HUAT Ah!

Times ticking and shit is changing.
Gone are the times when I used to be young. Gone are the times when 2 dollars and 40 cents could buy you a pack of smokes. Gone are the times when bell bottoms were in fashion, the bigger the bell the better.

With the passing of time many things have either changed or have disappeared completely. I have a problem with regards to this.
A problem which bothers me deeply.
What ever happened to the Ah Bengs?

Where did they go? Because there used to be one squatting at every sidewalk, long sideburns swaying gently in the midday breeze. But it seems they have moved somewhere else. Somewhere I don’t know about. I search my urban jungle of steel and concrete but to no avail.

I love the Ah Bengs. There will never be another culture more iconic of Singapore compared to them. I had a pair of orange converse slippers myself. The slipper was made with material similar to that of a car mat. Shit used to get stuck inside. But care less! Those were some awesome slippers. Ah Bengs like orange. Orange and white.

I don’t believe they died. They couldn’t have all died. Maybe a few got into gang fights and died.
But not all. Where are the Ah Bengs?

I pondered this for days. I studied their trends and movement. I related my research to social structures. I propose a theory.

They did not die. The ah bengs have in fact become the act-japs. If you stare at an act-jap hairstyle for long enough you will see similarities to long bleached sideburns, swaying gently in the midday breeze.

“Why?” You may ask.

Blame it on the changing of ideals in Singapore.
In the past people just beat everyone else up. I guess there was nothing much to be said. People smashed each other with things like poles and chains and shit. Basically anything they could get their hands on. Maybe even dirty orange slippers.

Today there is a lot to be said. People don’t beat each other up anymore, they just stand around and talk. This makes me want to move my fists. If people don’t win the talk, they go back to the office, earn some money and hire a lawyer. Those bastards are the real gangsters man. If Ah Bengs had weapons, lawyers would be the machine gun.

HUAT AH!

This was during my first year in fine arts. To be specific, the name had me in some serious duped shit.

Oh the ambiguity. It must be still life.

Just in case you didn’t know, still life is an arrangement of things placed nice and pretty upon a table top or some other horizontal surface for your artistic disposal. Upon this usually horizontal surface, the still life sits very very still; Of this people make a painting or a drawing, usually.

Life Drawing…… Still Life Drawing…. Could it be something else other?

Life drawing. It must be a person going through life, sitting very very still for your artistic disposal. Yes!

I was right. In fact I was more than right. I was so right that I must have been 110% right because I imagined this person with clothes.

I went to the life drawing class and greeted the model because I thought he was a lecturer. That is until he appeared in a towel.

So he is sitting around in his towel and you set up your pencils and papers. Look normal. Look more normal than normal. Be extra normal. Usually talking loudly with big ass hand gestures makes you look extra normal.

I was so normal that it hurt.

The boys were drawing the essentials with all their might. This was the only thing they came here for and this was all they would draw.

The girls were opposing this motion. Girls drew everything but the junks. Courageous girls used very basic shapes. My portraits were all half body. Oh the ambiguity.

I left this class feeling more mature than I’ve ever been. I felt I’ve seen life. Life I’ve never seen before. Life Drawing.