The Chinese language tragedy in a Caifan musical comedy

The recent viral “Caifan” song and music video in the form of a parody of Chinese language-handicapped Singaporeans reduced to saying “this and that” when ordering at economy rice stalls struck a chord in many.

The song is creative, comedic, entertaining and ironically uses copious amount of the Chinese language to tell the story.

My sincere wish is that after the highs and having a good laugh at ourselves, may the song evoke reflections on how and why ethnic Chinese in Singapore have become incapacitated in simple Chinese language contexts, such as ordering Chinese dishes, as depicted in the song.   

My observations are that, for example, our Malay friends, do not have to resort to “this and that” when they are at the Nasi Pandang stall.

It will be even more unimaginable to see a French Canadian pointing and saying “this and that” rather than saying croissant and baguette at the local bakery.

However, we do commonly see the Chinese Singaporean heavily relying on sign language and summoning his moribund Chinese effortfully to order at the Caifan stall.

Beyond the comedy and music, I also see the tragedy of a parody so closely mimicking reality. 

Ours is a Singaporean Chinese identity where the command of the Chinese language is non-essential. 

A Chinese identity that is divorced from the Chinese language, one that is ancient, beautiful and embodies the semantics of being Chinese, ultimately loses richness and subtleties.

My wish is that the song can also stimulate the desire and effort in some people to at least master some rudimentary functional Chinese or re-discover the little that was retained from many years of going through the motion learning the mother tongue.

Perhaps it is too late to make the call now, as Chinese is already discarded like pre-loved shoes, to paraphrase a Chinese saying, “弃之如敝履” qì zhī rú bì lǚ. 

But I remain hopeful. Afterall, what is left after the Pandora box was opened is, hope.