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Malacca Grandmother
Thursday, March 28, 2013 | 11:34 PM | 0 comments
Malacca Grandmother by Robert Yeo
Grandmother, departures
such as yours
And your brother to Southampton
Snap something in me
I don’t know what.
It is not that you won’t come back
Neither that your brother may not return
Nor that more than a person
An age has passed, of whom you were
The sole remaining representative.
Could it be that I realize now
How your going has severed
(Something I could not then acknowledge)
Relationship to a family rich
In history, name and wealth
But aloof and strangely antique
Like the silver kerosang1 their nonyas wear?
Your generation trespassing on mine
Left me with two tongues that I sputter
Recurrent memories of the towkayneo2
Who would only sell me things in Teochew,
And an aggressive sense of modernity.
On Heeren Street3
The past peels in paint,
Even on this midday
Twilight is trapped in long, grey interiors.
Do the womenfolk here
Still grow up
In kitchens and bedrooms?
Is there a house here which is the source
Of my indifferent Malay
And my Hokien splutter?
Grandmother, departures
such as yours
And your brother to Southampton
Snap something in me
I don’t know what.
It is not that you won’t come back
Neither that your brother may not return
Nor that more than a person
An age has passed, of whom you were
The sole remaining representative.
Could it be that I realize now
How your going has severed
(Something I could not then acknowledge)
Relationship to a family rich
In history, name and wealth
But aloof and strangely antique
Like the silver kerosang1 their nonyas wear?
Your generation trespassing on mine
Left me with two tongues that I sputter
Recurrent memories of the towkayneo2
Who would only sell me things in Teochew,
And an aggressive sense of modernity.
On Heeren Street3
The past peels in paint,
Even on this midday
Twilight is trapped in long, grey interiors.
Do the womenfolk here
Still grow up
In kitchens and bedrooms?
Is there a house here which is the source
Of my indifferent Malay
And my Hokien splutter?
Grandma, you have broken now
The tenuous4 links between
The Tans and the Yeos
Malacca and Singapore.
I guess
That is what
Departure’s about.
1 Brooches usually used in a set of three by Straits Chinese women to fasten their blouses as part of their traditional costume or kebaya
2 The boss’s wife
3 Heeren Street is located in Malacca, and was where many wealthy Peranakan and Chinese merchants used to live in grand mansions and longish houses. ‘Peranakan’ is a term used to describe descendants of Chinese immigrants who settled in Malacca and neighbouring regions who assimilated Malay language and culture into their own.
The tenuous4 links between
The Tans and the Yeos
Malacca and Singapore.
I guess
That is what
Departure’s about.
1 Brooches usually used in a set of three by Straits Chinese women to fasten their blouses as part of their traditional costume or kebaya
2 The boss’s wife
3 Heeren Street is located in Malacca, and was where many wealthy Peranakan and Chinese merchants used to live in grand mansions and longish houses. ‘Peranakan’ is a term used to describe descendants of Chinese immigrants who settled in Malacca and neighbouring regions who assimilated Malay language and culture into their own.
Labels: Emily, Robert Yeo
Thoughts on Malacca Grandmother by Robert Yeo
| 12:52 AM | 0 comments
Robert Yeo writes of Malacca Grandmother with his usual reserved and tempered reflectiveness on his observations and comprehension of the vagaries and absurdities of the modern life and Singapore. In this poem, he elegiacally wrote about the tenuity of retrieving one's past and heritage and the fragility of its continuity but at the same time, the ironic tendency or intent to forget this past. The forceful severity between the past and the present, the detachment of two generations is metaphorically represented by the death of his matriarchal nonya grandmother of a Malaccan past. (To read more about women in the Peranakan family and Stella Kon's Emily of Emerald Hill, click here)
The notion of modern Singapore and the sense of exile (or self-exile) has almost always been mentioned by Singapore writers and in Singapore literary works. Yeo wittily equates the death of his Grandmother and his Granduncle's migration to Southampton, expressing his views on globalisation and its detriment on Singapore and its people; of those who choose to leave behind their traditions for overseas endeavours.
At first glance, Yeo writes of his sense of loss and mourning on the loss of culture. He realises that his grandmother represented more than an individual, but of "an age" and being "the sole remaining representative" of the age. Her departure and his unwillingness to acknowledge it hints at the importance and significance of her role in his life and the role of the older generation in the larger picture of the Peranakan tradition.
Yet, at the same time, the attempt at trying to revive his traditions was matched with contradictory thoughts of resentment and bitterness; the umbrella theme of the poem - wanting to remember the past and yet forgetting about it. The trespassing of his grandmother's generation with their alien influence leading to the "two tongues that [he] sputter", suggests strong inclinations of the younger generation to reject the notion of tradition and culture. From his almost retrospective and non-emotional recollection of his grandmother, Yeo seemed indifferent to the departure of his grandmother ("could it be that I realise now"), emphasised by the distance of their relationship (how he calls her by grandmother first followed by grandma later). His poem writes of the significance of her departure rather than the direct emotional impact it had on him. The older generation seemed to play a role only as a "tenuous" link between two families, and this role ceased with the gradual demise of its generation.
Yeo akins his Peranakan family to the "aloof and strangely antique...silver kerosang", which only has a purpose in ornamenting clothing, further proving his distance between his modern embracing identity and his grandmother or tradition. The unflattering description of Heeren Street which "peels in paint"and "Twilight... trapped", lingers as a half-remembered dream as Singapore then surged towards a clean and bright future. The almost cynical approach to the traditional notion of where womenfolk were supposed to be ("in kitchens and in bedrooms"), juxtaposed the backward values his grandmother's generation seemed to uphold against Yeo's "aggressive sense of modernity". His relationship with his grandmother and her impact on his identity, or conversely the relationship between tradition and its impact on modernity, was seemingly undeniable but disposable. It becomes evident now that his tradition was an impediment to discovering his modern identity yet ironically it is so embedded in his consciousness that he cannot leave behind.
Finally, the enjambment adopted that breaks Yeo's thoughts into 3 lines at the end of the poem concludes his feelings of scepticism, hesitation and deliberation.
Labels: Emily, Robert Yeo
Yeo on his life experience
Thursday, March 21, 2013 | 5:15 PM | 0 comments
"I am controversial. I see the term “controversial” as being more meaningful if it means that the writer probes new areas of expression which extends the boundaries and adds to what can be said about them."- Robert Yeo
Videos of Yeo sharing his life experience with National Critics Choice
Labels: Emily, Robert Yeo
Interesting Facts
Friday, March 15, 2013 | 5:26 PM | 0 comments
Interesting Facts
- Yeo only started learning English at the age of 6 when he began his formal education (gasp!)
- His love for literature was discovered when he attended secondary school.
- Yeo is married with two daughters.
- His first play Are You There Singapore? had a sold-out run at the Drama Centre in 1974. It was anchored in Singaporean language, characters and situations, and ignited a desire to produce and stage locally written plays and to move away from Western plays.
Labels: Emily, Robert Yeo
Robert Yeo - Singaporean Poet, Playwright and Novelist
Monday, March 4, 2013 | 5:05 PM | 0 comments
Robert Yeo
"Most Singaporean of Singapore Writers"
Born in 1940 to a Peranakan family, Robert Yeo (Yeo Cheng Chuan) grew up in a Kampong in Hougang which later provided inspiration for some of his works. He graduated from University of Singapore (now known as National University of Singapore) with a Bachelor in English and went on to attain his Masters in Comparative Education at London Institute of Education. Being a strong advocate of a unique Singaporean tradition in writing, Yeo encouraged greater inclusion of the study of Singaporean literature into the school curriculum during his many years of lecture at National Institute of Education and Nanyang Technological University. Poet and critic Aaron Lee has described Yeo as being "the most Singaporean of Singapore writers".
His works
Poetry
1971 :
1974 : Five Takes 1974 (with four other poets).
1977 : And Napalm Does Not Help.
1989 : A Part of Three: Poems.
1999 : Leaving Home, Mother: Selected Poems.
Plays
1974 : Are You There, Singapore?
1980 : One Year Back Home.
1988 : Second Chance.
1992 : The Eye of History.
1997 : Changi.
Novel
1986 : The Adventures of Holden Heng.
Editorial
1978 : Singapore Short Stories Vol. 1 & 2.
1979 : Prize-winning Plays Vol. 1-4.
1981 : ASEAN Short Stories.
1984 : To Cipher and To Sing: Ideas and Activities for Literature Teaching (co-author with M. P. Liu).
1986 : ACLALS Bulletin, 7th Series, No.4, Commonwealth Fiction 2 (co-editor with Kirpan Singh).
1987 : Magic 1 and 2: Poems for Lower Secondary Schools.
1989 : Singapore Short Stories.
1990 : Prize-winning Plays IV.
1991 : Modern ASEAN Plays, Singapore.
1992 : Ripples: Short Stories for Secondary Schools.
1993 : Singular Stories: Tales from Singapore Vol. 1.
1996 : Second Chance: A cross cultural casebook (co-author with Guy Sherbone).
2000 :
Singapore Short Stories
Libretto
2006 : Fences (completed, opera remains unstaged).
2009 : Kannagi (The Story of the Jewelled Anklet).
Selected short stories
2004 : The Professor
Awards
1991 : Public Service Medal for "services to drama".
2011 : SEA Write Award for a lifetime of writing.
Information from
http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1324_2008-10-09.html and http://www.tribute.sg/artistprofile.php?chapter=1
Labels: Emily, Robert Yeo