GES1023 Group Project Report: Short Story + Group Exegesis
GES1023 Group Project Report: Short Story + Group Exegesis
Short story
Noah and I woke up to the incessant ringing of my phone from a sudden influx of notifications. I groaned tiredly, “Babe, can you check my phone and tell me who’s spamming? It’s on the nightstand next to you.” Noah obliged, telling me there were 187 notifications from my family Whatsapp group. Suddenly, a loud blast of ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ with chinese lyrics exploded from my phone, audibly straining both the speakers and my eardrums, and then abruptly stopped. My head fell back onto the pillow with a loud thump, and I felt the hangover start to kick in. Last night’s Christmas eve party had ended with one too many glasses of Sangria.
“Sorry, I accidentally clicked on a video your dad sent,”, Noah apologised, as he scrolled through the chat group, “but what’s up with your dad and all these christmas graphics he’s sending? Also, it’s nearly 3pm and we need to be at your house by 6 so we should probably get ready to leave.” I groaned for the second time and explained, “My idiot brother taught him how to send videos and gifs on Whatsapp, so now he’s going all out on the family group”. Checking the date on my phone, I realised that today was the day my family was going to meet Noah for the first time, and felt a nervous shiver down my spine. Noah was a decent guy: kind, intelligent, funny, great with people and animals. But he was also...American.
The anxiety of having Noah meet my family was only just setting in, and I decided to brace him for what was to come, “Okay, so my mom can be kind of uncouth but she’s generally pretty nice and I’ve already told her that you’re allergic to prawns so we won’t be having a repeat of that hokkien mee situation which happened last week. My dad’s kind of intense so don’t bring up anything to do with politics or-”
Noah interrupted, saying, “Babe, don’t worry. I’ve watched all 5 seasons of Fresh Off the Boat
, so I have a pretty good idea of what to do: take my shoes off, offer to pay, don’t stick my chopsticks in my bowl upright, etc.". I looked at his eager smile, knowing he meant well, but sighed and said, “ We aren’t like the characters you see on TV, okay? Not all Chinese families have the same characteristics, and, well, I’m Chinese but they’re… more
Chinese, so just follow
my lead when we get there, okay?”. Noah rolled his eyes, kissed my forehead and led me out of my dorm room.
As we neared the flat, I heard the sound of my family’s rojak
mix of voices, all speaking loudly in English, Chinese and Teochew. I could also hear my aunt’s voice laughing and saying in chinese, “Her new boyfriend is ang moh
? Maybe he will really turn out to be a xiaobailian haha!” There was a roar of greetings the instant the front door opened, as my dog, Muffin, barked loudly out the steel HDB gate, sensing an unfamiliar (and therefore, to her, dangerous) presence near the house. My mother unlocked the gate, gave a quick sheepish smile and quickly hurried Muffin away, muttering “Aiyah
, Muffin, bukeyizheyang
, bad first impression leh”. My dad grabbed Noah’s hand, shaking it firmly and wishing us both a Merry Christmas. A gaudy flowery mug of water was placed on the coffee table in front of Noah, while he waited for the table to be set. I could see him curiously surveying our house, and suddenly became very self conscious about everything: the cracks on the walls, the dusty shelves displaying my old medals and family photos, even the unsightly plastic sheets covering our remote controls. Right on queue, Auntie Wendy swooped in on Noah like an eagle hunting her prey. She pushed her spectacles off her face - an attempt to create a good first impression by making herself look younger and prettier (or so she thought)- and began that famous opening line she had performed for all my ex-boyfriends, “Oh, you are so handsome! No wonder Carrie likes you…”
Her words drifted away as I entered the kitchen, tired of listening to the same questions being asked over again: How did you two meet? What’s your major? How do you feel about Trump? Are you looking to settle down anot? What’s your gross monthly income? When are you and Carrie going to get married?
Her questions pierced the air like rapid fire from a machine gun, and i felt the guilt of leaving Noah in her clutches. We set the food on the table, and I began the slow process of herding the attendants into their seats. As usual, there was a lot of ‘you sit first!’ and ‘no lah! You’re older, your knees more pain, you go’ in what seemed like a never-ending spiral of shifting ‘privilege’ to others as a sign of respect. Noah, standing next to me, looked as perplexed as I first felt when I found out not all families engaged in this very time-consuming and inefficient ‘ancient tradition’. He tilted his head to my ear and whispered ‘why doesn’t someone just… sit…?” Being too tired to say anymore, the only reply I had for him was one i knew he could never understand, “it’s all a game of mianzi
”
Soon after, my brother Ian was called - or rather, dragged- out of his room, with a look that thoroughly conveyed his probable desire to escape this family situation. People excitedly tucked in to the famous Tau Kwa Pau from Dunman Food Centre, and Noah furtively watched my mother select the biggest piece to place onto my father’s plate. My father had ordered them 7 days in advance, to make sure they would not run out on Christmas, and made no secret of it
either, recalling to everyone that he had braved the heat and the 20-metre-long queue just to get these 10 precious ingots of Tofu stuffed with fish-cake and meat.
I noticed Noah sticking to his hawker staples: fried carrot cake and oyster omelette. As a result, his plate was almost always empty. My mother seemed to notice this too, and made a show of placing the valuable last tau kwa pau (which everyone wanted but no one dared to take) onto Noah’s plate, egging him on to try this quintessentially Singaporean dish. She handed him a small bowl, also saying “I know you Americans like your sweet stuff, so please try this! It’s my homemade Cheng Tng
.” All eyes on him now, Noah nervously took a bite, chewed, and looked thoughtful, saying “the tofu is a little bland for me personally, but thank you Auntie”. As Noah moved on to the cheng tng, I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, Noah was good at many things (basketball, maths, football-or as he called it, soccer), but hiding his emotions was not one of them. The look on his face was apparent, and although he tried to mask it all with a smile, the damage had been done. My aunt ‘tsk’-ed quietly to herself and looked at her feet. Trying to lighten the mood and follow my mother’s suit, Noah lifted the heavy half-eaten tau kwa pau
with his flimsy disposable chopsticks, dragging it across his plate towards mine, when he lost control, and it flopped sadly to the floor.
My father stared at the mess on the floor like he had just broken a Tang dynasty vase: forlornly and without hope. Noah fumbled, trying to pick the pieces up and muttering “Jesus, I’m so sorry everyone…”. Not one to be fazed, my mother lightened the mood again, sighing “Oh it’s just food, don’t worry about it.” I looked up at her gratefully, and saw my father regaining his usual plastered-on smile and recovering from a single moment of sorrow. I tried to change the subject, and asked, “So Ian, how were your exams?” I hadn’t expected the scowl across his face to be so sour. Before he could answer me, my father started shaking his head, and my mother sighed, cutting in, “your brother everyday only play video games, always so graphic, and then the report book comes back… All B3 and even 1 C5 for A maths. What to do liddat I ask you? Maybe if I had listened to the government and had a second son, he would have been better at studying.”
Noah asked how old Ian was. Ian opened his mouth, but got beaten to it again by my mother, who replied “15 already, next year O level”. My aunt, her mouth full of popiah
, interjected, “ you know, when we were in school, we had to work and study at the same time. Nowadays you youngsters only know how to play”. I knew she meant it jokingly, but I felt myself having to hold back to stop from debating with her. She continued, “now you see government give so much scholarships, last time no such thing okay!”. My father jumped in, “Ya, and now they use all our hard earned tax paying dollars to give scholarships to those Chinese, Vietnamese, even Indian students just so they can take it back to their home country”, visibly getting more and more aggravated. I felt a stab in my heart as I looked at Noah, who shifted in his seat a little. A brief moment of silence ensued before my father quickly said, “Noah, you are different mah, at
least you come from a developed country, can add value to this country you know. People like you can help us foster diplomatic relations to the U.S. all that, right?” Not wanting to disappoint, Noah shrugged and said, “Yeah, I guess. Hey, I’m a mathematics major. Maybe i could tutor Ian or something.”
I smiled at Noah, grateful that he had changed the subject, then stared at my brother. I hadn’t noticed it at first, but under the pale light of our hanging lamp, Ian’s face looked pale and haggard, like he hadn’t seen sunlight for days on end. Always perceptive, Noah continued, “Yeah, and don’t worry Uncle and Auntie, when I was Ian’s age, I always played video games too. A little Grand Theft Auto isn’t too
bad”, winking at my brother. At these magical 3 letters, my brother’s face came alive again and he asked “ You played GTA too? Dude, are you into MMORPG and FPS too?” With that, he launched into a flurry of questions about game hacks and conspiracy theories. Noah obliged Ian, even branching out into other games such as Counterstrike, Call of Duty and even Far Cry.
My mother tried to hide the disapproving look in her eyes, turning to me and whispering, “why do all the games he plays sound like names for the highways: SLE, PTE, ECP?” Seeing my brother animated for the first time the entire course of this dinner, my father’s fists started clenching, and he finally shouted, “Wow, you can talk so much about video games, but you don’t know anything about your school subjects? Is it you spend all your time gaming through the night, and that’s why your teachers keep saying you’re falling asleep in class?”. Ian, snapped out of his gaming-lingo reverie, retorted back at my father, “study so much for what? Just get the cert to get job only. You and mummy never even finish secondary school, yet still expect me to spend all day studying?” and stormed back into his room with a slam of his door.
I stood up and declared that I was doing to check on Ian and talk some sense into him. Noah, not wanting to be left alone yet again, quickly followed me into the room. Ian’s room was dark and rank, with clothes, textbooks and prawn cracker wrappers strewn all over the place. “I’m surprised mummy let’s you keep the room this dirty” i said quietly, trying to nudge my brother out of his figurative shell. No response. I didn’t know what else to say, and looked to Noah for help.
He waded through the mess of stuff and squatted down next to Ian, calmly explaining, “Look, I know this period is tough for you. I was your age not-so-long ago, and everything seemed pointless to me too, especially calculus. Who cares what the logarithm of 5 is, right?”
At this, my brother gave a bitter laugh.
Noah continued, “Maybe you should try to find some real-life application in your life for this stuff, you know? Get some motivation to slog through school. What do you want to do when you grow up?” I answered for Ian, “He’s wanted to be a game developer or graphics designer for a few years now.” Ian nodded. Noah, a glint in his eye, continued, “Well, I have a buddy in the game developing industry who’s doing graphics for the new Star Wars game. You know what he says everything is based on? Calculus, man. Every graphic you see on your games starts from some math on a sheet of paper.” Ian looked up at this, and asked tentatively, “For real?” Noah smiled, and helped Ian to his feet, replying, “For real. Oh, and by the way, you look like you haven’t left the house in days. You need some exercise, man, I swear it’ll make you loosen up a little. Let’s you and I go out for a while to play a game of soccer, maybe tomorrow?”
After a little while of coaxing Ian out of his room, he came back to the table. Ian apologised to my father, and after some nudging from my aunt and I, my father begrudgingly apologised as well. Ian stepped onto the balcony with my father for a while, presumably to tell him about his new motivation for working on his academics, and asking if Noah could tutor him in Math, as well as take him out for soccer. By this point, the table had been cleared, all the food replaced with a single log cake with a tiny plastic santa (and accompanying reindeers) sitting atop the cake next to a “Breadtalk” label. Noah looked surprised at the cake, and when I asked what that was about, he simply said “ I didn’t realise you guys had log cake for christmas too here. I don’t know, I think I was expecting tau huay or something”. At this, my family and I broke into laughter, staring at Noah with looks of bemusement. My aunt placed a hand on his shoulder and said, “Singapore don’t only have Chinese food and people okay! Malay have, Indian have, Ang Moh also have!”, gesturing to him. Noah joined in the laughter and soon the cake was cut. Feeling content and relieved that the night was coming to a close, I put a Christmas album on, playing ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’.
Word Count: 2491 Words
Group Exegesis
Conception of the Plot We wanted to depict the contrast by showing an American-Singaporean couple as the protagonists for our story, Noah and Carrie. Noah’s representation of Singapore is a two-tier representation: on the one hand, he values his knowledge of the Chinese culture coming from the media and famous series such as Fresh off Boat, but on the other hand, he has integrated more authentic features of this culture as he has been passively exposed to it when living in Singapore. As the French people of this group were in Noah’s situation when they first arrived in January, we used their point of view and impressions to fuel Noah’s point of view and make it more realistic. The local student in this group has had a similar experience, which inspired this story, when she brought a friend of different cultural background to meet her family during Chinese New Year.
Taking reference from a typical story structure, the inciting incident was the Christmas dinner, followed by rising action of the topics discussed at the table (eg. tasting May Wan (the mother)’s food, foreigners, education). The climax was intended to be Ian and Harry (the father)’s argument. For falling action, Noah has a hand in resolving the dispute thereby incorporating him into the family, which concludes in the family eating log cake for dessert, as a metaphor for their acceptance of Noah into the family.
Literary Techniques and references It was challenging to incorporate literary language (eg. metaphors, similes, other devices) into the story at first, because in its inception, we had seen it as a short film in our heads, rather than a story. We worked through this by using descriptive language to highlight what would have been shown visually in the body language of the characters. Also, we included a small metaphor using Muffin the dog’s reaction as representative of the family’s initial skepticism. This, is also why (possibly a little to our detriment), there is more written about the characters than about the setting and props. We came up with a ‘casting call’ of sorts, to help tether the characters to reality as much as possible, instead of falling into the trap of reducing them to mere stereotypes: Female protagonist: Cai Yue/Carrie Boyfriend (American nationality): Noah Father: Harry (English educated) Mother: May Wan (Chinese educated) Brother/Sister: Wei Ming/Ian
We decided to use First Person point of view because we wanted to highlight the sense of alienation one feels when thrust into differing cultural contexts. If the reader understood the references made, it would add to their understanding of the dynamics between characters. If not, they would be able to feel the same alienation probably felt by Noah. In being able to converse
with both her Singaporean-Chinese parents, and with the American Noah, Cassie (and by extension, the reader) is better able to understand the dissonances created by miscommunication. After having assimilated to Carrie, one is more willing to judge the story and better understand the generation gap or the stereotypes depicted in the text. We used the incomplete information produced by the free indirect discourse to emphasize some points that appear more glaring through Carrie’s eyes, than to Noah or her family, since she has some connections to both occidental and Chinese culture.
On the top of that, we wanted to give the reader a realistic immersion in the Singaporean atmosphere, and heighten Noah’s alienation by blending languages, be they English, Singlish, Chinese or even some youth lingo (eg. spamming, gifs), in the frequent dialogue of the plot, according to the character who was speaking it (eg. Noah, Ian and Carrie speak more standard english than the other 3 characters collectively) . Indeed, with all these different languages, we highlight both the traditional and multicultural roots existing in most of Singaporean families and the gap between how the young and old generation speak, or how meanings of words can never truly be accurately be translated into other languages due to the nature of culture, language, representation and the unique relationships between them.
That is why Carrie holds a special role: she is in the middle of various representations. She is young and is Chinese cultured, compared to her boyfriend, Noah. But at the same time, she is less
Chinese than her parents and aunt. Being the bridge between Noah and her family, she is at the center of the main contrasts depicted in the story, which enhance the strength of the representations. This is why we chose the first person: try to make the story more real to convey meaningful representations.
Some other smaller hints at the representation of Singapore, included May Wan’s reference to Singapore’s population planning policies, the consumption of certain types of food that are not necessarily well-known to non-Singaporeans, and even an echo to our roots as a British colony by comparing the meaning of the words ‘soccer’ and ‘football’ in different cultures. Overall, we were not trying to foster any typical ‘big’ cultural differences, but rather trying to show how the little things in day-to-day interaction can be indicative of a larger social rift.
Themes We chose themes based on what we felt were pressing issues we would like to explore in this project. Watching Crazy Rich Asians
, we felt that the representation of Singapore was distorted not because of the plot, but because of the implementation of the plot in the particular socio-economic background of rich people in Singapore. So, we decided to take the challenge of extracting the gross plot of the dinner scene in the film and remake it in a different environment. Our group, comprising a Singaporean student and 3 French exchange students have sometimes
had difficulties communicating in language, as well as in cultural literacy, so we tried to grapple with this intercultural dialogue by making it one of the main themes of our short story.
Another significant theme is that of the generation gap between people our age, and their parents in a Singaporean context, taking inspiration from Jason and the Cenotaph.
We found it relevant to draw a parallel with Boo Jun Feng’s Parting
, linking the rapid evolution of Singapore’s cityscape to that among generations. Like the city, the relationship between the two generations has had impact from globalization. Carrie is more young and liberal (seen from her alcohol consumption on Christmas Eve and cohabitation with an American exchange student). Perhaps this reflects the young people’s seek for freedom and independence from their ascribed local culture. For instance, she gets up late on Christmas Day, still hungover, whereas Harry had been preparing for the dinner for more than seven days.
This generation gap is highlighted through the diverging interpretation of pragmatism and purpose between the different generations. For the old generation, whose version of pragmatism is embodied by Harry, the focus is placed strictly on academics as a proof of one’s worth. Carrie’s pragmatism is expressed through her rationalization, valuing her individual agency and purpose (seen in the advice she and Noah give Ian) over any ‘arbitrary’ grade. Aunt Wendy is also depicted as a somewhat interrogatory/nosey person, reflecting the archetype of the ‘kiasu’ Singaporean in this story.
The importance of grades becomes a somewhat small point of contention, reflecting Harry’s desire to give his son the best formal education (partially due to the siege mentality narrative perpetuated by the government), as opposed to Noah’s idea that it is important to find meaning, purpose, and a little enjoyment in life. We were initially also going to include some tense discussions of Carrie and Noah’s cohabitation (considered immoral in parts of Singapore today) and alcohol consumption. Due to word limit constraints, we were not able to do this, but saw it as a blessing in disguise, as this reduced any bias Carrie could have had in choosing between her parents/aunt and brother.
The term ‘ang moh’ used to describe Noah in the story is both complementary and derogatory in the 2 instances they appear, reflecting the family’s ability/inability to welcoming a new culture. However, there is a minor discussion about foreign students of two different groups, which resonates strongly with the current state of Singapore as well, in the preference of one type of foreigner over another. Overall, through this story, we aim to represent Singapore through weaving together consistent patterns of small behaviours shown in the interaction of our characters, regarding the themes of generation gap, and intercultural interaction.
Word Count: 1410 Words
Short story
Noah and I woke up to the incessant ringing of my phone from a sudden influx of notifications. I groaned tiredly, “Babe, can you check my phone and tell me who’s spamming? It’s on the nightstand next to you.” Noah obliged, telling me there were 187 notifications from my family Whatsapp group. Suddenly, a loud blast of ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ with chinese lyrics exploded from my phone, audibly straining both the speakers and my eardrums, and then abruptly stopped. My head fell back onto the pillow with a loud thump, and I felt the hangover start to kick in. Last night’s Christmas eve party had ended with one too many glasses of Sangria.
“Sorry, I accidentally clicked on a video your dad sent,”, Noah apologised, as he scrolled through the chat group, “but what’s up with your dad and all these christmas graphics he’s sending? Also, it’s nearly 3pm and we need to be at your house by 6 so we should probably get ready to leave.” I groaned for the second time and explained, “My idiot brother taught him how to send videos and gifs on Whatsapp, so now he’s going all out on the family group”. Checking the date on my phone, I realised that today was the day my family was going to meet Noah for the first time, and felt a nervous shiver down my spine. Noah was a decent guy: kind, intelligent, funny, great with people and animals. But he was also...American.
The anxiety of having Noah meet my family was only just setting in, and I decided to brace him for what was to come, “Okay, so my mom can be kind of uncouth but she’s generally pretty nice and I’ve already told her that you’re allergic to prawns so we won’t be having a repeat of that hokkien mee situation which happened last week. My dad’s kind of intense so don’t bring up anything to do with politics or-”
Noah interrupted, saying, “Babe, don’t worry. I’ve watched all 5 seasons of Fresh Off the Boat
, so I have a pretty good idea of what to do: take my shoes off, offer to pay, don’t stick my chopsticks in my bowl upright, etc.". I looked at his eager smile, knowing he meant well, but sighed and said, “ We aren’t like the characters you see on TV, okay? Not all Chinese families have the same characteristics, and, well, I’m Chinese but they’re… more
Chinese, so just follow
my lead when we get there, okay?”. Noah rolled his eyes, kissed my forehead and led me out of my dorm room.
As we neared the flat, I heard the sound of my family’s rojak
mix of voices, all speaking loudly in English, Chinese and Teochew. I could also hear my aunt’s voice laughing and saying in chinese, “Her new boyfriend is ang moh
? Maybe he will really turn out to be a xiaobailian haha!” There was a roar of greetings the instant the front door opened, as my dog, Muffin, barked loudly out the steel HDB gate, sensing an unfamiliar (and therefore, to her, dangerous) presence near the house. My mother unlocked the gate, gave a quick sheepish smile and quickly hurried Muffin away, muttering “Aiyah
, Muffin, bukeyizheyang
, bad first impression leh”. My dad grabbed Noah’s hand, shaking it firmly and wishing us both a Merry Christmas. A gaudy flowery mug of water was placed on the coffee table in front of Noah, while he waited for the table to be set. I could see him curiously surveying our house, and suddenly became very self conscious about everything: the cracks on the walls, the dusty shelves displaying my old medals and family photos, even the unsightly plastic sheets covering our remote controls. Right on queue, Auntie Wendy swooped in on Noah like an eagle hunting her prey. She pushed her spectacles off her face - an attempt to create a good first impression by making herself look younger and prettier (or so she thought)- and began that famous opening line she had performed for all my ex-boyfriends, “Oh, you are so handsome! No wonder Carrie likes you…”
Her words drifted away as I entered the kitchen, tired of listening to the same questions being asked over again: How did you two meet? What’s your major? How do you feel about Trump? Are you looking to settle down anot? What’s your gross monthly income? When are you and Carrie going to get married?
Her questions pierced the air like rapid fire from a machine gun, and i felt the guilt of leaving Noah in her clutches. We set the food on the table, and I began the slow process of herding the attendants into their seats. As usual, there was a lot of ‘you sit first!’ and ‘no lah! You’re older, your knees more pain, you go’ in what seemed like a never-ending spiral of shifting ‘privilege’ to others as a sign of respect. Noah, standing next to me, looked as perplexed as I first felt when I found out not all families engaged in this very time-consuming and inefficient ‘ancient tradition’. He tilted his head to my ear and whispered ‘why doesn’t someone just… sit…?” Being too tired to say anymore, the only reply I had for him was one i knew he could never understand, “it’s all a game of mianzi
”
Soon after, my brother Ian was called - or rather, dragged- out of his room, with a look that thoroughly conveyed his probable desire to escape this family situation. People excitedly tucked in to the famous Tau Kwa Pau from Dunman Food Centre, and Noah furtively watched my mother select the biggest piece to place onto my father’s plate. My father had ordered them 7 days in advance, to make sure they would not run out on Christmas, and made no secret of it
either, recalling to everyone that he had braved the heat and the 20-metre-long queue just to get these 10 precious ingots of Tofu stuffed with fish-cake and meat.
I noticed Noah sticking to his hawker staples: fried carrot cake and oyster omelette. As a result, his plate was almost always empty. My mother seemed to notice this too, and made a show of placing the valuable last tau kwa pau (which everyone wanted but no one dared to take) onto Noah’s plate, egging him on to try this quintessentially Singaporean dish. She handed him a small bowl, also saying “I know you Americans like your sweet stuff, so please try this! It’s my homemade Cheng Tng
.” All eyes on him now, Noah nervously took a bite, chewed, and looked thoughtful, saying “the tofu is a little bland for me personally, but thank you Auntie”. As Noah moved on to the cheng tng, I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, Noah was good at many things (basketball, maths, football-or as he called it, soccer), but hiding his emotions was not one of them. The look on his face was apparent, and although he tried to mask it all with a smile, the damage had been done. My aunt ‘tsk’-ed quietly to herself and looked at her feet. Trying to lighten the mood and follow my mother’s suit, Noah lifted the heavy half-eaten tau kwa pau
with his flimsy disposable chopsticks, dragging it across his plate towards mine, when he lost control, and it flopped sadly to the floor.
My father stared at the mess on the floor like he had just broken a Tang dynasty vase: forlornly and without hope. Noah fumbled, trying to pick the pieces up and muttering “Jesus, I’m so sorry everyone…”. Not one to be fazed, my mother lightened the mood again, sighing “Oh it’s just food, don’t worry about it.” I looked up at her gratefully, and saw my father regaining his usual plastered-on smile and recovering from a single moment of sorrow. I tried to change the subject, and asked, “So Ian, how were your exams?” I hadn’t expected the scowl across his face to be so sour. Before he could answer me, my father started shaking his head, and my mother sighed, cutting in, “your brother everyday only play video games, always so graphic, and then the report book comes back… All B3 and even 1 C5 for A maths. What to do liddat I ask you? Maybe if I had listened to the government and had a second son, he would have been better at studying.”
Noah asked how old Ian was. Ian opened his mouth, but got beaten to it again by my mother, who replied “15 already, next year O level”. My aunt, her mouth full of popiah
, interjected, “ you know, when we were in school, we had to work and study at the same time. Nowadays you youngsters only know how to play”. I knew she meant it jokingly, but I felt myself having to hold back to stop from debating with her. She continued, “now you see government give so much scholarships, last time no such thing okay!”. My father jumped in, “Ya, and now they use all our hard earned tax paying dollars to give scholarships to those Chinese, Vietnamese, even Indian students just so they can take it back to their home country”, visibly getting more and more aggravated. I felt a stab in my heart as I looked at Noah, who shifted in his seat a little. A brief moment of silence ensued before my father quickly said, “Noah, you are different mah, at
least you come from a developed country, can add value to this country you know. People like you can help us foster diplomatic relations to the U.S. all that, right?” Not wanting to disappoint, Noah shrugged and said, “Yeah, I guess. Hey, I’m a mathematics major. Maybe i could tutor Ian or something.”
I smiled at Noah, grateful that he had changed the subject, then stared at my brother. I hadn’t noticed it at first, but under the pale light of our hanging lamp, Ian’s face looked pale and haggard, like he hadn’t seen sunlight for days on end. Always perceptive, Noah continued, “Yeah, and don’t worry Uncle and Auntie, when I was Ian’s age, I always played video games too. A little Grand Theft Auto isn’t too
bad”, winking at my brother. At these magical 3 letters, my brother’s face came alive again and he asked “ You played GTA too? Dude, are you into MMORPG and FPS too?” With that, he launched into a flurry of questions about game hacks and conspiracy theories. Noah obliged Ian, even branching out into other games such as Counterstrike, Call of Duty and even Far Cry.
My mother tried to hide the disapproving look in her eyes, turning to me and whispering, “why do all the games he plays sound like names for the highways: SLE, PTE, ECP?” Seeing my brother animated for the first time the entire course of this dinner, my father’s fists started clenching, and he finally shouted, “Wow, you can talk so much about video games, but you don’t know anything about your school subjects? Is it you spend all your time gaming through the night, and that’s why your teachers keep saying you’re falling asleep in class?”. Ian, snapped out of his gaming-lingo reverie, retorted back at my father, “study so much for what? Just get the cert to get job only. You and mummy never even finish secondary school, yet still expect me to spend all day studying?” and stormed back into his room with a slam of his door.
I stood up and declared that I was doing to check on Ian and talk some sense into him. Noah, not wanting to be left alone yet again, quickly followed me into the room. Ian’s room was dark and rank, with clothes, textbooks and prawn cracker wrappers strewn all over the place. “I’m surprised mummy let’s you keep the room this dirty” i said quietly, trying to nudge my brother out of his figurative shell. No response. I didn’t know what else to say, and looked to Noah for help.
He waded through the mess of stuff and squatted down next to Ian, calmly explaining, “Look, I know this period is tough for you. I was your age not-so-long ago, and everything seemed pointless to me too, especially calculus. Who cares what the logarithm of 5 is, right?”
At this, my brother gave a bitter laugh.
Noah continued, “Maybe you should try to find some real-life application in your life for this stuff, you know? Get some motivation to slog through school. What do you want to do when you grow up?” I answered for Ian, “He’s wanted to be a game developer or graphics designer for a few years now.” Ian nodded. Noah, a glint in his eye, continued, “Well, I have a buddy in the game developing industry who’s doing graphics for the new Star Wars game. You know what he says everything is based on? Calculus, man. Every graphic you see on your games starts from some math on a sheet of paper.” Ian looked up at this, and asked tentatively, “For real?” Noah smiled, and helped Ian to his feet, replying, “For real. Oh, and by the way, you look like you haven’t left the house in days. You need some exercise, man, I swear it’ll make you loosen up a little. Let’s you and I go out for a while to play a game of soccer, maybe tomorrow?”
After a little while of coaxing Ian out of his room, he came back to the table. Ian apologised to my father, and after some nudging from my aunt and I, my father begrudgingly apologised as well. Ian stepped onto the balcony with my father for a while, presumably to tell him about his new motivation for working on his academics, and asking if Noah could tutor him in Math, as well as take him out for soccer. By this point, the table had been cleared, all the food replaced with a single log cake with a tiny plastic santa (and accompanying reindeers) sitting atop the cake next to a “Breadtalk” label. Noah looked surprised at the cake, and when I asked what that was about, he simply said “ I didn’t realise you guys had log cake for christmas too here. I don’t know, I think I was expecting tau huay or something”. At this, my family and I broke into laughter, staring at Noah with looks of bemusement. My aunt placed a hand on his shoulder and said, “Singapore don’t only have Chinese food and people okay! Malay have, Indian have, Ang Moh also have!”, gesturing to him. Noah joined in the laughter and soon the cake was cut. Feeling content and relieved that the night was coming to a close, I put a Christmas album on, playing ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’.
Word Count: 2491 Words
Group Exegesis
Conception of the Plot We wanted to depict the contrast by showing an American-Singaporean couple as the protagonists for our story, Noah and Carrie. Noah’s representation of Singapore is a two-tier representation: on the one hand, he values his knowledge of the Chinese culture coming from the media and famous series such as Fresh off Boat, but on the other hand, he has integrated more authentic features of this culture as he has been passively exposed to it when living in Singapore. As the French people of this group were in Noah’s situation when they first arrived in January, we used their point of view and impressions to fuel Noah’s point of view and make it more realistic. The local student in this group has had a similar experience, which inspired this story, when she brought a friend of different cultural background to meet her family during Chinese New Year.
Taking reference from a typical story structure, the inciting incident was the Christmas dinner, followed by rising action of the topics discussed at the table (eg. tasting May Wan (the mother)’s food, foreigners, education). The climax was intended to be Ian and Harry (the father)’s argument. For falling action, Noah has a hand in resolving the dispute thereby incorporating him into the family, which concludes in the family eating log cake for dessert, as a metaphor for their acceptance of Noah into the family.
Literary Techniques and references It was challenging to incorporate literary language (eg. metaphors, similes, other devices) into the story at first, because in its inception, we had seen it as a short film in our heads, rather than a story. We worked through this by using descriptive language to highlight what would have been shown visually in the body language of the characters. Also, we included a small metaphor using Muffin the dog’s reaction as representative of the family’s initial skepticism. This, is also why (possibly a little to our detriment), there is more written about the characters than about the setting and props. We came up with a ‘casting call’ of sorts, to help tether the characters to reality as much as possible, instead of falling into the trap of reducing them to mere stereotypes: Female protagonist: Cai Yue/Carrie Boyfriend (American nationality): Noah Father: Harry (English educated) Mother: May Wan (Chinese educated) Brother/Sister: Wei Ming/Ian
We decided to use First Person point of view because we wanted to highlight the sense of alienation one feels when thrust into differing cultural contexts. If the reader understood the references made, it would add to their understanding of the dynamics between characters. If not, they would be able to feel the same alienation probably felt by Noah. In being able to converse
with both her Singaporean-Chinese parents, and with the American Noah, Cassie (and by extension, the reader) is better able to understand the dissonances created by miscommunication. After having assimilated to Carrie, one is more willing to judge the story and better understand the generation gap or the stereotypes depicted in the text. We used the incomplete information produced by the free indirect discourse to emphasize some points that appear more glaring through Carrie’s eyes, than to Noah or her family, since she has some connections to both occidental and Chinese culture.
On the top of that, we wanted to give the reader a realistic immersion in the Singaporean atmosphere, and heighten Noah’s alienation by blending languages, be they English, Singlish, Chinese or even some youth lingo (eg. spamming, gifs), in the frequent dialogue of the plot, according to the character who was speaking it (eg. Noah, Ian and Carrie speak more standard english than the other 3 characters collectively) . Indeed, with all these different languages, we highlight both the traditional and multicultural roots existing in most of Singaporean families and the gap between how the young and old generation speak, or how meanings of words can never truly be accurately be translated into other languages due to the nature of culture, language, representation and the unique relationships between them.
That is why Carrie holds a special role: she is in the middle of various representations. She is young and is Chinese cultured, compared to her boyfriend, Noah. But at the same time, she is less
Chinese than her parents and aunt. Being the bridge between Noah and her family, she is at the center of the main contrasts depicted in the story, which enhance the strength of the representations. This is why we chose the first person: try to make the story more real to convey meaningful representations.
Some other smaller hints at the representation of Singapore, included May Wan’s reference to Singapore’s population planning policies, the consumption of certain types of food that are not necessarily well-known to non-Singaporeans, and even an echo to our roots as a British colony by comparing the meaning of the words ‘soccer’ and ‘football’ in different cultures. Overall, we were not trying to foster any typical ‘big’ cultural differences, but rather trying to show how the little things in day-to-day interaction can be indicative of a larger social rift.
Themes We chose themes based on what we felt were pressing issues we would like to explore in this project. Watching Crazy Rich Asians
, we felt that the representation of Singapore was distorted not because of the plot, but because of the implementation of the plot in the particular socio-economic background of rich people in Singapore. So, we decided to take the challenge of extracting the gross plot of the dinner scene in the film and remake it in a different environment. Our group, comprising a Singaporean student and 3 French exchange students have sometimes
had difficulties communicating in language, as well as in cultural literacy, so we tried to grapple with this intercultural dialogue by making it one of the main themes of our short story.
Another significant theme is that of the generation gap between people our age, and their parents in a Singaporean context, taking inspiration from Jason and the Cenotaph.
We found it relevant to draw a parallel with Boo Jun Feng’s Parting
, linking the rapid evolution of Singapore’s cityscape to that among generations. Like the city, the relationship between the two generations has had impact from globalization. Carrie is more young and liberal (seen from her alcohol consumption on Christmas Eve and cohabitation with an American exchange student). Perhaps this reflects the young people’s seek for freedom and independence from their ascribed local culture. For instance, she gets up late on Christmas Day, still hungover, whereas Harry had been preparing for the dinner for more than seven days.
This generation gap is highlighted through the diverging interpretation of pragmatism and purpose between the different generations. For the old generation, whose version of pragmatism is embodied by Harry, the focus is placed strictly on academics as a proof of one’s worth. Carrie’s pragmatism is expressed through her rationalization, valuing her individual agency and purpose (seen in the advice she and Noah give Ian) over any ‘arbitrary’ grade. Aunt Wendy is also depicted as a somewhat interrogatory/nosey person, reflecting the archetype of the ‘kiasu’ Singaporean in this story.
The importance of grades becomes a somewhat small point of contention, reflecting Harry’s desire to give his son the best formal education (partially due to the siege mentality narrative perpetuated by the government), as opposed to Noah’s idea that it is important to find meaning, purpose, and a little enjoyment in life. We were initially also going to include some tense discussions of Carrie and Noah’s cohabitation (considered immoral in parts of Singapore today) and alcohol consumption. Due to word limit constraints, we were not able to do this, but saw it as a blessing in disguise, as this reduced any bias Carrie could have had in choosing between her parents/aunt and brother.
The term ‘ang moh’ used to describe Noah in the story is both complementary and derogatory in the 2 instances they appear, reflecting the family’s ability/inability to welcoming a new culture. However, there is a minor discussion about foreign students of two different groups, which resonates strongly with the current state of Singapore as well, in the preference of one type of foreigner over another. Overall, through this story, we aim to represent Singapore through weaving together consistent patterns of small behaviours shown in the interaction of our characters, regarding the themes of generation gap, and intercultural interaction.
Word Count: 1410 Words
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