Ywho we are
Saturday at about noon at Fu Lu Shou complex, where I used to have econs tuition, the sun streams in from the window, its rays hot and dense. The street beneath us bustles with sounds of the market and people going on their morning marketing, and crackling sounds of a radio voice speaking in Cantonese. Fu Lu Shou complex itself is an old, Chinese-style building that has shops that sell medicinal herbs and jade pendants, with dirty stairwells and a huge picture of the god of Fortune plastered on its exterior. Close your eyes and you could almost imagine you were in a small town in Malaysia like Kampar, where my dad was born, where the day passes by slowly and sleepily, coated with dust.
But the Singapore we all know is not all like that. Lift up your eyes to look out of the window of Fu Lu Shou complex and you will see, in the distance, skyscrapers gleaming in the sun, shopping centres with big billboards and signs and airconditioned walkways, and people dressed up in smart going-out clothes carrying shopping bags with brand names and pictures of happy people on them.
Which part is truly Singapore? Who knows? What we are is a mongrel of western and asian influences, of hungry capitalism and satiated tradition, and the challenge is the balance these conflicting agendas within ourselves and in the context of our society.
Too often the two mindsets merge, and we create a monster where the Asian emphasis of learning and delayed gratification touches the Western dog-eat-dog model and we run in pursuit of these dreams that we think we have but are essentially just whispers in the wind. Why are we inclined to give up what we really want for what we think we really want? I want security, the knowledge that I will never be in debt, never have to scrimp and save to pay, but if I take that to the extreme that means never buying anything unnecessary, like movie tickets or new clothes, just saving always for a rainy day.
Often, too, the mindsets diverge, and we run the risk of a disjointed society. When this new generation grasps hold of the idea of individualism and runs ahead, pushing our elders aside with careless and contemptuous words, alienating our friends with our lack of time and attention for them, we fail to recognise the value experience has, and the importance of a community. My father doesn't understand why my brother talks back so roughly to him and insists on his own way and frustrated, classifies it as "Western influence", erecting a barrier between him and my brother on this basis. The excuse is that because there are two different cultural influences at play, there is less of a need to understand the person's own reasons for his actions.
What are we, despite all of this? Western, Asian, mixed? I won't run the risk of trying to generalise, even though I have been doing that this whole time, and even then, I feel there is no point. You can describe the influences within a society but to use that to define every single being within that society is, obviously, shortsighted, and in this case possibly misleading. What I want to say is this: the individuals make up the society. If you see this issue in our society, or cross cultural currents that produce friction and disorientation, the challenge is, then, how do we, as individuals, respond to these influences we see in our lives? That response will determine who we are as a community.
jac was here with you
9/22/2006 11:49:00 am