Monday, December 07, 2020

When Art Won’t Imitate Life?

 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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Maira Gall