You see, my clients are all Female based product. In order to understand Females in Malaysia, research has to be done quarterly because their behavioral changes and Females, they are very much complicated.
The Makcik from Kuala Kangsar does not have the same routine as the Makcik from Batu Pahat while the Ah-Soo from Georgetown does not like the way the Chee Cong Fun was cooked as the Ah-Soo from Ipoh. Although all of them fall under the same age group and household income but they do not have the same lifestyle.
Similarly to the ones living in the Urban area. There are traditional urban Malay/Chinese and there are also modern Urban Malay/Chinese who live life differently. My job is to understand them all.
I found this very interesting article which I would love to share:-
I think this article was published in The Star and was reported in 2010 in-conjunction with Valentine's Day.
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When it comes to romance, the Chinese
celebrate “Valentine’s Day” three times a year. But are Cupid’s little arrows,
the tossing of fruits on Chap Goh Meh and computer match-making getting the
desired results?
IT’S that time of the year again to toss
Mandarin oranges into the sea, or river as the case may be. Today is Chap
Goh Meh, the 15th and last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations. Chap
Goh Meh or Yuen Xiao in Mandarin is also the Chinese version of
Valentine’s Day.
The practice of tossing Mandarin oranges is
uniquely Malaysian. To be precise, it originated in Penang where unmarried
women would gather at the seaside on the night of Chap Goh Mei. There,
they would toss oranges into the sea, hoping the fruits would be picked up by
eligible young men who would then become their husbands.
In China and Taiwan, the 15th day of the
new lunar year is also known as the lantern festival, and streets and temples
there would be decorated with giant paper lanterns.
In the old days when girls were confined to
their chambers, Chap Goh Meh offered them an opportunity to go out to
see the outside world – and to be seen by eligible young men in search of
potential partners.
These days, while unmarried women still
toss oranges into the river or sea hoping for a good husband, there is a new
twist to the practice. The women are writing their phone numbers and e-mail
addresses on the oranges. This, of course, is to facilitate communication
between the interested parties.
And, not content to be just picking up
oranges, the men have also joined in the throwing game – they are tossing
bananas with messages written on them!
Apart from Penang, this practice is also
observed in Taman Jaya in Petaling Jaya, Taman Tasik Permaisuri in Cheras, and
in Klang and Malacca.
For the Chinese, there is more than one day
in a year to celebrate romance. There are in fact three if you include
Valentine’s Day, which has become more popular among the Chinese.
While dating couples will not miss Feb 14
for Valentine’s Day and Chap Goh Meh, they can also look forward to Qi
Xi, the day when Qi Jie, the weaver girl from Heaven, is allowed to meet
her lover Niulang on the seventh day of the seventh month on the lunar
calendar.
According to legend, magpies would form a
bridge across the Milky Way to make it possible for Qi Jie to meet her lover.
The lovers were separated by the God of Heaven when He found out that the girl,
who is a fairy from Heaven, had married a man on Earth. Thus, the day they meet
is also regarded as a Chinese Valentine’s Day to commemorate the eternal love
between the two.
However, despite all these festivals of
romance and marriage, the Chinese in Malaysia are still slow in tying the knot.
Sinologist Lai Kuan Fook attributes this to economic pressure which is pushing
them to delay their marriage plans.
It is common for the Chinese to place
financial stability before other things, and this happens not only in Malaysia
but also in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
According
to Wanita MCA chairman Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun, a study showed that the
average marriage age for Chinese men is 30.6, Indian men 28.8 and Malay men
27.8. For women, the average marriage age for Chinese is 27, Indians 25.4 and
Malays 24.5.
Since it was formed in August 2001, the
Wanita MCA-sponsored Cupid Club is still working hard to match eligible
couples. So far, the official record shows that the club had successfully
matched 173 couples. Of course, the figure does not include those who married
without informing the club.
Lim Swee Kiang, chairman of Cupid Space
Wanita MCA, says the club has a 7% success rate. It has about 4,000 registered
members, two-thirds of whom are women.
It conducts computer matching and organises
activities for singles.
The men who registered with the club were
comparatively younger than the women. Men who join the activities organised by
Cupid Space can be as young as 26 while women who sign up are normally above
33.
Another feature of the membership is that
many women are well educated, with diplomas to master’s degrees, while most of
the men have only SPM qualifications.
In his book Malaysian Chinese and
Nation-Building, Assoc Prof Tey Nai Peng of Universiti Malaya says the mean
marriage age of Chinese women has increased from 22.1 years in 1957 to 27 in
2000.
In addition, the number who remained single
has also increased rapidly in tandem with increases in educational level. In
2000, close to a third of Chinese female graduates aged between 30 and 34 were
single, and about 17% were still single at age 35 to 44.
Traditionally, women tended to marry men
with at least the same level of education. But with higher educational levels,
more and more women are now having difficulty finding compatible partners.
“Migration, urbanisation, modernisation and
the erosion of parental roles in (their) children’s marriage are important
reasons for non-marriage,” says Tey.
Lim also feels the younger generation is becoming
more self-centred. They give priority to themselves rather than others, have
high expectations and have become choosy, he says.
While it is hard to match higher-qualified
women with men with lower qualifications, Peggy Lim, an executive of the Club,
remains hopeful when it comes to finding life partners.
“There are couples who get to know each
other from the tossing of Mandarin oranges and end up getting married,” she
says.
Besides tossing oranges, don’t forget Cupid Space Wanita
MCA, she adds.
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Don't be surprised to see when there are more unmarried-successful-influential-women in the country than men.
