Just only, I went to a coffeeshop to order hokkien mee. I was
surprised to see all 4 workers (all chinamen) laboriously toiling
away. One taking orders and sending, another one cooking, another
washing and the last one packing the food. And the one packing even
shouted across in English to a customer seated outside: "Eh boss,
you want chilli ah?" And then he started beckoning to his colleague
in heavily accented mandarin (me thinks maybe it's the accent of
Sichuan).
As I sat down to watch the 7pm kungfu drama, I thought to myself
that these chinamen are really hungry to make it in life. They
forced themselves to learn and cook our local style of food, they
learned to speak English, they are quick and responsive to
customers.....and my gut feel tells me they are no university
graduates but some poor blokes from the villages in China.
And I saw images of our ancestors in them. I'm referring to our
forefathers who have once upon a time come down south to SEA. Did
our forefathers work like them? Learn the Malay language? Learn
each other's dialect? And that's how they all made it.
I shall stop short of saying foreigners, be they educated or
uneducated......are going to take over Singapore one day. Oh btw,
their hokkien mee was not salty enough but nevertheless a decent
attempt.
