Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Across many parts of Asia, and among Asian diaspora beyond the region, families are normally busy around this time of year repainting and spring cleaning their homes to prepare for visits by family members or buying oranges and festive cookies, all to get set for the Lunar New Year celebrations.
But as with most things that COVID-19 has touched, this Lunar New Year – which falls on Friday – is turning out to be anything but normal for many individuals and companies, for a second consecutive year.
While chatting the other evening with my ethnic Chinese neighbour I asked him whether he was going to be giving his home the annual spruce-up.