Part 2: Don't know much about history (Wanjun's questions)

Hello again guys, let's get back to Wanjun's questions. To kick us off, please allow me to me quote Wanjun's.

"Don’t our forefathers hail from other parts of Asia, such as China and India, to settle in Singapore? At first I thought, doesn’t this mean our forefathers have the “adventurous” spirit in them to leave their home countries to settle in Singapore? Then why do so many of us lack this “adventurous” gene and have difficulty seeing beyond Singapore’s shores? I asked my mum this question before, she said our forefathers left China due to civil war, that they had no choice. But I am not 100% convinced, I believe something happened along the way to cause some Singaporeans to be like this. What is your take?"

So is this true? Did our forefathers leave China due to the civil war? Well that's an easy one: that's simply not true for the vast majority of Singaporean-Chinese immigrants. Come on guys, what do you think google is for?  This is not some mystery or secret - it is the history of Singapore! It's quite easily verified really. The Chinese civil war lasted from 1927, right through WW2 and ended with the victory of People's Liberation Army over the Kuomintang in 1950. So I don't know if your mother was talking specifically about her family or about the Singaporean-Chinese forefathers in general, but clearly, even before the first battle was fought in the Chinese civil war in 1927. In fact, the first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived in present-day Malaysia back in the 15th century, so there were Chinese immigrants in this part of the south-east Asia over 500 years before 1927. So even before 1927, there was already a large Chinese presence in Singapore. Chinese people have left China for a range of reasons apart from fleeing civil war, some were fleeing oppression from a corrupt regime with bad leaders, some followed their family members there whilst others were simply seeking their fortune overseas after hearing of others who have made their fortune in south-east Asia.

The evidence is everywhere: let's take the famous Tan Tock Seng Hospital built by the pioneer Tan Tock Seng. Tan was born in Malacca in 1798 and he moved to Singapore in 1819. His famous hospital was built in 1844. So as you can see, Tan was born 129 years before the Chinese civil war and he wasn't even born in China - he was born in Malacca. What about the famous Gan Eng Seng, another one of our forefathers. Like Tan Tock Seng, Gan was also born in Malacca in 1844. He left an incredible legacy in Singapore - some of his most recognised contributions were the setting up of Gan Eng Seng School, the Thong Chai Medical Institution, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, and the Ee Hoe Hean Club. Like Tan, he wasn't born in China and died long before the Chinese civil war started in 1927. Gan died in 1899, Tan died in 1850. So how can such forefathers have come to Singapore when they lived and died before the war started (heck, they weren't even born in China to begin with). The Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan (clan association) was established in 1840 to help Hokkien immigrants from China  - note that was in 1840, a good 87 years before the Chinese civil war started in Singapore. So whilst some migrants did leave China during the civil war, they were certainly not the first ones: there was a constant flow of immigrants from China to south-east Asia over a period of about 600 years. So in short, Wanjun's mother is plain wrong.

But let me attack Wanjun's mother's logic even further. So she thinks that it is okay to leave China during a war, but it is not okay to leave China during peacetime? How about this then - what if another country decides to invade Singapore tomorrow and we have a state of war. Bombs are going off everywhere, people are dying, the hospitals are overflowing with the sick and wounded. If you were to try to flee Singapore then rather than stay and defend Singapore against the enemies, you would be classified as a deserter. Indeed, it was considered such a grave offence in the UK during WW1 that desertion was a crime punishable by death. So even if there was a war in China, why didn't these forefathers of ours stay and defend their homeland then - why was their decision to migrate to south-east Asia somehow more justified by the war?  Surely deserting your country during a war is a far worse than leaving your country during peacetime. So can Wanjun's mother justify her take on deserting your country at a time of war?

"Don't know much about history...?"

That's why Wanjun, with all due respect, your mother was telling a pack of lies when she was talking about the Chinese civil war. Is your mother a liar, trying to deceive you? Nah, I doubt that. She probably doesn't have a clue what she is talking about. Have you ever heard of that old song that goes, "don't know much about history?" If your mother is anything like my mother who isn't that educated, your mother probably had a few history lessons at school a long time ago but if you were to subject her to say a secondary two history exam today, she would totally fail. I know my mother would. You could call it ignorance or stupidity: I did talk about this when LKY died earlier this year and I was aghast at how so many Singaporeans knew precious little about LKY's life or Singapore's history for that matter. But to be totally fair to my mother, she was born in WW2 - what kind of education did you think she had during the war and in the years immediately after the war? She was lucky to be even literate, given how difficult conditions were in those days. We shouldn't assume that older people are any good at history just because they are old. Being knowledgeable about history doesn't just happen because you grow old, you need to make a conscious effort to study the facts. .

We are generally quite forgiving to the older generation in that light. Gosh, my mother doesn't speak English well, my father can't speak English at all, but when they make a mistake when trying to speak English, I just let it pass - I don't try to correct them. They can come up with the most ignorant bullshit on most topics from geography to science to medicine. I once had a really frustrating conversation with my father as he didn't understand the relationship between rain and temperature - perhaps he was taught in school back in the day, but he has clearly forgotten. Again, I decided that the best thing to do was to let it go as it doesn't matter that my dad has doesn't understand that part of physical geography.  Likewise, they believe in some old wives' tales which are clearly rubbish and have no scientific basis whatsoever, Again, I choose to ignore them rather than challenge them. My dad insists that using ginger juice would reverse my hair loss and give me a full head of hair again - of course, I know that's ignorant bullshit but rather than tell him, "please lah, you're talking like a really uneducated ignorant person" - I lied, I told him that I tried and it had no effect. So that way, I wanted to give him the impression that I took his rubbish bullshit advice seriously and at least that satisfied him. I know I am a lot smarter than my parents, I don't have to embarrass them into acknowledging it.

So if we are prepared to be forgiving to the older generation when it comes to subjects like English, geography, maths and science - then by that token, let's also try to be forgiving when they get their history wrong. It is unfair for us to judge them by our standards when they have not had the benefit of the kind of education that we have had. The younger generation are trained to look up facts instantly with google, whilst the older generation have had a lifetime of living with ignorance (and not letting themselves be too bothered by it). So your mother doesn't know much about Singapore's history - that's okay Wanjun, you have two choices really. One is to ignore it and let it go, the other is to engage her and try to educate her; but be warned that if you choose to do the latter, you may want to be quite realistic about what you could actually achieve. Neither options are particularly easy.

Lastly, Wanjun was wondering if there is any cultural link between our culture and having an adventurous spirit (to seek greener pastures in a new country). Well really Wanjun - there really isn't a link between the two. Having that wanderlust: that desire to see the world is a personality trait. It's just the way some people exercise almost everyday and some people never ever do any exercise: why are they so different? Those who exercise everyday obviously enjoy it and get something out of it, whilst those don't do it clearly do not enjoy it and feel they get little or nothing out of the experience. It is the same thing with travel - some of us have had great experience and crave more of it; some of us have also fallen in love with the countries we have visited and want to work there. Our desires will be shaped by our education and our experiences, so everyone will have their own take on this issue. Amongst any nationality - the Chinese, the Irish, the Indians etc - there will be people who are adventurous in this aspect and others who are not.

If I told you there were greener pastures elsewhere, would you go?

That's it from me for now on this issue - I hope that answers your questions. What do you think - do Singaporeans really know that little about history? What can we do to make people more interested in the world around them? Wanjun has left me loads of interesting questions so I will be posting my next reply to her soon. Thanks for reading.