I stood rooted to the ground and felt breathless looking at the shadow of the automatic train that sped through it. I wondered at the rush of history in the making that was still beyond my grasp. It was as if it had spun out of control and could never be caught. There was no end to its devastation. Aside from humanity, who and what else would become its victims? 

Time would pass and the future would still be busy chasing the spinning of history. True happiness is the ability to grasp a moment of peace in times of chaos. Just like the serenity that I had experienced in the mosque soon to be demolished, and in Bidadari Cemetery that would soon be flattened. It was a serenity that was so sorrowful.  

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Endings and beginnings are often ideal spaces for rituals to flourish. A future grandmother prepares for her daughter-in-law’s confinement. Brides-to-be have their hair combed the night before a wedding. Schoolchildren make dates for bubble tea after Friday classes.

A grandson puts a pearl into his grandfather’s mouth.

These rituals tell many things about us: the steps we take in these milestone dances, the music that lingers in the air on exciting days, the emotions that we pour into these deliberate moves, even if we don’t know why. Sometimes the songs are dramatic, and other times silent, barely beating – the rhythm differs in every individual, but these choreographs still, in the end, tie us together.

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In the last few decades, we have been too focused on drawing lines that divide us down to our nationality, race, language, and faith. But what happens when we reconfigure the lines based on our life pursuits, our values, or even the expectations that have been put upon us? Perhaps we will find that the person who was once across the line from us is similarly on the search for meaning, and the spectrum of emotions they have experienced, we experience too.

There may be borders between us, but even these borders are shared.

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This trepidation about an inability to recognize and classify people into the CIM categories is evident in the way that Eurasians – who are a rarity in Singapore cinema – are portrayed on the big screen. Unease about who or what Eurasians are is exemplified in One Leg Kicking, in particular in the character of Vernon – a popular name for Eurasians born in the years immediately before and after World War II. In order to identify Eurasians, Singapore cinema often turns to using typically degrading local notions of this communal group. Vernon, played by Arab-Singaporean Moe Alkaff, is overweight and looks like a fashion victim wearing colourful shirts and flared trousers reminiscent of the 1970s. In one scene he dons Michael Jackson’s famous red drummer-boy outfit with the trademark single white glove. It is easier, in other words, to portray Eurasians within humorous yet stereotypical frameworks, rather than unpack the complexity of this ethnic group. Eurasians after all can be stereotyped as adopting over-the-top American-centric fashion such as cowboy outfits, inclusive of the loud shirts, knee-high boot, spurs and rodeo-inspired hat.

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Perhaps the most prominent homegrown Eurasian character to ever grace local cinema in Singapore is Army Daze’s new recruit Kenny Pereira, played with effeminate affectation by Kevin Mark Marghese. Kenny is the only Eurasian recruit in a multi-ethnic ensemble cast of characters representative of the major communal groups in Singapore. ... It is easier for Singapore cinema to make the Eurasian, rather than any other ethnic figure, gay. The effeminate gay after all presents sexual ambiguity that might confuse and challenge conformist ideals of manhood established by the cultural and religious teachings of other more dominant ethnic groups. Portraying ethnic Malays as effeminate, for instance, may be too much of a political hotbed since Singapore is in the middle of the mostly Muslim Malay Archipelago. Familiar media representations of ethnic Indians through the Bollywood film industry meanwhile portray its male heroes and villains as hyper-masculinized individuals. 

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On one level Singaporean comedies seem to have trouble exploring ethnicity honestly. This is particularly significant since the nation-state very strongly identifies itself as multicultural and accepting of ethnic diversity. Instead Singaporean comedies either sidestep the complexities of ethnicities outside the Chinese-Malay-Indian nexus or portray them reductively, or as comical over-the-top characters. However, on another level while such presentations of ethnic minorities may assist in creating a mirage of happy ethnic harmony through unproblematic and humourous portrayals of ethnic minorities, they provide an insight into how multiculturalism in Singapore can only cope within specific ethnic parameters. Anything outside the Chinese-Malay-Indian ethnic framework is incredibly challenging to understand and identify.

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