Last night, we had the second of the two annual family Christmas dinner bashes. Aside from eating till I felt like a stuffed pig and the big exchange of gifts, I was also asked to bring out my photos of Guizhou, which I did of course. It was then that I was reminded that my Aunt and Uncle have been to Guizhou.
They visited Guizhou something like ten years ago. During those days Guizhou did not have an international airport and visitors to the region didn't just visit Guizhou alone, they most likely would be visiting Yunnan or Kunming and then taken the train over just to see the Huangguoshu Waterfall and some of the surrounding sights like Shilin (Stone Forest) which was close by the Huangguoshu Waterfall and which was also the next sight we visited on my recently concluded trip to that region.
As they looked through the photos and we chatted about our experiences in Guizhou, they commented that it didn't sound like Guizhou has changed that much from the time they visited it to the time I visited it. While I think that there are things about Guizhou that have changed and that they did not see as I stupidly didn't take any pictures of their spanking new highways or the incompleted bridge that could quite likely end up on an episode of Man Made Marvels, I have to agree that Guizhou probably hasn't changed by very much at least not in comparison to how fast Singapore changes.
The comment triggered memories of my return to Singapore after living in the States for several years and not having returned home for about a year, I think. I remember not being able to recognise several places and I even took the MRT around the North end of the island for no other reason then to stand there with my mouth hanging open as I tried to take in just how rapidly the North has changed. The last time I was home the train stopped at Yishun and went no further. I have lived in the North almost all my life and remember when all around there were little villages, Malay kampongs, chickens, goats, vegetable and fish farms and just simply arces of tropical rainforest. That first train ride around the North of Singapore and the memory of that train ride still fills me with a strong sense of melancholy. It seemed that in a matter of months the vestiges of a simpler time and my early childhood have simply ceased to exist and in place there was a spanking new Turf Club, condos, military bases and HDB flats.
Although Singapore can be proud that it has managed a huge and amazingly quick transformation from a small colony to sparkling metropolis, I sometimes think that it would be nice if Singapore took it's time to metamorphosise. In our headlong rush to join the ranks of other First World countries, I think we have lost some of the simple happiness, charm and innocence of the past. When thoughts like these cross my mine, I'm always reminded of a song that Liang Wenfu (Singapore
xinyao singer-song writer) once sang.
In his
Go East (1992) album,
Liang Wenfu (梁文福) wrote in this exerpt taken from the song titled
East to West (我从东岸走向西):
哦拆哦拆（哦拆）
谁搬走一个时代（时代）
是否不断地向昨天 借一点空间
就算更好地对待明天
Oh tear down, oh tear down (oh tear down)Who moved away an era (an era)Does it mean that if we borrow a little space from the pastThat we'll be treating tomorrow better?三轮车跑快哦快（哦快）
载走了老太太（不回来）
载来东洋西洋游客 以眼光扫射
那越来越整齐的景色
The rickshaw runs so fast, so fast (so fast)Bringing with it an old woman (never to return)Bringing tourists from the East and West who view with a sweeping glanceThe landscape that grows neater and neater我从东岸走向西
这个城市也在向东想西
有成千上万的人 一夜醒来发觉
找不到爸爸童年痕迹
I walk from the East bank to the WestThis city also faces the East and thinks of the WestThere are thousands upon ten thousands of people who will wake up after one nightTo find that they cannot find a trace of their father's pastMy Chinese isn't the best so forgive me if the translation is a little rough. =)
Anyway, this song had a pretty profound impact on me in 1992 as
Sembawang went through a big change in the 80s - 90s. The satellite town of Yishun now stood where swampy fish or prawn farms (I never did figure out which one) once did. The government was also in this headlong rush to modernize and modernize everything and in a blinking of an eye Chinatown lost all the magic it once held in the past and old buildings and entire areas suddenly mutated into indisinguishable HDB flats. I felt the lost then and still feel the lost now and I still recall with a great deal of fondness what Chinatown used to be like during Chinese New Year and still love to hear stories about what it was like when my mother grew up there. I still remember the sticky and dirty Sultan and Kindo Theatres, Chong Pang Village, awesome food, hunting for quicksand, noisy wayangs and hundreds of bicycles making their way to the Sembawang Shipyard.
The last stronghold against the onslaught of modernization in Sembawang was probably on the other side of old Sembawang Road opposite the cluster of HDB flats now known as Chong Pang something or other. Throughout my teenage years as I made my way home, I would have to travel down Sembawang Road and each evening at dust, basked in a golden light from the setting sun, a line of goats would make their way home oblivious to the bustle of cars, buses, motorbikes and people on a road that was just a few metres away from them. It was a magical sight, it was as though time came to a standstill and it felt like if I got off that bus and stepped behind the metalic busstop, I would suddenly be transported back to the Sembawang of my childhood. And I lived for that moment everyday after school. Sadly, to my eternal regret, I never did get off the bus, I never did take a photo of the goats and when I returned from the States a cold and imposing military base stood proudly where my goats used to walk and I can't help but lament like Liang Wenfu did yet again.
So back to Guizhou, it is not that Guizhou has not been touched by commercialism and modernization. Several places have been tainted and I did not enjoy that aspect very much but much of Guizhou still felt the way Sembawang felt in my childhood. Even though there were concrete buildings and televisions and the other strappings of modern life, yet Sembawang in my childhood, like Guizhou, still felt like a world apart from the rest of Singapore (and China in Guizhou's case) and I loved that part about the North and about Guizhou.
Okie dokie, that's enough nostalgic pinings for now. =) Hope you had a great Christmas and I'll post up photos taken at the Tian Xing Qiao Stone Forest Scenic Area the next time I write.
cheers
Anichebe scores in the 10th minute after some messy Newcastle defending.
