When Neil French resigned as the WPP Group’s Global Creative head back in 2005, the Singapore media made a big deal about how Mr. French had a rather colourful career. Prior to joining advertising, Mr. French had worked in a variety of professions like bullfighter, restaurateur and debt collector. I remember mentioning to one of the creative directors at Crush Advertising, who replied, “Yes, but that they don’t realise was this is what made him so good.”
I relate to this point because I had the type of CV that was
so colourful that one of my mentors told me never bother looking for a corporate
job because I would never be able to explain why I never stayed anywhere for
long. Human Resource (HR) departments, particularly in Singapore tend to stick
with a particular mold – namely a graduate who studied for the job and would
work in the organization for several years. People like Mr. French or even David
Ogilvy, founder of the agency that propelled Mr. French into the top job at the
WPP Group would probably never have gotten their foot into the door because that
had “weird” experiences would not have made it past the CV reading stage.
While I do get where HR departments are coming from, I don’t
believe that this necessarily works when it comes to producing content (for the
sake of this posting, content refers to any consumable form of art like
painting, music, movies, books and so on). The reason for this is because the
people with the colourful work experiences have different perspectives on life
from the straight and narrow and they bring it into their work. Both David
Ogilvy and Neil French succeeded because they had lived as real people rather
than prisoners of their profession and gave them the ability to produce the
work that the did. Although things like art and literature are often presented
and taught in schools as “high-end” culture for an elite, the truth things like
great art and literature should be very relatable. Let us not forget that Shakespeare
wrote plays for the masses. The ordinary people saw his work and were drawn in
because there was something in which they could relate to.
I’ve been thinking of this a lot in the last week because I’ve
been on medical leave and have had the time to indulge in a habit that I picked
up during the lockdown – binge watching Korean Dramas and Bollywood movies. I
actually watched two series back-to-back and finished four seasons worth of two
separate Korean Dramas this week. The two dramas that I watched were “Dr.
Stranger,” and “Vagabond,” both of which were exceedingly gripping.
I then asked myself, what made the Korean dramas and even
Bollywood movies so compelling. The answer was in the story. Why would I be
gripped by K-Drama or Bollywood, which produce content in languages that I don’t
speak but would not for any notable drama series produced by MediaCorp, which
produces in English and Mandarin, languages of which I have some command of.
The shallow answer is perhaps hot chicks and fancy sets.
Bollywood, for example is wonderful escapism from the mass poverty that infects
India. However, while much of Bollywood is fantasy and escapism (India’s
tourist industry would boom if every Indian girl looked like Kajol), there are
elements of Bollywood stories that are relatable to the ordinary guy especially
when it comes to dealing with officialdom.
Likewise, there an element of relatability in K-Dramas.
Sure, not all of us can be beautiful doctors and lawyers who fall in love with
other relatability, especially when it comes to the struggles that the lone
ranger faces when dealing with the bureaucratic machine. Dr. Stanger in
particular had a great twist in the life of the main character in that there
was a politician who sent his father off to North Korea, got him stuck there
and proceeded to make life a living hell for the rest of the story:
The Evil Prime Minister – Dr Stranger
Now, if you take the maxim that art is an imitation of life,
you can see very clearly that people do have struggles when dealing with government.
Sure, in India, the struggles that people face when dealing with government bureaucrats
are extreme and you can relate to the wish of every Indian goer to have an
honest rookie in the civil service shake up the system or for the people to
rise up and kick corrupt officials in the proverbial goolies.
India is an extreme example. The struggle that ordinary
citizens face with the government in South Korea is by no means as extreme as
in India but it still exists. Entertainers do write stories that tackle issues
like the issue of influence in policy making and executive decisions.
By contrast, you will never see a show in Singapore in any
language, which shows that a civil servant or politician acting in a
self-interested way. Civil Servants and Members of Parliament are, at most,
funny. Policemen are always fit, dashing and able to get involved in shoot outs
(which judging by incidents on the net, is not true) and you will never have a fictionalized
President or Prime Minister.
The official argument is that Singapore’s government is super
advanced, modern and most importantly altruistic and honest and so, the
depiction of government officials in Singapore dramas is as true as close as one
can get to real life.
Now, for all my complaints about the system here, I do think
the Singapore system has worked relatively well. What I do disagree with is the
notion that the average citizen does not have struggles with the system and that
civil servants are perpetually helpful and kind. This does not provide us with
an accurate reflection of one of the most crucial topics in any society, namely
the discussion between the ruled and the rulers.
Nobody is saying that we have to create “conspiracies,”
about the political system for good fictional drama. However, portraying a rosy
picture of the relationship through fiction does not exactly benefit anyone and
the government misses out on a fabulous opportunity to raise social discussions
that it can’t have in the official space.
Take the issue of a “non-Chinese Prime Minister.” Nobody has
said that the government needs to chose a non-Chinese for the top job and
nobody says that you should force it on the old folks. However, can you imagine
if someone had created either a popular TV show, a cartoon strip or a book
which showed a non-Chinese Prime Minister? Singapore is missing the opportunity
to have discussions through fiction.
Singapore’s social planners need to encourage situations
where art can imitate life and visa-versa. When you refuse to do this, you get
neither art nor life.
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