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Lessons from China's history
LifestyleChinese culture
Wee Kek Koon
Reflections
Wee Kek Koon

How national holidays in ancient China aligned with emperors’ birthdays, so all could revel

In 729, Emperor Xuanzong marked his birthday with official ceremonies and festivities across China in a tradition that endured for centuries

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A portrait of the Tang dynasty’s Emperor Xuanzong, whose Qianqiu Jie, or “Thousand Autumns Festival” in 729, established China’s tradition of positioning emperors’ birthdays as national celebrations. Photo: Wikipedia
Wee Kek Koon
Having lived his whole life in the modern cities of Singapore and Hong Kong, Wee Kek Koon has an inexplicable fascination with the past.

Malaysia celebrates its Independence Day (“Hari Merdeka” in Malay) on August 31. This year, it will mark the 69th anniversary of the Malayan Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom.

Note that it was a “Malayan”, not “Malaysian”, declaration.

Sixty-nine years ago, in 1957, Malaysia did not yet exist; the modern nation of Malaysia came into being only on September 16, 1963, with the merger of the 11 states of the Malay Peninsula with British North Borneo (renamed Sabah), Sarawak and Singapore. Most Malaysians would rather forget that brief union with Singapore, which was forced to leave Malaysia after two acrimonious years and become an independent city state.

For decades, August 31 was observed as the country’s de facto national day, despite periodic grumblings from Sabahans and Sarawakians, who felt that celebrating the 1957 independence of the peninsula’s Malayan states overlooked their own place in Malaysia’s history. It was only in 2010 that September 16 was officially celebrated nationwide as Malaysia Day (“Hari Malaysia”).

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