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Friday, April 24, 2009

Flowers in a tam pui

For some of us, this looks a bit weird, others a beautiful work of flower arrangement.

Flowers in Tam Pui

Our family went to this restaurant some time ago and saw this 'flower pot' being used. Do you know what the 'pot' is used for in the olden days? It's called a 'Tam Pui' in the local Hokkien dialect and its used for urine and spits.

So we teased the lady owner about it, and she said that it's all brand new. No smell right? A sure conversation starter. LOL.

5 comments:

yan said...

You won't believe it, for that "Tam Pui" my dad changed my Chinese name! I remember when I was a small girl, probably 5 years old, one day, the family bought a "pot" that seemingly looked the same one above in the picture. Four Chinese words were printed - it read "hu te yan hua" (meaning butterfly beautiful flower". The "yan" is the same as my name "yan". My siblings started teasing me that my name was printed on the "pot"! I was upset. So dad said, you can use the "yan" as in the bird "swiftlet" in Chinese. And here I am - as free as a bird. And thanks to that "pot"!

marley said...

Very tropical and I'm glad to read its a new pot!

jc05 said...

Cool... reinvention of tradition! Even as our hygiene practices have changed, so do our hygiene equipment get a new lease in life. hahaha

My Images Of Singapore said...

Hopefully the Tam Pui is used as a flower pot only haha. Nice post.

Unknown said...

yan,
when i read your reply a few days ago, i was laughing. you got a very nice name by the way ;-)

marley,
ya, good thing it's a new pot. LOL

jc05,
yup, reinvention!

my images of spore
I think it's only for flowers now. can't imagine if they used it for the original purpose at other times. LOL...