forbidden city: portrait of an empress

here's a postcard i picked up when i was at beijing's forbidden palace in 1997.. this is the real Empress Dowager... she looks pretty benign.. eh?



i remember once about a year back when i was asked in an informal survey: Do you see yourself first and foremost as a Chinese, an Asian, or a Singaporean?

i remember replying, after a slight pause, that i probably saw myself as an Asian, above the other more specific “identities”. Having traveled to quite a few Asian countries these last 6 years, i realised that when i meet other backpacking travelers on the road, I was straightaway recognized as an Asian, first of all. The quick mutual guess of how easily we would be able to “connect” with each other depended on whether they too came from this part of the world, the far East, the “exotic”, mystical Orient. Although some of you may disagree on why I should identify myself based on how I am “seen” vs. who I actually “am” (whatever that means..), yet, this to me was inevitable, as I saw them in the same way, as “Ang Mohs”, Africans, etc. or as "Asians, just like me", if they are Japanese, Koreans, Indians the first time we meet..

nonetheless, midway through watching the stunning singapore repertory theatre musical by Dick Lee yesterday afternoon at the Esplanade, I started thinking hard again. the stunning performance by kit chan and the (not perfect but definitely impressive) cast stirred the crowd with some amazingly written scores and lyrics- as i type this blog entry, the music is playing on my computer –

as 50 years of China’s tumultuous history was condensed into a 2 hour performance with singing, dancing and swinging, i was struck by how little i know about the history of our forefathers – our ah kongs and ah pors who came from the various provinces of China. To a typical third generation singaporean, it was as if our entire history began only after Raffles landed in Singapore, or when we parted from Malaysia 38 years back, or during British colonial rule. Suddenly, it dawned on me how my apathy regarding my ancestral roots has thus far denied me the knowledge of the amazing history and culture of the Chinese which stretches back some 3000 years, far beyond the 38 years we are familiar with.

Knowing the history of the Chinese was fascinating and made me realise every human being on Earth is unique also because of where their ancestors come from, many many years ago. More than being divisionary, i think any educated individual would realise that such diversity gives us all a reason to appreciate each other even more, and hence to want to live in peace, cos that's what makes the world such an amazing place..

go watch the musical soon if you can. it was impressive and worth every cent.

and i think you can easily guess where i shall be planning to go for my next BIG trip.. :)