singzeon.

13 September 2012:

Stone walls do not a prison make.

It's been ten years since Ah Kong passed away in 2002. He wrote many plays, but sadly I didn't get to read them when he was still alive.

I only found out about his works two years ago, when there was a re-run of 棺材太大洞太小. Not many people know about this play, I think. I mentioned it to LJ and LK just now and they were nonchalant about it.

It's really sad that with the decline of Chinese usage daily, the works of Ah Kong are not as popular anymore. Today Lianhe Zaobao carried an article about Ah Kong. He looked so dashing in his wedding photo with Ah Ma.

Very, very sadly I didn't watch 老九 earlier this year. It's a real, real regret. Instead, I watched the angmoh play Romeo and Juliet. (At least I enjoyed it.)

Ah Kong's plays transcend time. When I read his plays that were written decades ago, the themes still resonate with today's world. Such themes ... I don't think they would ever fall out of discussion.

Like she who has lost her cat, like he who couldn't park on certain days, like he who couldn't get buried ... These people, they are all around. You just probably don't realise their existence; you're too busy with yours.

Ah Kong was very familiar with the local cultural backdrop of Singapore. He knew the exact lingo that people would use, having himself experienced it. Could budding playwrights do that now? The lingo we speak of is diminishing with globalisation and the fact that youngsters are so Westernised they don't bother about 'lame' dialects or even Chinese.

Ah Kong died when he was 62. He died of liver cancer. What a sad end to Singapore's most prominent playwright, director and educator. Even Alfian Sa'at told his 'disciples' to read his works as learning materials. Ah Kong's works transcend the racial and religious divide.

Ah Kong is very 草根. He is never elaborate, except maybe when decorating the scene of a play. He was never extravagant or pompous. I don't think he would appreciate if people celebrated his anniversary in a very large-scale manner. He probably just wants to be remembered by his works and its impact.

And I think people would be glad to do that.

Are you bewildered by now? Who is this Ah Kong, and what big-shot is he? He is Kuo Pao Kun. He is not my biological Ah Kong, but oh I really feel so acquainted to him when I read his works. As his daughter Kuo Jian Hong said, her father is for everyone to 'share share' cos his works simply click with so many people, and everyone feels associated to him.

:')

~

Today history and EMaths paper two ended uneventfully. Although I am sad that Stalin's Russia didn't come out for SBQ though, it was Hitler's Germany instead.

The first source indeed scared a lot of people.


How would we know the purpose of this source? It was so enigmatic, especially with that caption which made it worse. Some people were stuck on this that they wasted time, resulting in their essay unable to complete.

The essays were slightly tricky, I guess. For one, the (a) and (b) question were deliberately switched. But I don't think anyone got tricked. They just answered the question. But the question itself seemed a little tricky.

I argued that the leaders could have avoided worsening tensions since they had a direct hotline established after the Cuban Missile Crisis. They should have instead called and communicate with each other instead of practising brinkmanship. I hope such a weird argument would be accepted by whoever is marking.

EMaths paper two ... I completed with 8 minutes to spare and started folding origami. That's not to say it's easy though, it was tough indeed. I just rushed through it. Well but I'm quite sure in terms of percentage paper two would score better than paper one; that was horrific.

Tomorrow there's physics and AMaths. An 'analysis' did showed that the difficult topics such as plane geometry (geometrical proofs) and partial fractions had not appeared. The worst case would be partial fractions + integration. Kinematics is also not out yet, modulus too. But these two are not as tough, luckily. Area under the curve ... I hope it's not too difficult! Trigo graph came out, so not much trigo for paper two I guess.

TTFN.

I have heard of people who are selectively deaf. Now I have seen for myself people who are selectively blind.