IN a week's time, the six million or so Malaysian citizens of Chinese descent, together with the 1.3 billion Chinese in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, as well as the countless members of the Chinese Diasporas in all corners of the world, will be celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year of the Golden Pig.

The CNY is a major global event, involving a quarter of the Earth's population. As long as you consider yourself a Chinese, wherever you are, the CNY is still the centre piece of your social and personal calendar.

Of all the homo sapiens that walk this good earth, the Chinese surely must be the most enigmatic people that have ever existed. Theirs is the only civilisation that has flourished with great fervour continuously for over four millennia, while most other equally ancient civilisations have since perished.