Uniquely Singapore

My home country wants to be everything else, but itself. It wants to be bustling like London, diverse like New York, culturally vibrant like Paris and socially graceful like Japan. How to be uniquely Singapore, except as a jigsaw puzzle made up of pieces which others have developed over hundreds of years? We already have Chinatown, Little India, Katong and Kampong Glam. Do we need Little London, Little NY, Little Paris and Little Japan as well? It is a little scary, but learning from the virtues of others is the defining trait of Singapore - the combination of kiasu and kiasi.

Sometimes I wish we are a little more self-confident. There is nothing wrong with being Singaporean, and not British, American, French or Japanese. We have Singlish, a lot of Singaporean food, maybe even a culture of self-deprecation. We have our homegrown talents, our own playwrights, dancers, musicians, acting talents, film-makers. All of them are quite capable of making it onto the global stage, if only we would give them the support that we give to foreign artistes. There must be a reason why they often strike it out in Taiwan and Hong Kong before coming back.

People laugh at our ban on chewing gum. It is true that it sounds stupid. But wait, and look at that patch of gum still stuck in my room's carpet, from someone who might even have graduated. We need people to tell us to stand behind the yellow line in 4 languages, but they do that too in the London tube stations - just that London does not have 4 languages. For all that our laws are a laughing stock of the world with Singapore even taking pride in being a "fine city", we do not fine people for crossing the road while talking on their mobiles. Neither do we legislate to make seat belts compulsory on buses. And the newest proposed legislation in Kentucky, US: Make cigarettes self-extinguishing, because people keep burning down their houses while smoking. Yes, we don't allow demonstrations and we are still in the process of figuring out gay rights, but maybe we should appreciate the little freedoms that we do enjoy.

We can be some country somewhere, not quite any country anywhere, but certainly not every country everywhere. We cannot have everything, something has to give. Bustling can mean being on the brink of overcrowding, and culturally vibrant and efficiency do not quite go together. While we learn from others who are culturally so much older than ourselves, the challenge is to achieve that delicate balance, and not become nothing more than an incomprehensible, even contradictory, mish-mash of global cultures.

Go out, open our eyes, get impressed. For that matter, I am still waiting to jet off to Paris, New York and Japan to experience the difference and I still love the baguette, burger and sashimi. But while we keep thinking the grass is greener on the other side, please try to remember the colour of the grass at home.

A bit of everything

"Half of life is happiness, the other half is hardship," said Sai-O (the empress of the Sai Kingdom).

"I live in greater luxury, because I have greater responsibilities," said the empress of Kyou.

These two characters are from Twelve Kingdoms, my favourite anime. Cartoons present the realities of life simply, without hurting too much and cutting out the happy endings.

I remembered the wish on my 18th birthday, that I won't be in SG to celebrate it. I got that wish, but that was kind of silly, because for the next three years, it will be birthday, new year, CNY, dragonboat festival, mid-autumn festival and christmas in a foreign land.

Yes, masochistic me seeking self-punishment. But I get my fair share of rewards, I would think.

One and a half weeks ago, I went to Dublin for 3 days, where I would otherwise have gone only as part of some 12-day Europe tour. We travelled for an entire night to arrive in Dublin the next morning, tired and semi-comatose. It was folly, but also characteristic of a wild adventure. I loved the place, soaking in the atmosphere for three days, walking by the river, going to the various museums, eating fish and chips at the roadside and experiencing the qualitative distinctiveness of the place. Places of attractions are more or less the same everywhere, but each must feel different.

10 000 miles away from home, so that I can set up a base camp, from which to venture further afield.

More photos if you would click on the above image. =)

CNY

This is the first CNY spent overseas. No long long long reunion dinner, last minute cleanups, balloon-blowing, frantic sms-ing at midnight. During mid-autumn festival, I was thinking to myself: "CNY is going to be hell."

It turned out to be so much better than expected. Thanks to friends who still remember though we are at least 10 000 miles and 8 hours time difference apart. Thanks to friends here who helped to recreate the atmosphere. CNY is not sad and lonely, just different. Fun, laughter, seemingly neverending good old chinese food, suanning each other, a lot of lime juice, UNO.

Not sad or lonely, just a different way of celebration.

Happy New Year to all my friends, regardless of where you are (Home, US, UK, Australia, ...) !

Ice kachang, without the kachang.

The last blog was deleted, because it was a tad too angsty, written in post-politics-essay frenzy and boiling-point anger. I want this place to be one of reflective calm, not crazy stormy chaos. Will try my best.

It snowed the whole of last night and this morning. It snowed so much that people's lives have come to a standstill. Non-essential lessons are cancelled, planes stop flying, schools closed, people refrained from getting out of their houses because they could not drive. A bout of snow, and plans need to be changed at the very last minute.

人定胜天. Maybe not.

Perhaps someone should write something on the effect of climate on GDP.

The lake froze over, grass vanished under a blanket of white and pathways were reduced to trails of footprints. I felt like skating, though not over that pond, and eating ice kachang, though ice is in abundance and kachang nowhere to be found. Snow is nice and fun to walk on, but melted snow is grosse, slushy and made worse by dirt on the road.

Even the whitest things have their dark side, c'est la vie.

Someone should also invent shoes with retractable spikes.

"My warmest welcome to my house, fully equipped with central heating."

Skating, anyone?

Bring on the syrup, condensed milk, corn and attap seeds!