24 February 2000

Where's b?

Singapore

24 January - Monday Jamie
Jamie is from a line of artists. Thanks to the Cultural Revolution her parents were unable to pursue or study art. I suggested they could paint pictures of Mao and she laughed and said yeah. So it has fallen on her to study and pursue what was impossible for them. She said she had been groomed to pursue Western style oil painting. She studied oil painting under her uncle. She said that everyone was studying Western style oil painting, but she decided that she preferred Chinese painting. She said no one could understand why she would want to pursue Chinese painting, but she was able to explain it to her father and he understood her reasoning. She must have been 19 or 20. I later brought up Falun Gong. She said that the movement began in '95 or so and a representative had spoken at her university. She said many people attended and many people liked what the speaker had to say, but she didn't. She said the teaching was wrong; that the man claimed to be teaching " Buddha" but it wasn't. She said she had studied "Buddha." I imagine it was comparable to a televangelist. She asked if I knew "Chang." I said, "yes." I later told her that if she wanted to tell another Westerner about Chang she would need to use its Japanese name, Zen. I asked if she had learned at home. She said she had studied it on her own. She revealed that Chang was why she decided to study Chinese painting. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. A young talented artist broke with the flow of Modern Chinese Academia because of Zen! She never spoke English before she met me. In China she fell asleep in English class and cheated on her English tests. She said she never imagined she would speak English, much less get cozy with an American! Unlike her friends she was never interested in Americans or things Western.		The first day of my elementary class she couldn't understand a word. Two months later she was explaining things to me in broken English that she can't communicate to Singaporeans in her native tongue. She said she could speak Chinese with other people in Singapore, but they couldn't understand her.

12 February- Saturday

Jamie brought a classmate from Taiwan to meet me, Bao Lee. Bao said she could find me some part time modeling work at art schools. She was interesting but a know-it-all type not unlike two others I've met from Taiwan. We discussed the job possibilities and drank oolong tea.

I had some leftover rice which I fried with egg and tofu. I served it in three bowls. Bao gave most of her portion to Jamie. Bao was vegetarian and didn't eat eggs. We discussed food, nutrition, chemicals and food quality. She said eggs were also animals. I didn't bother mentioning that eggs were not generally fertilized (As far as I know, only the Chinese are into eating fertilized eggs with embryos in them.).

Nicholai mentioned that the Chingay parade was today and we decided we should go and see it. We walked down to city hall and found people lining-up along the parade route and while others streamed in. We weren't sure about he route, but Nicholai had warned me that we wouldn't be able to see the main performances which were staged for an exclusive audience sitting in stands. From a distance we could see light and hear music, but he was right.

The "parade" was a rather artificial affair. It lacked the vibe and spontaneity of a typical parade. Perhaps I should say typical Western parade. (I've seen parades in Japan and South Korea that were pretty sober affairs.) Anyway, we waited about an hour for the parade to kick in. Meanwhile the parade seemed to be strung along the route waiting for a signal to march. The groups sat on the pavement or wandered around a little in their costumes. The groups represented the different ethnic groups of Singapore. On our stretch of the route were young groups of Chinese, Indians, and Malays dressed in traditional and not so traditional costumes. Some brandished traditional instruments but most were there to dance. And the Malays, like the Thais, need to be empty-handed to dance. The groups took turns performing while waiting for the signal to march. We walked along the route to catch the different performances. Yes, a new twist to the parade concept: stationary "parade," moving spectators. Eventually the parade did move.

The various ethnic groups of Singapore were represented in a premeditated sequence: Chinese, Indo-Malay, Indian. It made for an easy comparison of music and dance and girls. As for the girls they all had their merits. The articulate hand-movements of the Malays won them the grace prize. I should say that when the Australians came bounding through with their spandex, big smiles, big hair, and big bodies it was like some kind of alien invasion. Now I understand why ASEAN got so shook up when Australia began to intervene in East Timor. They might eat everything!

The Indians dominate musically, but the Malays have rhythm. At one point the Chinese and Malay groups tried to play together but, as you might imagine, that was a disaster. They didn't play together; they just played at the same time which was kinda weird.

The Indonesian?-Malays took the dance prize. I shouldn't fail to mention the square-dancing Chinese cowboys and cowgirls. They had their white cowboy hats, white pants, and blue shirts (were they plaid, Hawaiian or something else?).

Soon after arriving in Singapore, I was stunned to find this Taco Bell. It was the first Taco Bell I had seen outside the US. I had heard rumors of a failed venture in Tokyo and I'd heard advertisements for a Taco Bell at the American base near Yokohama, but this was the first one I'd seen with my own eyes.

I brought a Chinese student named Lisa to have her first burrito and nachos after our tutoring session. The menu is not complete. They don't have tostados or, my favorite, the 7-layer. They don't have jalapenos for some reason. They serve french fries but don't have ketchup.

Sipping our Pepsi at Taco Bell we touched on some of the most sensitive topics in Chinese politics. She revealed to me some of her secret political thoughts. Thoughts which she would never dare to speak or write in her Chinese homeland.

Rather than dive directly into Lisa's critiques of China, I will try to give some of the organic growth of the conversation.

She was surprised to discover that Singapore had a drinking age. Like other places, you must be 18 to buy alcohol or go to nightclubs. China evidently had no restrictions. Like everything else in China, alcohol is a medicine. I informed her that the US also had a drinking age- 21. We both agreed that it was very strange. I explained that many people in the US thought that alcohol was bad.

"You know in Singapore, no chewing gum."

?

[chewing gesture]. " Gum. Illegal. In Singapore gum is illegal, right?"

"America too!?"

"No, no, no, in America about 70 years ago, beer (alcohol) was illegal (Constitutional Amendment XVIII) like gum in Singapore. Illegal to buy, illegal to drink ["no" gesture (head and hands)]."

"Really?"

"Yeah, very stupid. My grandpa was very young. He help sell illegal drink (moonshine). You know police cannot take very young person so he can take and sell. (same game as drugs today) Understand?"

"Yeah."

"But we change law very quickly (Amendment XXI). But in America many different places, and you know each place can have a different law. [she nods, I had explained this before] So now some places, beer is illegal. Yeah. Now. Illegal. Strange. Only a few places, but some. One time I with my brother. We are driving [steering wheel gesture] somewhere. We are eating [gesture] at a restaurant. He want to drink a beer. But illegal. If he want to drink he must pay extra money (buy a membership). He has to pay something so he doesn't drink. Funny huh?"

"Yeah. In China only one… [law] …only one law. Everywhere the same."

"I know. Beijing. (There's also only one time zone in China! Beijing time.)"

"Yeah. Beijing."

"You remember "capital"? (Review from yesterday) Capital. Beijing is the capital of China. "

"Yeah, Yeah."

""Capital" comes from Latin. It means (is derived from the Latin for) head [point to my head]. You know capital punishment (Review from yesterday). Capital [cutting off head gesture]. Killing someone, cutting off their head [gestures]. [she nods]. Beijing is the capital. The head. So very important. They are very careful. You know? (Yesterday she explained how everyone needed a kind of visa to live in Beijing. I explained how the gov't was afraid of its people.) "

"Like Falun Gong (religious sect being exorcised by Beijing as enemies of the people)"

"Right."

Rather than continue in this fashion I'll summarize. So China has one law radiating from the capital; America has one constitution but states have their own laws. The strangest thing about the legal drinking age is that you must be 21 to drink, but that you can vote and serve in the military at the tender age of 18. Subconsciously I was trying to reveal some "funny things" about the US government so that she might volunteer some "funny things" about China.

She informed me that in China they could also vote when they turned 18.

"You know, in China, we have…[elections]...Yeah, they have a big" (waves her hands in opening gesture). [They make a big deal out of it.] "Yeah, but only names. We sit in class and the teacher give us…" a ballot "… but only names, you know, we don't know who they are." [You don't study about the people? (candidates)] "No. No one knows who they are. No pictures. No speeches. No nothing. Only the government know. They give us a piece of paper with some names. We choose someone." [we laugh] "Yeah, nobody know who they are. Only a name. I look in (around) the classroom and I want to laugh but everyone very serious you know." [we laugh].

Mao Tsu-Tung

We discussed democracy, history, and Western/ Eastern conceptions of liberty. It is always a kind of challenge to get Chinese people to speak out against Mao. I find this sort of maddening. I tried to prod Lisa by suggesting that Western educated Sun Yat-Sen, revered as the "father of modern China" was very different from Western educated Mao.

She repeated her belief that Mao "only want to be king." Not really a communist, just a king. She was trying to describe him; she said he was a fighter. I typed "warrior" into her computer. That's the word she was looking for. She was very excited that I understood. She said very few people in China associate this word with Mao. They think of him as the chairman.

Perhaps if her English was better she say that Mao was a good warrior, a fine revolutionary. He valiantly defeated his opponents and united the country. But after he took control of a united China his fighting didn't stop. He waged war on his own people! Perversely brutal like Stalin.

I paraphrased a quote from Mao in which he explained why he liked the Chinese people so much. He liked them because they were "good and blank" and on a blank sheet of paper he could paint the most beautiful characters. The government still uses this approach today, utilizing the state controlled television, radio, and newspapers to program the people.

Lisa's parents were amongst the dangerous intellectual elements that were targeted during the Cultural Revolution. They were subdued by being sent to the countryside to dig potatoes. Her mother warned her not to believe what she heard or read. Her father fed her Western literature.

Happy Valentines Day! Jamie got an earful of warnings against American boyfriends from her Taiwanese classmate, Bao Mee.

Like most of the women in Singapore Bao seems to think that a woman's greatest asset is her sex and this should be used to acquire her at least a home and, if possible, wealth.

Practically every woman from China in Singapore is here to find a moneyed husband. Jamie comes from a reasonably secure family in China and harbors no such intentions. This has caused anyone who has met her to be very perplexed. Indeed I was surprised that her intentions were so different from others.

Perhaps Bao tricks herself into believing a 1989 survey in Singapore which found that practically every woman claimed to have had no pre-marital sex. Perhaps Bao subscribes to the idea that a woman should find a boyfriend after marriage. In anycase, Bao subscribes to the Singaporean woman's ambition known as the 5 "C's": Cash, condo, car, credit card. It has always been women relating this list to me and they always leave off the last "c". I suspect it has something to do with a man's special asset. Another cute local saying is "No Money, No Honey."

Accordingly, Bao had a litany of reasons why Jamie was foolish to have anything to do with me. A large part of her argument was economic. Bao quickly gathered that I was on a budget and had little to offer economically. I take buses not taxis; I eat cheap vegetarian food, not more expensive fare.

The other half was racial. It would look bad for Jamie to have a white boyfriend because everyone would think she was whoring and I wasn't even spending money on her. So a very stupid thing for Jamie to do. She said that American men say they love you like they love a plate of food. Bao said that Western men have many girlfriends and don't care about them. She later said that Western men abused their women.

While I'm on the subject of Asian perceptions of Western men I'll add that there is a strong undercurrent of racism throughout Asia. In a bizarre way that can only be explained under the umbrella of racism all the worst qualities of men are projected by Asians onto Western men. (Of course, Western women, have a bad reputation as well.) I'll cut to the chase with a clear example: "Western people are the closest race to animals; they only care about f*ng." Does such a quote bear repeating? Yes, because racism lies in human psyches awaiting an opportunity to be released. Rather than await these unexpected explosions, we can defuse their spark by exposing the hate in it's asinine belligerance.

Expose the hate in it's asinine belligerance.
The sunshine of love bears no grudges.

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