For the first two months under Mdm Lee Shu Fen, my first dance teacher, I remembered three key daily tasks – stand tall, chest out, chin up. I figured out why later – all these verbal commands that rang in my head for the rest of my life led to good posture, which were fundamental to finding your body’s centre of gravity – very important in dance. Mdm Lee used to say that if we remember these three commands in our daily lives, we would always walk with a sense of pride.
“Be proud of who you are”. She used to say to us in Mandarin…
Having a sense of pride is important. I am proud of my country and abhor peers who openly criticize my nation in front of foreigners. I once heard a young Singaporean exchange student exclaim to her Swedish peers in a crowded Ya Kun (the local coffeeshop), “Singaporeans are so stupid. They love to queue… dunno why they are like that!”
Such a silly girl! She was shaming HERSELF by critisicing her own countrymen!
I have travelled extensively and did part of my education out of the country of my birth and I am thankful each time I return home. These were the shores where my South Chinese forefathers settled on four generations ago and there must be a reason why they didn’t return - not to China, not to Indonesia, where they first landed and stayed for a few years. Our family found stability (and no racial discrimination nor corruption) in this city-state - just as I feel a sense of security, comfort and acceptance in this tiny red dot.
My countrymen have no qualms about me lasping into my “la” and “le”, the common Singlish (Singapore English) expressions that stemmed from Bahasa Melayu and Mandarin. I speak a splatter of English, Mandarin, Hokkien, (bad) Cantonese and order my food at the local nasi padang stall with no issues in my lousy Bahasa Melayu.
In spite of being trained to be assertive, having worked in multinationals for the last decade, I have no issues relegating into my Asian roots when I address my peers in Japan and Thailand as “san” and “khun” and politely ask for help rather than DEMAND for things to happen.
Regardless of the number of foreign performing arts group that visit my city-state, I will still give my support to the local artistes - I respect them for their courage in pursuing their dreams and for believing in their art.
I once bumped into a former uni mate, who is Singaporean-Chinese married to a Frenchman, at the now defunct Kallang Stadium when Chang & Eng (a real story of the ill-fated Siamese twins) was showing and her exact words were: “We bought the cheapest tickets because this is a an ALL Asian/ Singaporean caste.”
My theatre companion then was a Singaporean-Chinese guy, who bought us tickets in the front few rows, just because it was an ALL Asian caste. Chang & Eng also turned out to be the MOST touching and unforgettable musicals I’d ever watched.
Yes. We are a very young nation - we may not have the best athletes and the best artistes in the world but all systems have faults. Having grown up in the 80s when the “No Spitting, or FINE S$1000” campaign was in force in my country and having witnessed the spread of SARS in Asia in 2003, I am a firm believer that there is a reason behind the madness.
In a short span of 45 years, my country has emerged as the world's fourth leading financial centre and it's economy is often ranked amongst the world's top ten most open, competitive and innovative. My motherland is also a highly cosmopolitan World City, with a key role in international trade and finance. I grew up with some great friends who are non-Chinese because Singapore has a diverse population made up of Chinese, Malays, Indians, Asians and Caucasians of different ethnic origins.
I feel a sense of pride, and stand a tad bit taller each time I clear the customs at the Singapore Changi International Airport, knowing that all I need to do to get home is to insert my passport through the electronic scanner and that many other people in the undeveloped world would kill to me in my shoes, not to mention OWN my passport.
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