Ah Beng Musical

Broadway Beng - Benging you back to Basics delivers all the entertainment and laughter that their posters suggest. Its our first "Beng" experience but no doubt about it, Mark, Tracy, Cecilia and I had a wicked good time, all 90 mins.

Ah Phew (Broadway Beng) brought us back to his childhood, his teenage years through a number of skits. One of the more memorable skits was Justice Bao. Imagine Ah Phew as Bao, my goodness, its a recipe for a devastating proportion of comics (I get will back to that later).

As all four of are born in the late 70s, the stage backdrop was awfully familiar. If you are born in the 70s, grew up in the HDB neighbourhood like us, you will know of the playgrounds that are shaped after a dragon (very nostalgic, brought back lots of fond memories). And the design was quite ingenious, the eye of the dragon is a disco light ball.

Yes, you guessed it, there was a skit about tea dances, ever popular in the 80s. Skit was done with Ah Phew sporting the curry puff hair. It was the "in" hairstyle those days. Most guys would dream about having that perfect curry puff but just couldn't get it right despite using a whole bottle of gel. Of course, it looks absolutely ridiculous now if anyone of us tries to go out with that kind of hair.

Back to Justice Bao, i totally dig the way Ah Phew and his cast of CHIO BUs (beautiful girls in Hokkien) changed 威武 (Wei Wu - loosely translates as mighty) to Buay Who (meaning late, not in time) when they started the court session. Seamlessly, this led to a comic presentation of our current daily issues such as train breakdowns, White Paper and our children's education. 

Speaking of children, this was the part Ian entered the show. Who is Ian? An adorable eight year old boy who speaks way better Hokkien than most of us do these days. For the record, he even sang in Hokkien. Beat that.

Thinking back, there is an underlying message beneath all the laughter that the brains behind this production is spreading. The vision of our past, present and future and what we truly want as a Singaporean and our hopes for the next generation.

Do we want to become a nation where trains breakdown frequently due to overcrowding or let our children's childhood be filled with an uphill task of chasing after impossible academic achievements?

Or do we want to preserve our culture and foster a better environment where we can pass down things that matters more than paper chase and material gains to the next generation?

Ah Phew already has his answer when he said nearing the close of the show that he like to pass the baton to Ian when he is old. Ian can then take over his role as Beng and do the 152th Broadway Beng. But Ian has bigger hopes, he believes the 152th Broadway Beng will be done by his grandson, not himself.

As the Chinese saying goes, 人小小志氣大. I think we all have great hopes for Ian and our next generation. J

Equally Unique

As we grow older and understand more about ourselves, we realise that all of us are born unique and that is the very reason we are all equal. This is contrary to what we have been educated and conditioned to think about ourselves from young, that we are born special, that we can be a cut above the rest, different from others.

Yet old habits die hard. This is what results in our pride, our ego, our failure to see and realise our mistakes especially when one is made and pointed out by others. To overcome our habitual energies, we need to practice, to reflect constantly on our attachment to this self, this ego. Only with the practice of mindfulness, we will be able learn to catch ourselves when we are feeling prideful and let go of such feelings as they arise. 

By constantly reminding ourselves that we are inherently the same in our goal for happiness, our empathy for others will nauturally grow and we will find it easier for us to accept and consider people around us for every action and decision we take. This itself is also another form of mindfulness practice. If we practice well, harmonious living in our family and community is not only possible, it can also multiply joy many times over. 

That being said, it is also our responbility as adults of our own community to teach and guide the younger members that they are not as special as they believe they are. Instead, teach them and let them learn, let them explore how unique each and everyone of them is and that is the very quality that makes each individual equal and not so different.