art school?

+ posted by M @ 1:01 PM

...	Wednesday, June 06, 2007

i really hate singaporeans. the sad thing is, the word 'singaporean' to me has a very negative connotation to it. maybe it's because of all the 'kiasu' and calculating and stingy characteristics typical singaporeans have but sometimes that citizenship is almost something that feels a little .. shameful. i'm proud to talk about singapore and the food and art and places on our island, but i rarely call myself a singaporean. and i think being in singapore for too long reinforces that feeling some times. it just really hit me when i went to vivocity (a place i absolutely hate by the way) and saw all the parents bringing their kids to swim in the landpools (not meant for swimming in by the way, but purely for aesthetic purposes) ... it is just completely absurd and rather crass.

+ posted by M @ 6:58 PM

...	Tuesday, June 05, 2007

So I'm finally back in Singapore and I'm glad to be home. Though I'm reminded of a conversation I overheard some time on Chicago campus. I was waiting for a bus and two men (both historians, apparently - I'm guessing they were working either on PhD dissertations or were already PhDs because they were of a certain age) were talking about their experiences in different countries. The Taiwanese historian said he was now working in Singapore. Upon hearing this, the other historian started asking him many questions and said that it must be very interesting to live there. The Taiwanese man said it was a very clean and safe city but he still preferred to live elsewhere ... after much talk about why this was so, he simply concluded, 'the people there are like zombies'.

In a way he's right, because I feel it too sometimes walking down orchard road, seeing the crowd of teens and young professionals walking around with blank expressions. But there's so much life here, too, late at night at the hawker centers, in little nooks and corners of this country, in the east coast shophouses ...

Still, this is home, and I haven't really said hello to much of the country because I've been spending my time at home or at aly's home. Despite the fact that we have people like Xiaxue living here (I just read her latest blog entry and I am absolutely embarrassed that she's more or less reflective of what Singapore society popularizes), I think we'll be okay for now.

+ posted by M @ 10:56 AM