand with internationally.For the short term goal, we can doing a promotion like chiense newyear is coming soon, pull down the price and buy more free more kinda stuff, user also can test to use the product and website can create a game to attract the users to interrect with the web. The place that can increase the business value which is bring more understanding about the brand and show out the latest product and users interect with web itself and also will increase the trust of the brand so that the users can help use promote. For the highlight i thinking, the brand can do some event on the chinese new years that when the customers got a chance to win a price.

Target Audience

For cellnique company their primary target audience which is the people that facing/having some skin problem, following is the women that caring about their skin issue. Customers will know what is the price,usage & infomation of every product through this website, Buyer also can buy the product through online website it is convenience to the users where don't know how to reach to the place of the company. The activity that the users can do on this website is can find a solution problem of their skin problem, know about their skin problem in briefly, what is the usage of each product, whre can you get to our company, the comunnity that the company had, know about the history of cellnique, online ordering and membership of this company. The User can engage with this website by banner, browers, through friend, needs, advertisment, navigate, forum , issues about cosmetic and skin care product and etc.

Competitor' Analysis

For the Primary Competitor is thos high class brand like H2O and blunnis, because the brand were highclass same as the cellnique and also the brand bring many of promotion to the users and the customer in the another way the competitor website is much more better then our website, the information is more clear stated and the image of the brand is even impact.
the secondary competitor were some more cheaper price brand like olay, biore and more, it having a huge threat to cellnique because is easy to use and cheap, although the brand is the secondary but mostly people will choose those simple and nice brand so i think that is the threat to cellnique, thee pervious post is some competitor and our website screen shot, which is more simple discribe on the website.

next week i'm going to show the interface redesign of this website,so stay tune!!

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Redesign website project- cellnique


Client website
Cellnique is skin problem solution company website & brand.
the website link is http://www.cellnique.com/ ----> check out this site !!
1st we need to have a gantt Chart for this project

the mood board for the redesign cellnique

below is the site map/flowchart of this website:




there were some screenshot below of this website:-

and the problem i found in this website is

-the website overall colour is too metallic

-very scientific feeling

-the rollover effect is not strong to attract the users

-not easy to navigate

-link are messy


advantages of this website:-

-the information is Nice and clean

-flash to attract the users










competitor website


-nice and clean website

-colour mood are quiet soft and tender

-nice navigation button

-rollover effect are interesting

-information are very neat and readable










-the identity of the brand is strong

-the colour mood suit the elegent

-simple and attractive

-easy to navigate

-typography treament are good















-balance of type and photo

-attractive and simple

-clear table arrangement

-rollover effect interesting

-using element water to bring out the identity















-nice and neat

-very young feeling

-colour mood is nice

-rollover and navigation is attractive

-the consistency of the website

-sound bring a very harmony feeling through the website












Commercial website


this website is awesome

some of the web page is using flash bring the users to interact

-colour mood is nice

-i like the concept using submariners to explain the usage and

the working process

-very futuristic feeling













for this website i also quiet like it

is a website about a production company portfoilo


-very cool navigation button

-can let the users to doodle using stick on the website

-bring the beach feeling into the web

-nice graphic











this website is about beer company


-it bring strongly the identity of this website

-the coolest part is when you type on your year of born,it will

appear on the sand

-the website is very gaming feeling to me

- good qualties of photo













the last one will also be a liqoir brand


-using the product to bring out the information

-simple yet nice

-interesting navigation

-simple animation when at the intropage

-very high class feeling when the colour mood is colourless

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Design method !!!

This is the design method project !!!
i need to apply the big idea on the topic that choose which is ' if we life well '
this were some interface design!!!
Main page of the intereactive game


the gratitude page
fear and faith page

scarcity page of information

the karamic vicous circle page !!!
any comment !!! plaese leave some comment after see the design Thank !!!