(8) Stranger things have happened...

Somehow the musing moods only last till i finish waking up properly and get into the too-fast rhythm of life. They never seem to linger long enough for me to get fingers to keyboard and bytes to blog. Either that or it's the ppl on ICQ who distract me into the more mundane everyday things and kill all philosophical moods. So I got off ICQ, and now i'm having a half-half philosophical conversation with someone on animal farm and slash. Unrelated. Hopefully.

But stranger things have happened.

Like 7 people buying tickets and not coming for the 2nd show in the world premiere of the wedding banquet. Which worked pretty fine for us, because we were sitting in the row behind them. =)

The view was pretty good anyway from all the way back in circle 2 in the esplanade. But of course you couldn't see the expressive facial expressions of the cast without a pair of good binos. The vocal and visual acrobatics of the cast solved that though. Simon's voice was powerfully controlled, and I thought the monologues of Ma Gou on the phone was just hilarious.
"Wei tung? pick up. Pick uuuuuuuuuuuuppppppppppp *singsong voice*.
I know you're there. so stop staring at the phone and pick up!
Ok you're not there. I just called to see how you were doing. We all miss you Wei tung. Your Pa has a lot to say to you."
"no i don't."
"yes he does. *shoves phone in his face*"
"Hullo wei tung. Pa here. ......
..
...
....
bye."

Which covered about 50% of all of Pa Gou's lines on the phone.

The script was fantastically comedic, while still dealing with very real and serious issues, and was carried off pretty well by the cast (imagine this old chinese guy coming on stage, looking reverent and manservantly, and then waving his hands and saying in a heavily american-chinese accented voice akin to a circus ringmaster: "Welcome to Old Chen's most magnificent seventh pagoda of the jade dragon green lotus red prosperity restaurant!" and this 10m long red chinese scroll with the appropriate name lowers itself behind him.) but the really interesting thing was the audience reactions.

Keeping in mind that this is singapore and a few years ago anything vaguely homosexual would be clamped down upon (I hear they cut certain, ahem, scenes out of card captor sakura? well false parallel but still.) and people like neil humphreys write stories complaining about how a video sent to him by a friend got censored by the censorship board for having a picture of bare breasts on a poster in the background, and out of focus.... I thought it was a small cultural coup that a musical like this was allowed to play at all, and receive so much publicity. (adverts on TV! as opposed to the complete advertising silence imposed on fireface not so long ago) And this didn't have any age checks or anything (Except a parental advisory that it contained adult material which might be unsuitable for children--which i still can't decide if it's in relation to the homosexual themes, or the scene of the.....wedding night consumation.).

The audience was expectedly giggly and tittering when the first hints of the relationship btw wei tung and simon were revealed (granted, it WAS amusing) but by the end they were applauding when

--spoiler warning--



when wei tung told his mum about his alternative lifestyle, and didn't laugh half as much when finally simon and wei tung reconciled and exchanged these lovingly sweet looks.


--end spoiler --


but anyway it was pretty well received, but i guess the people who paid good money to see this show already knew what they were in for anyway. Interesting script that struck a nerve with most of the yuppie crowd, maybe, with its roots in chinese traditional mindsets and the constant maternal harranguing of wei tung to get married. I think most chinese (singaporean, even? or maybe it's ALL) parents are like that too, and openly or not, they want their kids to get married, shag, and give them grandkids. Probably evolutionary. Which then follows that same-sex marriages will break this chain and leave the final objective of "Grandkids, damn you" unfulfilled. So perhaps homophobia is evolutionary inbuilt into most people, unless they try to think otherwise. hmm.

Whatever the reason, Singapore seems to be trying to dispel any homophobic notions in its populace. Or at least, it's being more open about it and is raising awareness on many fronts. For those who don't know yet, it's a longstanding ongoing debate from the day the govt openly stated its policy to not discriminate against hiring workers with an alternative lifestyle (well said). Of course this immediately sparked off the expected response from the more traditional religious groups and some people who complained about western corrupting values and generally displayed wholehearted revulsion. People naturally have their logic blinded by discrimination, and singapore's been fighting this impulse from day one, albeit on the less socially controversial grounds of majority/minority race issues. Minorities will be discriminated against. That is a fact of life. Discrimination breeds unhappiness. That is also a fact of life. Cohesion cannot be fully obtained with underlying unrest. Is the goal of the state ultimately to bring social unity? hmm.

Er i seem to have sidetracked (again). Anyway for some reason it seems that these gay-sympathetic movements are more visible now. There was that article in life a few weeks back about how some companies are (openly or not) targetting the 'pink dollar'. Which is an amusing way of saying "yes these people exist, and the only reason i can convince you that they exist is because they're an economic demographic who will buy your products. If i can't convince you to accept their social choice, will you at least make money from them?" And then there're plays like bent and Mardi Gras which are being shown that i actually know about (do i have more gay-sympathetic friends, or more gay friends, or is it just more visible now? hmm.) which leads me to the inescapable conclusions that Singapore's trying to prepare the ground for something. Maybe they found out that gays make up a significant voter percentage and political lobby. Maybe one of our future politicians is gay. I probably should toe this line before i get sued for slander, and after all my boss IS gonna be the PM soon. ><

(oh and BTW this boss i'm referring to isn't my NS boss. I'd migrate if he became the PM.)

Ed: The above opinions are that of the authors and do not reflect those of his associated organisation. ^_^;