1) It is never easy to be plucked from your homeland to a new environment. It is already difficult for an adult, what more a child

2) Having to own two homes can be confusing for a child, especially when both hold fond memories during a child’s important growing up years.

Our globalised world has indeed changed things. While it may now be easier to trek around the globe and find a new home, globalisation brings with it a new set of social concerns that need to be pondered over. Many of the students and graduates we have interviewed seem to display a strong love for their homeland, but find Singapore hard to leave. Singapore has become an important aspect of their lives, having been the place where they build childhood memories, find love and a prospective home for the future as well.

Their journey in Singapore has impacted them considerably. If we continue to bring in PRC scholars and Chinese students into our schools and universities, Singaporeans must be aware that the Chinese (and I’m sure for other foreigners as well) also find their stay in Singapore meaningful for the reasons stated above. We share our homes with others who also feel some form of attachment to Singapore, even if some say Singapore is just a plateau of convenience for them to reach their goals.

Jia Jia’s interview emphasised the experience of a student coming to another country to study while still being young and impressionable. While coming to Singapore much earlier than her SM1 & SM3 counterparts, she has developed a better understanding of Singapore and to a certain extend, has developed a Singaporean identity.

Though still claiming to be “patriotic”, she mentioned how her Chinese has “deteriorated” (perhaps she lost her accent), her “oil baron” dad encouraging her to apply for Singapore Citizenship because he “didn’t think (she) would be able to adapt to the culture back home”, since she would not have a network or “guan xi” (something I never knew about the Chinese) to survive her career in China and having a Singaporean boyfriend, proving that her stay in Singapore during her important growing up years has resulted in her attaching sentiments of attachment to Singapore.

In a sense, coming here at such a young age has chipped off some of her Chinese identity, though not totally. At some point of her interview, I was amazed at how she could remember details of her primary school days despite having left China almost 15 years ago, such as the activities she did during her Communist Youth days. While she professes her love for China deeply, I couldn’t help but think that some parts of her would never forget Singapore, especially those related to her youth and her education.

I wonder if her memories of Singapore would be just as vivid when she leaves the Little Red Dot one day, if she eventually does in the end, as it was with her memories of China.

Next up, I will talk about our interview with Guo. Like Jia Jia, Guo came at a very young age, when he was still in Primary School. I find their experiences similar…

- (Na)Bila

Today, we met Hui Chenri, a 29-year-old Chinese National who works as a research assistant in NIE. I’d say we learnt quite a number of things from him.

One of them being majoring in English is actually very sought after in China. I would never think that Chinese would actually want to major in English. I would think that they would choose Chinese Literature, or some other Chinese-related topic that they would most definitely excel in. On top of majoring in English, and thereafter teaching the language in a university back in China, Chenri even did his Masters in applied linguistics at NIE.

I’d also say that it was a surprising find to learn that Chenri also adopted Christianity after coming to Singapore, a trend that we’re beginning to see slowly after talking to more interviewees. It’s interesting to discover that our Chinese friends actually open up pretty easily to religion after coming here.

Other interesting points:

• Chinese sometimes do bring their differences with each other from China, here to Singapore. Many do have a prejudice against their own countrymen, such as those from a specific province or area.
• He hangs out with both his comrades and Singaporeans, engaging in sports activities like squash, going to the Henderson Wave for a hike, or to MacRitchie Reservoir.
• He attends BOTH Mandarin and English services at his church, City Harvest Church, and his cell group is made up of 90% Chinese Nationals.
• He is open to the idea of settling down here (or anywhere else, for that matter), but has often been warned by friends that local Singaporeans are not suitable as partners.

I’m excited about the idea of crashing their squash sessions and cell group meetings – lots of more contacts and more importantly, good photo opportunities!

While Singaporeans may view these workers as foreign to their country, foreign workers are here because they want to make a better living; to improve their family’s quality of life back home.

Workers from China make up a significant number of the foreign worker population. China workers alone take up almost half the percentage of foreign workers. Some end up taking low-skilled and low-paying jobs. From construction work to cleaning, they choose jobs very few or no locals are willing to fill.

Locals may have seen many Chinese workers in the service industries when they shop. Yet, some China workers are almost cut off from locals due to the remote site of their workplace. It is difficult for the ordinary locals to have contact with these workers, especially those in the construction and manufacturing industry.

A majority of these transient workers are here on two-year contracts, which are renewable upon their employers’ assessments at the end of them.

Factory technician Mr Tang Ao Xue had recently signed a new contract keeping him for another two years. He works nearly everyday and looks forward to over-time opportunities, so as to keep his job and earn as much as he can for his family back in Shanghai.

“The working life is more competitive here. There are also longer working hours,” said the 33-year-old in heavily-accented Mandarin. So far, he has really enjoyed the kind of life that Singapore has to offer.

However, there is one aspect that he particularly likes. “It [the bureaucracy] is very fair here. There’s no bribing. It all depends on my performance at work,” said Mr Tang.

His employer recommended Mr Tang for work here when his parent company expanded into Singapore. He had to make the shift from glass manufacturing to aluminium but he adapted quickly while learning on the job.

Mr Tang, however, has not been home for almost two years. “It’s too expensive to go home often. I just can’t afford it,” said the lanky man who is married with no children. He is not intending to return home anytime soon and wants to continue working in Singapore for as long as he can.

Like Mr Tang, many of the other Chinese workers possess the willingness and desire to put in the hard work, such as Mr Ying Xiao Bin.

He is a construction worker from Shan Dong, and works on Jurong Island. He was proud to attest to those qualities.

“We Chinese, when we want to do something, we do it fast. We won’t slack off,” said the father of two, who feels that Singaporeans are being unfair in their judgment of foreign workers.

Mr Tang and Mr Ying exude positive working attitudes, which are exactly what got their employees attracted to them.

Both men have been staying at the Soon Lee Lodge in Jurong West for the past two years and are used to the life here but they do miss their family. Mr Ying, who has not been home since arriving here six year ago, said: “I miss my little girl. She’s in primary six. When I have the money, I will go back to China and set up a small business or a restaurant.”

For many of them, Singapore represents the pot of goodness that is a necessary step towards a better life.

Being so far away from home, Chinese workers search for those who come from their homeland when they are missing home. Hence, the workers come together and form their own communities. Since they share the similar experience of being alone in a foreign land and speak the same dialect, they are able to reminisce about things they miss from their hometowns.

When asked how he celebrates the Chinese festivities, Mr Ying replied: “I will meet up with the people in my hometown. During mid-autumn, I will make mooncakes and cook delicacies from my hometown.

For a man who is used to eating home-cooked noodles for lunch every other day, such festivities bring him a step closer to home.

Mr Tang and Mr Ying may be away from home, but home is exactly the motivation for them to persevere every day in Singapore.

Qin Di has been in Singapore for more than six years

Having been here for more than six year now, the extent of his “Singaporean-ization” is obvious – he speaks in fluent English peppered with the occasional Singlish terms of “lors”, “lahs” and “mehs”. The Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) alum is also a hall fellow at his alma mater’s student hostel and the NTU undergraduate even took part in a week-long community service to help Cambodian street children with the school’s Muslim Society.

Language barriers formed the bulk of woes

But that’s not to say that it was always a bed of roses for Qin Di, who, like many other Chinese students who came to Singapore on scholarships, felt lonely and faced many uncertainties and challenges initially.

Language difficulties were something he had expected from the very beginning. He said: “I learnt English when I was in China, but it was of a very fundamental level. What is used here is very different from the Chinese education system. What I knew was totally irrelevant when I came here.”

Things were made tougher when after just three months of English bridging courses, he found himself thrown head-on into Secondary 3 at ACS(I), a school with strong English backgrounds.

“I think even if it were not a school with such a strong English background, Chinese students would still find it quite difficult to cope with the language when they are first here.”

The head start he got has given him an added advantage in being here – he is able to understand lectures without having to constantly refer to an electronic dictionary.

Fellow countrymen discriminated against

While working as a part-time waiter at a restaurant last year, he even experienced preferential treatment on the job.

He said: “There were other Chinese Nationals who had just come from China and were working as permanent staff, but I was paid better even though I was just a part-time worker.

“The boss and other Singaporean staff treated me differently because I’m able to speak English and also because I am educated. But the other Chinese Nationals were treated badly.”

Qin Di described how his Singaporean supervisor and colleagues made fun of the other Chinese workers’ accent and less-than-perfect pronunciations and the way they dress.

“The Singaporeans called the Chinese workers “china man”, even though they knew their Chinese and English names. They would even gossip about my Chinese friends in their face, because they know that my friends don’t understand what they are saying in English.”

Singaporeans’ complaints: Unfounded and unfair

Qin Di eventually left his job at the restaurant because he couldn’t take things lying down.

“The Chinese who come here to work mostly take up low-paying jobs, but to them it is a very good opportunity to find a job here. It’s really difficult for them, so Singaporeans should give them some time to adapt.”

To him, the complains and murmurs that he hears about Chinese Nationals in Singapore are not always fair.

“A lot of Singaporeans see foreigners as competition, but I think they are just complaining. If there are people willing to do the jobs they don’t want, why not? It’s as if you don’t want the job, but don’t want others to have it either.”

But no, we, at shmabila don’t dwell on such things. and so we headed over to the singapore chinese chamber of commerce & industry. where the original ‘cunning and shrewd’ incarnates first gathered in 1906. since then, nothing much has changed, i’d reckon. still the same crafty and astute chinese business people populate the place.

The initially packed SCCCI hall, and a very enthusiastic first speaker

We were there by mr james du’s invite, for the mid-autumn festival event, which the tian fu club hosted, to bring the new and old chinese immigrants on this very special day. the day when chang’e flew to the moon and thus heartlessly abandoning her lover, houyi, to the arms of despair but i digress. nab was feeling out of place in her hari raya baju (not that i blame her) while we were making our way over to the par-tay. upon reaching our destination, we were slightly at a loss; we were greeted with all things unfamiliar. no james, no tony and no english-speaking person in sight. as we were about to place a desperate call through to james, lo and behold, he was standing at the top of the stairs. and so, in we went. and speaking of painting the town red… *cue picture*

it started at 3pm and opened with a panel of 4 speakers each taking turns to give a speech relating to the issue of new chinese immigrants and tips on making life easier here, without entirely compromising your roots (and there i thought it was just going to be all chit-chat, lanterns, mooncakes and tieguanyin chinese tea).

Some ideas (as best as i could decipher/infer) thrown up during the socio-political seminar:

• Practice using English, don’t be afraid. regardless of how the pronunciation sounds.
• Chinese who come here are proud of their identity and would hold on to it dearly (E.g. there are parents who are afraid that their kids who attend local schools would learn to like to use English and forget about Mandarin)
• To what extent do the new immigrants assimilate with society?
• Main aim of Chinese immigrants here: to contribute to Singapore
• A wonderful anecdote by 李彦小姐, an ex-NTU post-grad. married with a daughter and settled down here.

The three speakers and the moderator (extreme right).

Half way into our stay (poor nab was highly conspicuous and worse, we kept hearing the words ‘马来人’), third member may, having recently touched down from Hanoi, made contact. she’s now sick and has possibly contracted dengue. well, guess she missed out on a jab there! fret not may, by the powers vested in me, i hereby prevent you from having anything else except a cold. because there are tons of recorded speech in advanced mandarin that are just waiting for you to translate. i know, you can thank me later. =D

2 hours of speeches later and after about half of the hall was emptied, we were then told that the festivities would last till 11pm. okay. but that’s besides the point. we managed to snare 2 ladies. both financial accountants. one is the aforementioned ms lee, the other, a ms jasmine hu. who you say? well, she was the one who expressed her pleasant surprise in a less than eloquent manner (‘but it’s so chinese!’) in response to us understanding the gist of what was being said. i think that might have endeared us to her. hence, moral of the story: when in the presence of a very chinese event, say you understand!

I guess it’s fair to say mid-term breaks is one big lie.

-Shan.

Several high points of the day, i feel, while having a chat with 连超小姐 (anglicised as Forester). here’s what she said, in brief:

• revisiting the theme of tensions amongst chinese people from different provinces
• to view china, not as a culturally unified country, but as a collective term for the 22 provinces
• because she is from the south (guangdong province) she finds assimilation with the locals and malaysians here a breeze, which brings me to her next point: she doesn’t identify with the Chinese from the north
• likes LKY, LHL but thinks JZM is a joke
• eureka moment: chinese nationals who come here and convert to Christianity, and she knows people
• and lastly, “I [连超小姐] think your topic is very broad.”

So, whilst in the shower (where all great ideas are born), i think there might be a possible way for us to narrow our ambitious project down. even if it’s a slight alteration, it’s a start.

A basic theme here would be: ‘the new Chinese community in Singapore’. in which we talk about the differences (cultural, geographical, political, etc) between the northerners and southerners (or are there more factions?), which lead to them forming different cliques here, how/to what degree (or not at all)/how successful do each of these 2 groups assimilate into the local community, what do they do after they come here (i’m taking the cue from the eureka moment: they convert to Christianity, we’ll see what other trends come up along the way), how different are the north & south groups from the one here.

But of course, we will still have their sentiments regarding local Chinese, bad experiences, why come here, etc… the current stuff that we’re doing. just an expansion and perhaps even putting all the information we have/will gather into a proper context.

Other things to note today:

1. Earthquake of magnitude 7.9, off the coast of Sumatra @ 6:15pm. tremors felt around the island. but i didn’t. pfft.
2. PSI hits 64.
3. Eyes and nose in discomfort.
4. Watched The September Issue for the second time.
5. Arsenal won 2-0 in the Champions League.

As night descends upon me, it’s time i rest me sore muscles and aching bones. till then my friends.

-Shan.

Proof of our visit to Soon Lee Lodge! Very close to NTU...

we shall thank the heavens for our exceedingly obliging friend agreed, without hesitation, in accompanying us for our interviews with 2 chinese workers. Qin Di has progressed from ‘first interviewee’ to ‘translator’ to ‘extremely helpful mate’ in a matter of seconds. thus, it was with his help that our spirits were boosted. if you’re wondering why such help was enlisted in the first place,  it was because our very proficient in-house translator (i.e. may chen yingjia), was sadly unavailable. whilst fellow group-mates (nabila and myself) were highly incapable of handling an interview conducted in heavily accented mandarin.

So with that out of the way, let’s recount the day. Our (figurative) chapter on Singapore’s transient workers begins today.

At the gantries to welcome the workers home

One of the ‘new generation dorms’, we were told. and boy, was it aptly put. turnstiles, access cards, face recognition devices, little pictures of pretty ladies but i digress… except for the last bit, everything else sounds pretty high-tech. but then, it’s nothing new. just that its application is. this high-level security facility happens to be Soon Lee Lodge (SLL). a worker’s dormitory, located in our mini hinterland, more collectively known as Jurong West, for… well, the workers. literally containers stacked upon the other, they make up the homes of the thousands of foreign workers that pour into our little country; making our secondary sector tick. so why does a dormitory require security on such levels? a measure to prevent illegal immigrants from sneaking in; to keep track of their residents, their safeguard their well being and ensure everyone is accounted for. SLL is truly a self-subsistent community of 4500 residents, with the luxury of a supermarket, beer stand, mama’s indian food stall, open space, mini park, gym, sick bay, etc…

So you see, there are tremendous efforts that are being made in making life enjoyable for our foreign friends. dorm events consist of a day dedicated to the game of kebadi (an indian version of lao ying zua xiao ji, we were informed). take the little park, with a man-made stream filled with fresh water hyacinths and a blossoming population of frogs (not really a great idea in my opinion) for instance, it is being created as a place for the residents to relax. and also because many of them come from villages, it is to make them feel at home.

Poster on Kabadi event at the main entrance

Prior to our visit, contact was made with said dormitory’s friendly manager, Mr Lee, who kindly provided us with 2 chinese nationals, with whom we interviewed. both men, are here upon selection, based on outstanding performance, by their respective companies. they are hired on a 2-year basis, with each contract renewable after satisfactory assessment by the employers, at the end of the previous one. it wasn’t difficult in getting them to open up about their views on their life here, so in all, it was a rather enjoyable experience.

Our first interviewee

Interviewee no. 1: 汤傲雪先生, a 33 year-old married man from Shanghai was first up. as a technician for an aluminum manufacturing company, he rakes in a monthly pay of $1700 (inclusive of a substantial amount of OT). he’s been in Singapore for 2 years. he works nearly everyday, with a chance to return home once in 2 years (fully paid for by the company), and 14 days of leave in total. any additional day off would mean the docking of salary. that may seem harsh from a local’s POV, but we could tell he really liked the way of life in Singapore and a general sense of optimism accompanied his demeanor – simply put, he is happy with life here.

He did not want to be pictured.

Interviewee no. 2: 殷小斌先生, 39 year-old, from Shan Dong province. he’s married with 2 children, with the eldest making his way in the working world and the youngest in primary 6. he’s also been here for 2 years (and has already signed another 2-year extension), and he earns $1200 without OT and about $1500 with. However, opportunities for OT have been few and far in between. he lacks the rather youthful optimism and education-level possessed by 汤先生, and with a more worn-down appearance. as a construction worker for a wood manufacturer, the many scars his arms are proof to the kind of hard labour he does. he is unhappy with the high cost of living here as he barely makes enough each month and has complaints about our fast pace of life but, generally happy with life here too. has heard of Singapore in the 70s and 80s but didn’t know how big Singapore was back then.

As bus loads of residents streamed through the gantry, it was our time to take a bow. and so, the day ended on a rather exhausting note.

A last look at the dormitories before we left

.

.

.

okay, i might have over written for my first blog entry. no wait, second.

[but who cares, a test drive this is. anyone (other than my group mates) who thinks otherwise, please go shoot yourself =D]

-Shan.