Admit it - many of us look forward to the annual reunion dinner before Chinese New Year with dread.

More often than not, it is a time to face the well-meaning but intrusive questions from the elders - "Why aren't you married yet?", "Why don't you have kids yet?", "Why isn't your kid in a better school?"

This was the situation faced by the Taiwan-based Chen family which has 29 members spanning four generations.

Mr Michael Chen, a married father of two teenagers, became increasingly concerned that the younger members of the family had to be nagged to join in the family's gatherings, and would disappear as soon as they had finished eating in order to talk on their handphones, play with their gadgets, or surf the Internet. "So where was the 'reunion'?" he asked.

For the singletons of marriageable age, this was worsened by their elders' inquisitive questions. "The aunts would question insistently on when you will marry and why you still had not found a partner," laments Michael.

"Even in my own generation, we were not close to our cousins and we dreaded the long festive holiday when we had to make polite talk with our elders," he added.

However, a 'revolt' within the family some 11 years ago revolutionized the way the Chen family celebrated Chinese New Year and turned the festive season into a much-anticipated event by all the members of the family.

Here's how they did it.