Phuah Chu Kang and a Blur Singaporean

My friend, Aveline, invited me to join her lovely family for a Chinese New Year Reunion dinner last year. She instructed me to take the MRT to Yew Tee Station. It was my third time taking the MRT towards that direction. Wow! As I am used to staying in the more central area of Singapore I found Aveline's house to be somewhat far away.

I looked at the MRT map in the train. There is Lim Chu Kang, Yio Chu Kang and Choa Chu Kang. I know "Kang" means alley in Hokkien Dialect. My agent friend, Wang, said that "kang" can also be "kong' in Cantonese which means port. I am not sure about the rest of the words. Perhaps they are the surnames of some prominent Singaporeans which would actually translate into Lim, Yeoh and Chuah? I resolved to find out the answers from Aveline who probably should know the answers, since she is a thoroughbred Singaporean and lives in Choa Chu Kang.

"O.k. So where is Phuah Chu Kang?" I asked. Aveline and her family looked at me and burst out laughing. "Choo, you're a property agent, and you asked me that question!" Aveline burst out laughing even harder.

"I know Phuah Chu Kang is a popular TV program...oh! it is a fictitious place, and yet I had been thinking that there is really a Phuah Chu Kang somewhere in Singapore, since we have the other Lim Chu Kang, Yio Chu Kang and Choa Chu Kang.!

It is interesting that in Singapore I have never met Gurmit Singh, the key character in Phuah Chu Kang. Yet I met Gurmit in my hometown of Penang where he was having a performance at Gurney Drive last year in October. It was also embarrassing that when I went to Melbourne, my sister Ean Ean told me she enjoyed "Phuah Chu Kang and I Not Stupid" and I sheepishly told her I had yet to watch the program. "I Not Stupid" by Jack Neo is so popular, but I am someone who hardly goes to the cinema.

I will definitely make it a point to do so as every Singaporean ought to do so, just as I would advocate every Chinese to read or know about Lu Hsun's "The True Story of Ah Q". As we age, we should be like the willow trees, bending with humility as we realise there are still so many things to learn, to inquire and to ponder.

Gan Chau