Over dinner, amidst the fireworks and inane commentary, a soundbite from an angmoh chef caught my attention.
He said that something about S’poreans knowing what is important; and that is to be uniquely S’poreans.
To a certain extent I agree with him; for that uniqueness that makes us S’poreans is what determines us as S’poreans. So that when foreigners like him look at us, they will know that we are S’poreans; not Japanese, not Taiwanese, not Chinese, not Koreans but S’poreans. And it is this uniqueness that makes us attractive as well.
But do all of us feel that way? And do all of us really know what it means to be S’porean?
Today, we are 41 years old as a nation. We should be carving out an identity for ourselves already, if we haven’t already got one. But you kinda get the feeling that we are not. And in my opinion, what is making matters worse, is that in the “culture” balance of trade, we are running a huge deficit. And this deficit is just gonna grow larger and larger. And the consequence, I’m afraid, is that we are already giving in to these outside cultural influences, while losing our own unique culture at the same time.
Its almost like what someone have said before, are we selling our heritage for a bowl of rice?
The thing that I don’t get is why there seems to be a great fear to be ourselves. Why it seems like there is a greater need to make ourselves be understood as opposed to letting others understand us? It almost seems as if we are ashamed to be ourselves, doesn’t it?
I hope there’ll never come a day when foreigners will see a S’porean and go, “Oh, you are just like the Chinese/Taiwanese/Koreans/Japanese.”
And God forbid they say, “Oh, you are just like our American/Australian/Angmoh Born Chinese back home.”
So this National Day, my hope for S’pore is that we’ll always retain our uniqueness that made us attractive to others in the first place. And in our bid to be a global city, I hope we’ll all still be able to feel at home in our island home.
We must.
Happy 41st, Singapore.
On a more lighter note, Kaira looked absolutely scrumptious tonight. Absolutely. Scrumptious. Mmmm…
