On Chinese New Year's Eve, I had a picnic with two Chinese friends at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. It was truly impromptu – my friend texted me when I was about to cook dinner, and we met at the park an hour later.
We hung out till after midnight, and it was a memorable evening for me. One of those times when everything comes together perfectly – a core memory, as my GenZ friends say. The only downside was that despite dousing ourselves with herbal bug-spray and my friend burning white sage ("It clears bad vibes, not sure about insects"), we were being eaten alive by mosquitoes.
CNY Eve, as you would expect, is traditionally celebrated with Chinese food. But I got Indian food as requested, and my friends brought pizza and grilled chicken. I remarked it was funny how none of us got Chinese food, to which my friend said, "At least the mosquitoes are getting authentic Chinese blood."
My friends were teaching me random Chinese phrases, among which was luchabiao or green-tea bitch – a woman who is calculating, but pretends to be innocent and pure, usually to attract men. It's obviously a sexist term and not one we would use, but for my cultural edification, they gave me various examples of luchabiao behaviour.
A short while later, I was trying to open a bottle of ice tea with a very tight lid. I tried for a bit (unsuccessfully), then passed it to my friend, asking her if she wanted to have a go.
"Now this is green-tea bitch behaviour," she said, "except the gender roles are reversed."
