|
|
Y2007 LV5
发表于 26-11-2007 12:00:00
|
显示全部楼层
|
<p>这篇帖子是典型的坡人观点</p><p><a href="http://www.thingsasian.com/stories-photos/3244">http://www.thingsasian.com/stories-photos/3244</a></p><p>Singaporean Chinese or Chinese Singaporean?<br/>Singapore is a hardly noticeable dot on the world map. To those who know<br/>Singapore it is but a thriving modern and cosmopolitan city. Its government<br/>is known for having the highest level of honesty and its people hardworking<br/>and efficient. Its airport and seaport are among the best in the world.<br/>Foreigners from all over the world love the opportunity to work here in this<br/>friendly, clean and safe haven. Some foreign workers here commented that<br/>they feel safe to have their children schooled here than anywhere else in the<br/>world. It is absolutely safe to walk the streets here past midnight.<br/>Singapore is also well known for producing the world's best science and<br/>maths students. Our students have competed in top international<br/>competitions in science and maths and came up top. I read recently that<br/>somewhere in the United States schools there are importing our maths<br/>textbooks for use in teaching.<br/>Such is the renown of this tiny island state in South East Asia. It lies just<br/>slightly north of the Equator and is separated from West Malaysia (a country<br/>which is easy to spot on a world map) via two causeways.<br/>I was born and grew up in this beautiful island that boasts of warm sunny<br/>weather all year round. I do not know what winter nor autumn nor spring is<br/>like but I could liken these seasons to the times when I witness the shedding<br/>of leaves from some trees here and I figured this is autumn. In December to<br/>around February when the rainy season sets in, I feel cold and I liken it to<br/>winter albeit there is no snow and the weather turns a mere 20-22 deg C.<br/>This is when I am all cuddled up with a shawl or a cardigan all day long.<br/>I go overseas and I realise that some foreigners do not know where<br/>Singapore is. "In China?" the foreigners queried. "You speak good English,<br/>how is that?" I guessed many foreigners have mistaken the Chinese look as<br/>having an association with China. They wonder why I could speak English. I<br/>would then explain where we are located on the world map and tell them<br/>that English is in fact our first language in school. Sure, I am proud to rave<br/>about the fine things about Singapore. After all, I am truly Singaporean in<br/>the first instance. I am Chinese, correct, but I have never associated my<br/>Chinese-ness with the Chinese in China. I see myself first as Singaporean<br/>then as Chinese. I live in a cosmopolitan city where there are four main<br/>races - Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians.<br/>My grandparents came from China but my parents were born here. I grew<br/>up and listened to my grandparents' tales of their relatives back in China<br/>and how they wished they could one day return there. Alas, that era was<br/>Communist rule in China and they did not ever get back. It was left to my<br/>parent's generation to visit homeland when China opened up to the world.<br/>My family, unlike some other families I know of, did not speak much about<br/>the relatives in China. This means I am even further away from my Chinese<br/>roots. Having been bred and imbibed with a patriotism that says<br/>"Singaporean", (yes, I even cried as I watched our national day parade on<br/>television back in the 80's) I grew up a Singapore citizen and have never</p><p>considered that I had roots in China. When I visited China a few years ago, I<br/>was there as a tourist. I did not feel I was home. I did not even appreciate<br/>China's culture, history and rich traditions.<br/>My mother-in-law is different. When she makes trips to China every few<br/>years, she considers it home. She lugs with her gifts and money to give<br/>away to her relatives in China. About two years ago, my husband had the<br/>honor of accompanying his mum to China to visit relatives and he came back<br/>and said that I was better staying home. The relatives were with them day<br/>and night and they even bunked into their small hotel room. Worse, they<br/>smoked the night away. I would freak out had I been in that room because I<br/>cannot stand smoke! My eyes roll at the thought of having to be in that<br/>room with a group of chain-smoking uncles and aunties and cousins whose over-indulgent hospitality scares<br/>the light out of me. My husband told me that these relatives had no qualms asking for monetary help and<br/>support. My mother-in-law, over and above what she had intended to part with before she left Singapore, had<br/>to dish out a new computer and a new bicycle for her nephews during her last trip there.<br/>From what I know, our Chinese relatives in China consider their Chinese relations in Singapore rich and<br/>wealthy and I guess they are right. We have the good life here in Singapore but of late I read about the rich<br/>millionaires in China in the media. Will the table turn in years to come? Will Singaporean Chinese be<br/>acknowledging their rich relations in China? If such a time comes, it will not matter to me because I do not<br/>have relatives in China and even if I have, they are past my knowledge because my grandparents and my<br/>parents have never gotten in touch with any of them. I am, and will remain, Singaporean Chinese.<br/>My Chinese root was further destroyed when the Government banned the use of dialects and advocated that<br/>all the citizens here should learn English as first language in school and then do our mother tongue as a<br/>second language. For example, a Chinese will take up Chinese as second language, a Malay would do Malay<br/>and an Indian the Tamil language. Dialects, colorful and varied in tones and enunciations, sort of identify the<br/>city in China where one's ancestors come from. For example, Swatow in China is associated with the<br/>Teochews. Other dialects are Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka, and more. I count myself blessed that I could still<br/>remember some Teochew and these days when I take a cab and the cab driver happened to be "one of me"<br/>or at least he knows how to speak my dialect, we would converse in Teochew and I would feel so at home. I<br/>remember telling a cab driver once that it is a warm feeling to speak in dialect. It is funny how I associate<br/>myself more as a Teochew Chinese than a Chinese Singaporean. I must say that my quality and fluency of<br/>the dialect has dropped through lack of use. Alas, the generation after mine do not speak dialects anymore.<br/>The Singapore government was too successful in their implementation of the "Speak Mandarin" campaigns<br/>and over the years dialects have been forgotten. The children here now converse mostly in English and<br/>Mandarin. I feel this is one great loss because I might have at least felt some comradeship had I returned to<br/>Swatow and found myself speaking the lingo of the people there.<br/>Learning and speaking Mandarin as a second language did not make me feel a Chinese Singaporean or a<br/>China Chinese. I dare say I get along better with my Malay, Indian and Eurasian neighbors than with the<br/>China Chinese who have, in recent years, descended upon Singapore to work. After all, I grew up side by side<br/>with my Malay, Indian and Eurasian schoolmates and neighbors. We converse in English with each other. I<br/>was oblivious to the period when there was racial disharmony here because I was too young to understand its<br/>disastrous effects. Thanks to the efficient and forward-looking Singapore government, we were inculcated to<br/>live harmoniously with one another in land-scarce Singapore. Thanks to the able efforts of the Singapore<br/>government, I am proud to be a Singaporean. I am Chinese by genes and to the parents who gave birth to<br/>me. No matter when I am in the world, I would first be a Singaporean, then a Chinese.</p> |
|
狮城水库
IP卡
狗仔卡
提升卡
沉默卡
喧嚣卡
变色卡
显身卡
