char siew rice man

disclaimer: this has notin wadsoever to do with the stupid bar chor mee man. grr i am taking to disliking mr brown.

in the wake of the recent hoohah otherwise known as national day, i have taken to thinking about....our country!!! like wow. but i have formulated some questions to ask, mainly about ourselves.

firstly, have u ever wondered wad exactly is the point of the national day parade? i mean, its the nation's bdae, and i suppose we all throw parties, in this case a party for 60,000 and all those watching at home. but what exactly is the point of a parade? i would tink in the past, like jus after independence, the parade was probably used as a means to provide the citizens with something to be proud of. like you know our very wonderful army and navy and pap and scouts, and the l33t weapons and stuff we haf. its like how north korea like sends out all their tanks. the same idea. ure giving pple confidence i guess. also, it was a time to reflect about our past, smthn i believe reiterated in every yr's parade. 40 yrs ago, this was a brilliant idea. now? not so.

why go i say this? the first reason i offer is the fact that singapore has developed into a global nation (sad reference as this is). its true. we have become global, so much so many pple are losing their national identity. 40 yrs ago, singapore was jus born. everyone felt part of this great undertaking. seriously, i'd bet any person above 60 here in singapore is probably wayyy more patriotic den the normal 15 yr old. so, we must then question the relevence of the national parade then. is there any more need for this reinforcement of our national identity with the use of a parade? i hardly think so. instead, i tink there might be a reverse effect, in the sense that people start seeing the whole fiasco and somewhat contrived, and hence pointless . secondly, the nature of the parade has indeed evolved. whilst it was a simple military march pass some performance thing yrs ago, it has become a full fledged spectacle nowadays. when i watch the parade, such as this year's, i couldnt help but notice how much it seemed like a pop concert, complete with a singer, music, dancers, a choir, even drummers. it has become a show, literally. even the fighter jet stuff and especially the fireworks, i somehow feel that it is slowly losing the essence of what the parade should be about.

during this period of time, i have also realised something else. almost every coffee shop, and hence everywhere, one goes, one is bound to find a char siew rice stall. even if it is usually coupled with chicker rice. have u ever wondered where the term "char siew rice" evolved from? whilst yes in chi it is shao rou fan, in english it is technically speaking rice with roasted pork, or in broken english roasted pork rice. so where does "char siew rice" fit in, if its neither english nor chinese? my guess (no i have not bothered to do any research), is that it is a literal translation from some dialect. ok so my hokkien/cantonese is pretty much shitty, but dat doesnt really matter. what matters is this: we singaporeans have made it such that "char siew rice" is now a more appropriate term to call the dish than roasted pork rice. what does this represent? i belief this can be linked back to the issue of national identity. as much as the government is trying to create/enforce a national identity, it is eveidently not working. changing the national day song serves no purpose other than to advertise for some new singer. what i tink the government doesnt realise is that our true national identity lies in the smaller things in life. the char siew rice, the kua chap, the milo peng, the wa laus and the lahs. i believe the government should not try to stamp out these "indications" of a uncivilised or backward country, because it does afterall represent who we are. why is mr brown so popular? it is because he does wad the government doesnt. he brings it down to the pple. they can relate to him unlike the government. is the government is serious about building a nation with a strong national identity, i believe they would fare better not trying to act like a foreign country.

one people, one nation, one singapura, lah.