They are all around us. They could be the taxi man from Hong Kong, who quotes the Tao Te Ching to you as he drives. They could be the boy from Indonesia, who answers your queries in Hokkien as he peddles freshly-trafficked passion fruit on a piece of canvas in a corner of a market. Or they could be the man from South Korea, who sells you $20 LV wallets at the same market.
I met him on my way home last night, the cabbie from Hong Kong. I had been in some sort of taxi-stand rage outside the Heeren, because it had bloody annoyed me, how those at the head of the queue wouldn't walk an extra step to board a cab as soon as they saw one. They wouldn't speed things up for everybody else in the queue. They would rather stand still, wait for the taxi to stop right at their feet and make everybody else wait with them. Grrr.
By the time I did get a cab, I was still so angry that the first thing I said after my address was, "What's wrong with them? Why can't they take an extra step? Why can't they spare a thought for everybody else? They'll be the death of me."
"They don't mean to do it. It's habit," replied the taxi man in Mandonese (Hong Kong Mandarin).
His accent alone was hilarious; I forgot my anger; and as he recounted to me the gahmen's many policy reversals, he turned out to be both concerned citizen and aspiring comedian.
The taxi man: "It's like when you fry a small fish. One side isn't cooked yet, you flip the fish. The other side isn't cooked yet, you flip the fish again. You flip, flip, flip, the fish falls apart before it is cooked."
Me: "Yes, doesn't the Tao Te Ching say so, too?"
The taxi man: "You read it, too? Yes, as it says, 'Rule a big country as you would fry small fish.'"
(He knew the book by heart!)
"They don't read the Tao Te Ching. If you don't read old Chinese books, you should at least read fairy tales. They should at least read Aesop's Fables."
(He pulled out then a book from a plastic bag, on lessons to be learnt from the fables.)
"Fables are about human nature. How do you govern without knowing human nature?"
On and on he went about SMRT Taxis, the economy and ERP, and as we neared my neighbourhood, he explained what it means now that an HDB home-buyer has to go to a bank, not the gahmen, for a housing loan.
"When people couldn't pay the HDB back, they could get their MP to talk to the government. But when you can't pay the bank back, even if your surname is Wee, even if your grandpa is Wee Cho Yaw, it will be no use, you will be sleeping on the street."
He has been here for 40 years, the taxi man. He might have been taken out of Hong Kong but the Hong Kong wise guy has not been taken out of him.
3 comments:
ah hahaha. some cabbies can be really amusing. all (it must be some tacit requirement) are anti-government, and they never tire of complaining about the economy, the erp, and if you happen to be stuck in a cte jam, the cte and all its flaws. it's really funny cos if you think about it, they probably have the same conversation with their other passengers!
i had an old cabbie who kept me in the cab for 20min after i reached my destination - and this was 2+a.m.! - because he felt very strongly that he should urge me to seek my future abroad. but he was so sincere and paternal (not paternalistic tho) that i found it hard to be pissed off. he's a very educated man from the way he speaks, and driving a cab is his retirement job. but he did make me panic a little when he showed signs of wanting to discuss marxist theory. all i knew about marx was his alienation theory and all i could recall of his economic theory constitutes only a very general sketch. and i didnt want to be made to feel stupid right before bedtime. btw, karen, if you're reading this, this incident occurred when i went out with you and we shared a cab home. hmm...i seem to get cabbies who make me uncomfortable when i'm with you.
The Hong Kongers are the best. What they want to say, they just say. Foreign talent: you are right man, they are everywhere. Like our persistent gua zhi woman at Aroma kopitiam...
yes, and where has she gone? don't seem to see her much now...
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