A Forest of Ideas

Off the back of 2 interviews the day before today and surging ahead: greener pastures here we come.

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.