Historical Moments

In other news: The big RJ move was today. Arh, leaving behind the old campus wasn't as hard as I thought. I have grown to love that worn old building, with its memories ingrained into the concrete, its surprises and secrets around each corner and the homey atmosphere of Ghim Moh and Holland V. In its eroded walls was a sense of security and familiarity, an assurance that other batches before us had passed through these same corridors without upset, and that we could do the same.

But then again, what is most important about a school is the people that populate it. Hodge had quite a flash of insight today in his inaugurial speech at the new campus: "This is, at best, a beautiful shell." And I guess as long as everyone moves, and no one is left at the old school, it's still tolerable...familiarity is transplanted with the familiar faces, and I hope that while the environment changes, the spirit won't change. Perhaps that's the Rafflesian spirit...a sense of comfort among your fellows that is unique to each batch, each faculty, each class.

The new school is splendid. From outside, the architecture is really not inspiring. But there are beautifully composed views on the inside...and the new campus has a wonderful drama stage, a far cry from the old LT1, and a positively expansive canteen, and a library so large that we don't have enough books to fill all three levels of it =P But the thing is that from our classrooms (Humans classes are located in the performance centre, in seminar rooms) to the drama theatre, from the gargantuan LT1 to the air-conditioned hall, from the splendid indoor gym to the posh dance studio overlooking it, everything is empty until we, the students and teachers, populate it. And it's up to us to give the school its atmopshere.

That's why when Chern was saying that the location of the Humans classes so far away from everyone else (every other class is in Block A; we're in block J) would promote elitism, I wasn't too concerned. Sure, the physical environment does promote elitism, makes it easier to be elitist, but it's not a given yet. That will depend on our conduct. And I guess it's up to us to set the tone. Beyond that, whatever our juniors do, at least we tried to stave off this unnecessary and wholly superfluous division.

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Went to watch this dance concert put on by Kg Chai Chee's management committee of something yesterday night at the Victoria Theatre. Heh...it's not really remarkable. The nicest part was the end, when there was a ballet-style modernish dance to Spanish guitar music. The choreography was a real stroke of genius, and seeing the dancers swirling around in their black costumes, one can really see how the music and the movement complement each other. Modern dance and ballet is all well and good, but most of it yesterday only used the music to provide a rhythm for keeping step. The last dance was good because the emotional factor of the dance and the song matched very well.

Ah well, at any rate, it was nice to see YS again. Heh...I find it continually necessary to resuscitate fragments of Taiwan in order to keep myself entertained in Singapore. Like I said, every time I come back, normal life is a bit more boring. But it occured to me yesterday how isolated drama is as an art form. Chorale, Dance, Band, they all get to play in places like VCH, the VT, the Esplanade, SCH and so on, but student drama troupes don't get better venues than CHS Drama Centre as a rule of thumb (heck, RP had to put up with pathetic LT1). It's telling that the most controversial and dangerous forms of student art, drama, film, photography, don't get the nice venues and glamourous stages that choirs and bands get. When Chern speaks of performing at the VCH as a given, I'm still looking for the chance for student drama to have the reputation and money to get what seems to be taken for granted by everyone else.

Hmm...and that question came up again. Why is it that Singapore seems like the society least capable of conceiving of a platonic boy-girl relationship? Well, our youth seem to show such an interest in this kind of thing, an interest on a scale that seems to be only paralleled by tabloids in Taiwan and France. And it's strange that Singaporeans have such an aversion to touch...it's almost a phobia compared to the personal openness displayed in Taipei and Lyon. Why is our personal space more inviolable than theirs?

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A new place is a precious thing
And unfamiliarity is friendly

...because all that one recognises as dangerous is absent. Exploring an unknown, there is more pleasure in a solitary figure under an umbrella in a slight drizzle walking unconcernedly in the middle of a road in the middle of a field verged by thick trees than the same figure surrounded by servants and marble. The delight of discovery and the satisfaction of self-sufficiency add sharpness to the moist air. And yet, the presence of a solid shoulder against mine, of another voice to break the sole silence with, is something that I'm learning to value as much as solitude. For when we explore, we look for a truth, whether we are aware of the act of searching or not. And truth is a matter of conviction, a figment of fiction coupled with contrived certainty. By myself, a dream is as substantial as the grey backdrop and the wide meandering road, if I believe in the dream. I can believe in anything by myself. But when there are two or more, truth is more focused, on only the things that we all agree to believe in. And to have a flightmate is to have a consciousness to reassure my own with, as we cling together in this postmodernist marsh, to ensure each other logically and circularly that we are real ourselves, and what we see is real.

pondered by phoenican @ 29.12.04