Scaling

I attended this National short play (drama) competition for secondary and tertiary students, yesterday. I was overwhelmed by the number of PRC students. Almost 80% of the students taking part in the competition were PRCs. I wasn't fully aware of the situation until yesterday, eventhough I know the number of PRCs in Singapore is increasing. Their very coherent and perfect grasp of the language was too much for me (and a number of others) to bear, eventhough we are all involved in Chinese Drama. We joked about having to listen to english songs when we get home that night. I was very taken aback by the fact that for two of the groups sent by VJC (which happened to be where I was from), which had about 15 people, out of which only one was a non-PRC (who happened to be my junior from AHS). From what I recollected years ago, there wasn't any PRCs in VJ, perhaps one or two whom I did not notice. Yah I know there were a number of India Scholars who excelled in track and field, but no, I don't recall PRCs. Besides, VJ is known to be a more ang moh school, eventhough it may not be totally true.

It was indeed a relief to see a fully Singaporean production (meaning a short play put up by purely local students). Lest you think I'm slamming the PRCs in any way, you've got me wrong. I've got absolutely nothing against them. What I'm tryin to say here is that it is sad to see that Singaporean students are not particularly interested in the chinese culture. Ok it doesn't mean you have to be involved in chinese drama/short play to prove your enthusiasm for chinese culture. It could also be that the schools picked the PRCs from the chinese (drama) society to represent them simply because they were outstanding or in terms of language they had an edge. But purely by looking at this competition, I have to say that at least in the context of secondary and tertiary chinese drama (and perhaps linked to culture), the PRCs are indeed the more active parties. Six years ago, when I first supported my school team in this very competition, the situation wasn't like this at all.

So, the guest of honour went on to talk about how we should learn chinese and come to grips with chinese culture for economical reasons and how they can help us establish ourselves in the China market. Yes, definitely it's true that having a good understanding of the language and the culture helps us in interacting with the china associates. But this should not be the reason why we learn Mandarin and foster Chinese culture. In fact, to put it in this way is an insult to those who genuinely love chinese culture and language as well as those who are involved in the related industries.

I hope I don't get sued.

=Two cents worth=