One of the most interesting things that Covid-19 has
done for me, has been to turn me into something of a Netflix junkie. Thanks to
limits on where you can hang out, life pretty much consist of work, exercise
and trying to watch movies and various tv serials.
Thanks to Netflix, I discovered “Nollywood,” which has
given me an interest in all things African. For example, I am suddenly fascinated
by the way the rich and powerful live in Banana Island in Lagos Nigeria than those
in Beverly Hills. Following Nollywood movies has also made watching travel
videos by vloggers like “Drew Binsky” more interesting.
My most recent discovery in “exotic” cinema has been “Malayalam
Cinema.” In the last two weeks, I’ve managed to watch three different movies,
all of which have been crime dramas.
One of the great things about discovering Malayalam
cinema is that it’s a wonderful reminder of the scope and diversity of a place
like India. It’s a reminder that India and Indian is more than just the new
arrivals from India or the Sarabat stall owner. When most people think of India
and portrayals of India, its internationalised Bollywood like Slum Dog
Millionaire or Bollywood stars like Shahruk Khan. In Singapore, most associate
the word “Indian” to mean Tamil and shows on Vasnatham Central.
However, when you watch Malayalam cinema, you will
notice that there are differences with Bollywood (gritty stories with less song
and dance) and its southern cousin of Kollywood (Tamil movies, which most local
Singaporeans will be familiar with).
I’ve only talked about three different movie
industries in India. There are a myriad of film industries catering for the various
languages that are spoken on the Indian subcontinent. If you take the term “Indian”
into consideration, you’ll suddenly realise that it can mean many different
things. India, as they say, is not a single country but a collection of
countries with various cultures.
Why is realising this important? The answer is simple –
geopolitics and economics. Thanks to the world becoming increasingly
interconnected, Singaporeans need to look overseas for more growth
opportunities and the growth markets are increasingly in markets like India, China,
and the African continent. Even the Western world as we know it is no longer
limited to the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia, and the European Union. In today’s
world, a European opportunity could mean Poland or the Czech Republic as much
as it could mean Germany or France.
In a way, Singapore is blessed by being small. The
feeling of being a “Singaporeans” is pretty much confined to being Singaporean.
We do not have great regional communities the way other countries do. This
makes “nation building” relatively easy in that you need only focus on creating
a single identity. Its always about Singaporeans against the rest of the world.
Let’s face it, we’re just Singaporeans and regional
identities are temporary. Being a Singaporean from Balistier or Tanjong Pagar
isn’t like being a Malaysian from Kuala Lumpur or Sarawak. It’s probably one of
the reasons why S-League has been a disappointment whereas the Malaysia Cup
remains etched in memory (who cares about Balistier versus Tanjong Pagar the
way everyone cares about Singapore versus every state in Malaysia?)
Whilst we do not have great regional communities, we
need to remember that other people do. Whilst our proficiency in English helps us
reach a vast number of people, we need to understand people through their
regional identities to really maximise their value to us. Pigeonholing people
has limits. Sure, we have managed to deal with the European Union because the
EU operates in English. However, think of how much more we could achieve if we could
reach the Europeans in their native languages? We need to understand that not
all white people are the same.
That should also apply to dealing with Africans (not
every black person is African), Indians and so on. I think of one of my friends
who helped organise the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and Indian
Institutes of Management (IIM) events. She said that “All of us speak Hindi but
our native languages like Bangla and Tamil come from the heart.”
That can also be applied to the Chinese communities.
We all speak Mandarin but its our dialects that move us. We speak Mandarin in
the same way that we speak English – its something that you need to know to
function. However, our emotional connections come from our dialects.
The world is a big place offering various opportunities
and challenges. One of those challenges will be understanding the growing
attachment of local flavours in a globalising world.
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