It must have been at least three months since I last stepped into the publishing media office. Yes, ever since I made up my mind to stop writing on the sidelines to concentrate on my core business.

Nothing much has changed. The warmth of the people still rubs off me enthusiastically. Even the security guard of the building recognised me and asked the reason for my long absence. I am missed after all

But miss my articles I did more. And to see them in print is the icing on the cake. Two articles for the Brazilian magazine and one for the Saudi Arabian publication. I’m still waiting for the 12 articles that will appear in the Indian chapter. Hope they will see the light of day soon too!

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My past has finally caught up with me. Yes, it’s been revealed. Well, I didn’t go around telling people but somehow they knew. That was how I landed up being invited to write an article for the latest issue of Partner Philippines. Ok, there’s no need to dig my history. I am an English Language Honours graduate. That’s for the record.

Now for the more interesting bit… After interviewing Professor Roberto Mariano, President of the Philippine Bayanihan Society (Singapore) on 29 Apr 09 and submitting the draft a day later, I’ve been waiting for my article to be published.

The waiting process is always agonizing as you never know if your article will be edited beyond recognition or worse, even see the light of day.

Finally, the latest edition of the magazine, a collaboration between the Embassy of Philippines in Singapore and a local publishing firm is sent for print and the hard copy is sitting sizzling hot on my lap.

What was extra sweet was that my article was not edited at all by the magazine editors. They just took it lock stock and barrel. Guess that’s an extra boost that my writing skills have not deteoriated over the years! Hahaha…

Here’s my article. Enjoy!

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If one lives in Singapore, one is bound to take the bus at least once. Buses are everywhere as they are a common yet efficient means of transport. Although taking the bus appears to be a ritualized activity one performs everyday, interestingly there is never a mundane moment as there is much to see on the bus. In fact, from what I have observed, there are ten notable behavioral type of personalities on the bus at any one time.

As the relatively empty bus moves along, the D-type, H-type and L-type personalities flag the bus and board it. The D-type personality is characterized by the double seat-takers. These are the ones who never fail to occupy the outer seat of an empty bench. In order to prevent other passengers from occupying the inner seat, they will never hesitate to put their handbags, schoolbags, market baskets, plastic bags, newspapers or umbrellas on the inner seat. This is a subtle but strong message sent out that that seat is occupied too. It’s two seats for the fare of one.

The L-type personality, which represents the lovers (of all ages) almost inevitably, follows 3 standard operating procedures. First, both will hunt for that particular empty bench with two empty seats, as they do not wish to be separated even for the bus journey. Second, they head towards the rear of the bus and prefer the last three rows of seats. This could stem from the understanding that the rear seats offer more privacy than the front seats for them to escape into their own world, whisper sweet nothings or engage in amorous acts. Third, the girl will sit in the inner seat while the guy takes the outer seat. This arrangement is such so that the guy is automatically thrust into playing the role of the protector, shielding his girl from other male predators on the bus. It will also be easier for him to wrap his arm around her and for her to rest her head on his shoulder.

As compared to the lovers, the heavy-sleepers (H-type personality) are not that choosy generally. As the tag suggests, the heavy-sleeper is content to be able to find an empty seat. After all, his sole aim during the ride to his destination is to catch some sleep on the bus. For the younger heavy-sleepers (who are 40 years old and below), they will try to find a seat at the back of the bus, then make themselves comfortable by sliding down the seat, locking his knees onto the back of the seat in front and enjoying the rhythmic motion of the bus ride, coupled by the incessant nodding of his head, deep in slumber. The above 40-year-old heavy-sleeper is happy to find a seat. Usually, it is the nearest seat to the ticket validator. But regardless of age, the heavy-sleeper shows a higher tendency of missing his or her destination. By the time he or she wakes up, it will already be too late.

At the next stop, the M-type personality boards the bus. The M-type personality has a more interesting disposition as I have observed. I’ll call them the musical chair players. I’m sure all of you have played the game ‘musical chairs’ when you were young. Let’s take it from there. The musical chair player scans the entire bus and having seen that there are no empty benches, reluctantly picks his seat next to another passenger. However, he continues to pay attention to the movements of all passengers. As the bus moves along and someone gets off, leaving an empty bench in the process, the musical chair player will immediately stand up and move toward that seat, relishing it with much fervour.

Having noticed this umpteenth times, I really wonder why. To give an explanation, we could appeal to the notion of comfort. True, it’s definitely more comfortable sitting alone, rather than to squeeze one’s bum with another on the same bench. But think again. Could the musical chair players be loners or social misfits who prefer to sit by themselves? Is it wrong to sit next to a complete stranger? After all, it’s just a bus ride. In the game ‘musical chairs’, the fun began when the music stopped abruptly, resulting in an unavoidable rush among the players for the limited number of chairs which decreased in numbers after each round. On most occasions, one often ended up fighting with another to sit on that one particular chair. This scenario aptly describes the bus scene too. There are many musical chair players on the bus, all eager and ready to pounce on that particular empty bench just vacated. The musical chair player basks in his own triumph. But his victory is short-lived. Just as he or she has rejected the idea of sitting next to a complete stranger earlier on, he or she has no choice but to accept the fact that another complete stranger has chosen to sit next to him or her on the outer seat, as other passengers board the bus. Alas, it is but a hollow victory.

Along the way, the bus picks up more passengers in the form of the B-type, N-type, R-type, T-type and Y-type personalities. Out of these four categories, I truly admire the N-type class. They are the nodders. In one sense, they behave pretty much in a similar fashion as the heavy-sleepers. Both sleep on the bus. This is understandable as most Singaporeans manage only a few hours of sleep each day, what with the need to contend with pressure from work, family, relationships and studies, not to mention the lure of surfing the internet and the numerous chatrooms.

However, the most crucial difference is that they distinguish themselves by the intensity of sleep they engage in. The heavy sleepers, they argue, sleep like dead logs, whereas the nodders are content with just a short nap. A nap, when taken in the right amount, rejuvenates the tired body and mind. From my observation, the probability of the nodders missing their designated stop is significantly lower than that of the heavy sleepers. In fact, they know exactly when to get off the bus. This could be attributed to the fact that they are not engaged in a deep sleep. In other words, they are still pretty much conscious of their surroundings. But the true case of admiration must be the ability to be able to get some sleep and yet not forget to simultaneously press the bell at the right time. Bravo, three cheers for the nodders!

The yakkers (Y-type personality) are the ones who create the loudest disturbance on an otherwise peaceful bus journey. Handphones ring like nobody’s business, often in continuous succession. A moment’s tranquil silence is intruded once again by the jarringly loud ringing tone that the handphone lets off. Yet it’s often very amusing because each time a handphone rings, almost every body on the bus who owns a handphone immediately reaches out to check his or her handphone. That speaks volume of just how familiar a handphone owner is with the ringing tone of his handphone. It also points to the fact that this very instant reaction has been deeply ingrained into each and every handphone owner. And it is an achievement for Singaporeans as it has not been inculcated via yet another national campaign! (considering the fact that about one million Singaporeans own handphones).

But what really irks me is when the yakker yaks to his heart’s content in his loudest possible voice, oblivious to the existence of his fellow passengers. By doing so, the yakker has in fact been so generous as to have shared the juicy bits of his conversation with the others. Thanks, but no thanks. Speak softly and keep it to yourself. We’re not interested.

A good friend of the yakker is the blaster (B-type personality). Like the former, the latter relishes in sharing what he has with everyone else. The blaster is one who would rather be caught dead than without his infamous street-style headphones. He slips in the latest CD into his Discman and turns up the volume to the maximum. His music, usually some very loud techno-beat music travels all around and “entertains” his neighbouring fellow passengers, much to their chagrin. They cast dirty looks at the blaster, but he plain ignores them by closing his eyes and sliding into the arms of Morpheus.

I was thinking, if I pitted the blaster against the yakker, who would have emerged victorious?

Perhaps one of the most disgustingly interesting characters on the bus is the thrifty cheat (T-type personality). As the name suggests, the thrifty cheat’s sole aim is to save as much as he can. This is a technique practiced by all, amateur or professional thrifty cheats. Thrifty cheats operate on a solo basis. It’s easier to succeed when one’s alone. Now for the modus operandi. The thrifty cheat has eyes only for the sixty cents button on the ticket validator. All the other available amounts are opaque to him. As far as he is concerned, any trip to any part of Singapore costs only sixty cents. He is determined to get more than his money’s worth.

After getting the sixty-cent ticket, he coolly chooses his seat and enjoys the journey. But his mind is not at rest but is placed on the alert mode all the time. His greatest enemy is the bus inspector. If the bus inspector does not get on the bus at all, the thrifty cheat gets away. It is a form of a cheap trill really. Some call it a ‘kick’. Imagine the exhilaration one feels when he manages to pull off this ruse not once, not twice but many many times. It inflates his ego. But once the bus inspector makes his kingly presence, it’s time for the thrifty cheat to act. The thrifty cheat presses the bell at once, indicating his intention to get off the bus at the next stop, even though that is not his destination. He gets up, behaves nonchalantly and moves toward the exit door. It’s all an act, a well-rehearsed staged act. Usually bus inspectors do not bother to check the bus tickets of passengers who are alighting.

However, smart as they think they are, thrifty cheats can and do get outwitted by the bus inspectors. I witnessed it once and was roaring with delight.

A female thrifty cheat pressed the bell along Bukit Timah Road and moved toward the exit door. She was the only one wanting to get off at that particular stop. The bus inspector, also a female, commanded the bus driver in Hokkien to stop the vehicle at once and not to open the exit door. She then approached the thrifty cheat and asked to be shown the bus ticket. The thrifty cheat was of course dumbfounded and reluctant to produce her bus ticket. She kept pressing the bell. I could see her coolness slowly melting away. She became a desperado, like an ant on a hot frying pan. She was trapped and was reduced to showing the bus inspector her ticket. Her punishment? She was made to pay the exact fare in addition to that sixty-cent ticket she bought earlier on. Then she was allowed to get off the bus.

How did the bus inspector recognize the thrifty cheat? Don’t ask me. Maybe it’s a female instinct as females are said to be more sensitive to their surroundings and are generally more observant. Nevertheless, despite being caught and subjected to the stares of the other passengers, you can be rest assured that thrifty cheats will not dwindle in numbers.

Once the reader (R-type personality) finds a seat, the next thing he will do is to whip out his newspapers, magazine or lecture notes, bury his nose and pore over the contents of it. After all, there is so much time to kill on the bus, especially if the bus ride is a long one. Might as well make full use of the available time since there’s always so much work to do given so little time. It is a common scene on the bus to see juicy, tantilizing gossip columns in the ‘The New Paper’, ‘Xinmin Ribao’ or ‘Lianhe Wanbao’ being eagerly lapped up by other passengers, especially those seated beside or behind the reader.

The bus is noticeably more crowded now. Generating strong glares, the double seat-takers reluctantly remove their things and allow others to take the inner seat. There are no more empty seats. Many passengers have no choice but to stand. Yet these standers are not purely standers. In fact, they are the eagle-eyed standers (E-type personality). They are all on the lookout. Whenever someone presses the bell, these eagle-eyed standers will start to close in on him. It’s an indication that there will soon be an empty seat. Logically speaking, the stander standing next to it would occupy it. But one is not called an eagle-eyed stander for no apparent reason. It’s a battle where all the standers automatically transform themselves into candidates. The victor can be the eagle-eyed stander standing furthest away. Yet by virtue of the fact that he knows how to read the signals and the rules of the game, squeezes his way pass all the other standers and clinches the final victory by landing his bum on the coveted seat; in the same manner an eagle zooms in on its targeted prey.

Interestingly, these ten personality traits on the bus are not cast in iron, but rather they are transposable to a very large degree. For example, an eagle-eyed stander might after having found a seat, become a reader or a yakker or a blaster or even a musical chair player (if the bus becomes relatively empty again). It is perhaps human nature for us to have different identities, to play different roles at different times in life.

Yet another hint at our common psychological make-up as humans is the widely observed fact that when passengers are not related, a male would choose to sit next to another male (granted that there are no empty benches on the bus). This also applies to females. A case of one feeling safer when next to another member of the same sex?

So, the next time you take the bus, open your eyes. The characters are all on board, waiting for you to discover them. Remember, there is never a dull moment on a bus ride.

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To modern men, old stories in the form of myths, fairy tales and legends are often regarded as a genre far removed from their ordinary lives. As such, they are read mainly for their entertainment value. It is indeed sad to note this fact because old stories demonstrate the rich imagination of the ancient people and via the motifs embedded, are reflective of human life as a whole.

Of particular interest to this paper will be a comparative analysis of a Japanese story ‘The Blind Serpent Wife’ (taken from Dorson’s book “Folk Legends of Japan”) and an English story ‘The Goose Girl’ (taken from the website http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/066.txt). Via the transformation motif found in both these stories, I hope to be able to shed some light on the link these stories have with our world and the lessons we can draw from them.

OUTLINE OF ‘THE BLIND SERPENT WIFE’

A young doctor lived with his mother at Fukae-mura. One summer day when it began to rain heavily, a beautiful girl took shelter at the village headmaster’s house. Through conversations with her, he thought her suitable to be the bride of the doctor, as the doctor’s mother has asked him to be the matchmaker. Very soon, the doctor married the girl and a baby was born in due time.

One day, when the doctor’s mother opened the door into the girl’s room, she was astonished to see a big serpent sleeping in the centre of the room coiled around the baby. She told her son about it when he came back. The next day, he too peeped into the room and saw the same sight his mother had described. He divorced his wife and she told him she was rescued by him several years ago and had come back to repay his kindness. She added that if he could not find a good nurse for the baby, he could come to the pond at Mt. Fugen to look for her. She then left in tears.

Failing to find a good nurse, the doctor went to the pond at Mt. Fugen to look for his divorced wife. She appeared in the form of a woman and gouged out one of her eyeballs. When the baby licked it, milk came out. The doctor took the eyeball and left the pond with the baby. However, samurais robbed him of the eyeball on his way through the mountain. Distressed by the baby’s cries, he returned to the pond to look for the girl. Despite knowing that she would be blind, she gouged out the other eyeball. The same gang of samurais again robbed the second eyeball. Again the doctor returned to the pond in distress.

When the girl learnt of what happened, her rage was beyond description. A great earthquake then occurred throughout Mt. Fugen.

OUTLINE OF ‘THE GOOSE GIRL’

A widowed queen had a beautiful daughter who was betrothed to a prince in a distant country. On the marriage day, the queen gave many valuable gifts, which included a golden cup, a waiting-maid, a talking horse called Falada and three drops of her own blood tied in a white handkerchief to her daughter.

After riding for some time, the princess felt thirsty and asked the maid to get her some water in the golden cup. The maid told her to fetch the water herself. Later on, the princess was again thirsty and the maid gave the same reply. As the princess lay down and drank from the stream, the handkerchief with the three drops of blood fell into the stream and disappeared. The maid then demanded that the princess wear the rags while she took the royal clothes and the horse for herself. The princess was also to swear not to tell anyone about what happened with the threat of death. However, Falada saw and remembered everything.

When they arrived at the royal palace, the prince thought the maid in royal clothes was his bride and took her into the castle. However, the old king noticed the pretty girl in rags and thinking her to be the false bride’s companion, assigned her to work with another boy named Conrad to tend the geese. The false bride asked the king to cut off Falada’s head for fear that it would speak the truth one day. When the girl learnt this, she offered the man employed in the task a piece of gold to nail up Falada’s head in the dark gateway to the town.

Every morning when she passed the gateway with Conrad, she spoke to the head and it replied. While tending the geese, Conrad tried to pluck some of the girl’s golden hair but could not succeed as a wind blew his hat away after she recited a rhyme. The same three events happened over the next few days. Conrad complained to the king and peeping behind a bush in the field, the latter saw the same events. The king questioned the girl but she said she could not tell any human being, under the oath of death. He told her to tell the stove instead. She related the whole story to the stove, while the king hid behind it to eavesdrop. Knowing the truth, the king had the girl dressed back in royal clothes and told his son that the goose girl was the true bride. The king then tricked the maid by asking her the sentence servants should receive when they deceived their masters. She thought it a simple question and by answering it, fell into the trap. She was then dealt with according to her description. After the sentence, the prince married the true bride and lived happily ever after.

TRANSFORMATIONS

Transformations occur many times throughout the two stories. Here, it is worthwhile to note the two distinct levels of transformations, namely voluntary transformation and involuntary transformation.

Voluntary transformation takes place when the protagonists revert back their original form. In ‘The Blind Serpent Wife’, this is evident when the girl changes back into a serpent when she is all alone with her baby in the room. This can be seen as something innate, the idea of returning to nature. This mode of voluntary transformation is reversed in two other instances in the story. When she comes back to repay the doctor’s kindness and when he goes to the pond at Mt. Fugen to seek her help to nurse their baby, she chooses to take the form of a human being so as not to scare him with her reptile appearance. Interestingly, this contradicts Lane’s claim that transformations occur “in the response to curses or blessings, because of the violation of the taboos … or because of the possession of magic objects, i.e. enablers”. (Lane, p.24). As we have seen, it is really a matter of what form the character chooses to transform back or into, not because of external factors.

The second aspect of the transformation motif is involuntary transformation, something caused by external factors beyond the control of the protagonist. In ‘The Goose Girl’, we can follow the progress of the union of consciousness and unconsciousness by observing the images and noting the stages of the development of the story. Outwardly, when one first reads the story, it tells of how the princess is forced by the maid to take on the guise of a goose girl when she loses the trappings of her identity (her royal clothes). A second reading of the same story could perhaps reveal a deeper meaning of transformation from maidenhood to womanhood. The princess is forced to learn from her trials and tribulations, and thus grows up in the process. She can only succeed in restoring her own true identity when she is capable of identifying with her animus and uses it to attain full maturity. This identification process is set into motion at the point when the three drops of blood in the white handkerchief fall into the stream.

Interestingly, the three drops of blood can also be seen as the three important stages of transformation in a woman’s life – namely menstruation, pregnancy and lactation. In the words of the three drops of blood, ‘if your mother knew this, it would break her heart’. They speak of suffering. This emphasises the psychological and spiritual pain that must be endured in all transformations. Both mother and daughter suffer but undeniably, the latter suffers more. The former loses her beloved daughter who is to be married and the latter suffers under the thumb of her maid. But suffering causes her to reconcile with her animus which teaches her wisdom and the need for action. We see this happening when the goose girl takes initiative to pay to have Falada’s head nailed up in the gateway. This is then followed by the incident in the open fields when Conrad tries to pluck her golden hair. But it is Conrad who is defeated, as she summons the wind to blow his hat away. She is empowered in the fields of Mother Nature. In both cases, these signify conscious connections with the powers of the transforming feminine. She initiates actions for the first time in her life, thanks to the cruelty of the maid that acts as an external factor to her involuntary transformation. Only when she had travelled a “psychic distance” (Lane, p.11) in a spiritual journey can she become wiser and a more capable human.

PREDOMINANCE OF THE MATERNAL PRINCIPLE

A common thread that runs through both stories is the predominance of the maternal principle. The protagonists in both stories are females. This is particularly interesting considering the fact that both stories were obviously products of the premodern society, a time when traditional, male-oriented values were the norm.

In ‘The Blind Serpent Wife’, it is worthwhile to note that the image of the Great Mother can be interpreted in two ways. First, the scene where the girl reverts back to her serpent form and coils herself around her child reminds one of the prevalence of amae in Japanese society. The primary agent of socialisation in Japanese society is between that of mother and child. We hear of terms like “kyoiku mama”, “mother fixation” and “mazakon” coined by Takie Lebra and other leading Japanese scholars. This close physical bonding where the child is dependent on the mother is perhaps best exemplified by the notion of skinship, displayed in activities like co-sleeping, co-bathing and carrying the baby on the mother’s back. When the doctor’s mother discovers the girl’s identity, she immediately informs her son. These instances are examples of the Great Mother as a protecting figure of her child, not wanting any harm to come to the child. At the pond in Mt. Fugen, the nourishing qualities of the Great Mother is again witnessed when the serpent turned wife willingly gouges out her eyeballs, not once but twice to provide milk for her child. This is despite the fact that she knows she will become blind as a consequence.

Conversely, the negative side of the Great Mother as destroyer too comes into play at the end of the story when she is unable to contain her rage at man who continue to plunder nature. She learns from the doctor of the loss of both eyeballs to the samurais and her rage was such that it resulted in a massive earthquake throughout Mt. Fugen. The destructive qualities of Great Mother are in sharp contrast to the nurturing, protective side seen earlier.

‘The Goose Girl’ starts off by showcasing the princess, who although beautiful, is undeniably shallow in character. The queen has protected her all her life to the extent that she expects to be served. Take for instance the two occasions when she felt thirsty and instead of going to the stream to get the water on her own, she commands her maid to get it for her. However, outside the protective walls of the palace, her protecting agent in the form of the queen is absent and this is when the maid refuses to serve her. As Jung puts it, this is the beginning of the reversal of the shadow (the maid) over the ego (the princess). She can no longer drink passively from the golden mother cup (the literal object, and metaphorically meaning the breast), but must lie on the earth and drink directly from the stream of life. She has to learn to be close to nature to feel the therapeutic balm of its soothing effect.

The princess has yet to come to terms with her own shadow and this is the attitude towards the unconscious that needs to be changed. When she loses the handkerchief with the three drops of blood, she has lost her conscious bond with her mother. The maid who witnesses this loss gloats over it as she knows she now has power over the princess who without the drops of blood is ‘weak and helpless’. Now the shadow reversal over the ego is complete. The negative aspect of the Great Mother is at work here. Just as the Great Mother is willing to sacrifice all and provide for her child, she is also capable of taking back what she thinks the child does not deserve. In this case, the maid forces the princess to surrender her royal clothes, her horse and by doing so, usurps the claim to royalty.

SECONDARY ROLE OF THE PATERNAL PRINCIPLE

The paternal principle, which plays a minute secondary role in both stories, is worth noting. In ‘The Blind Serpent Wife’, the doctor, together with the samurais could be said to be men who plunder from Mother Nature, robbing her of the gifts of life – in the form of the two eyeballs. This is a minor observation but in Kawai’s words, “the heroic establishment of the masculine ego might cause the destruction of Mother Nature” (Kawai, p.102).

In ‘The Goose Girl’, we are told that the queen is a widow and thus, the princess lacks a father role model in her growing years. This again brings to mind issue of Japanese society being a “fatherless society” as the child hardly gets to see his father owing to his late night entertaining or being posted to other provinces. Because of this deficiency, the goose girl cannot develop her animus until she comes into contact with the old king, father of the prince she has been betrothed to. As discussed earlier, he is the catalyst that allows her animus to surface, spurring her to take actions for the first time in her life. Conversely, Conrad is a parallel to the men in ‘The Blind Serpent Wife’. He is a threat to the goose girl’s emerging consciousness when he tries to pluck her golden hair. But he is no match for her as she has come to terms with her own consciousness and is able to utilise the rhythms of nature to summon the wind in blowing his hat away each time. Dealing with Conrad strengthens the development of her animus. The prince reminds me of an early version of the goose girl. He fits the picture of a young man unconscious of the dark side of the anima. He sees the false bride in royal clothes on the horse and assumes her to be his bride. He is still unable to tell appearance from reality.

THE FORBIDDEN CHAMBER

Ironically, the sacred space in both stories happens to be the forbidden chamber that marks the turning point of the events. Although the protagonists did not specifically request the doctor cum his mother and the king respectively not to peep in or listen, there is a price to pay for having done so.

When both the doctor and his mother peep into the girl’s room on two separate occasions and see her in her serpent form, the consequence is that the doctor confronts his serpent wife and divorces her, while she confesses everything and leaves in sorrow, never to return. This reminds one of the monono aware endings in other Japanese stories.

In ‘The Goose Girl’, the king hides behind the bushes in the fields and notes the reasons for Conrad’s complaints. Next, at the king’s suggestion, the goose girl climbs into the stove to reveal the truth while he hides behind it to eavesdrop. The king makes known to the goose girl that he knows of the truth and is the one who reinstates the goose girl to her original status. In both stories, although both transgressors are not punished, it should be noted that only the goose girl gains from having her sacred space transgressed. The same cannot be said of the serpent wife.

EXAMINING THE ENDINGS

As expected of any fairy tale, ‘The Goose Girl’ ends with a happy ending with the prince and princess living happily ever after. “The beauty of perfection is achieved by renouncing everything that is ugly” (Kawai, p.120). The ugly element, epitomised by the maid harbouring ill intentions has to be dealt with and eliminated before a happy ending can take place. This is the sharpest contrast to ‘The Blind Serpent Wife’. This Japanese tale ends with a tone of sorrow. “The beauty of completeness contains things which are not necessarily beautiful” (Kawai, p.120). The serpent’s wrath at the end of the story culminating in a great earthquake throughout Mt. Fugen is not a prefect, but it is complete. It provides a suitable closure, atypical of most other Japanese tales.

CONCLUSION

What is truly remarkable is that these two stories, written in England and Japan respectively to cater to different audiences have so many similarities confirms one fact. They have revealed that we can learn “the inner problems of human beings and of the right solutions to the predicaments in any society” (Bettelheim, p.5). Customs and traditions may be culture bound and very diverse on the surface, but deep down they speak to all mankind in one universal voice. While we identify with the protagonists, follow their trials and tribulations, weep when they fail and clap when they succeed, we learn to find true meaning in our lives. In the words of Lane, stories “mirror our own growth, rites of passages, gains, losses and eventual ascension to adulthood” (p.34). Stories are indeed treasure houses and there are many more out there waiting for us to discover.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment. New York: Knopf, 1976.

Dorson, Richard M. Folk Legends of Japan. Tokyo: C.E. Tuttle, 1962.

Eliade, Mircea. The Sacred and Profane. San Diego: Harcoury Brace Jovanovich, 1959.

Kawai, Hayao. Dreams, Myths and Fairy Tales in Japan. Switzerland: Daimon, 1995.

Internet Website http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/066.txt for ‘The Goose Girl’ text.

Lane, Marcia. Picturing The Rose: A Way of looking at Fairy Tales. New York: H.W.Wilson Co., 1994.

Stein, Murray and Lionel Corbett, eds. Psyche’s Stories: Modern Jungian Interpretations of Fairy Tales. Illinois: Chiron Publications, 1993. 

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In Japanese folklore, the Kappa is by far the best known. A Kappa is a green hideous water-sprite monster which resembles a manlike goblin, yet it is a scaly, hairless ape like creature with the head of a monkey, the body of a tortoise, and the webbed legs of a frog. It is about the size of a ten-year old kid and is believed to be the descendent of a monkey messenger of the River God.

Kappas are bald on the top of their heads but have long hair flowing down along the sides. The bald spot on the top of the kappa’s head is actually a deep saucer-shaped indented bowl which holds water. The water in its bowl-like head gives strength and sustains life for the kappa, so it must keep some amount of water in it at all times. They cannot live on the land for too long, as they must always keep their heads wet. Should the water be spilled, they immediately lose their powers.

Kappas inhabit rivers and prey on children who swim in their waters. They pull little children into the water and drown them. This is achieved by hugging a victim, effectively keeping him under water so he could drown. They enter their victim through the anus, devour him, drawing forth his intestines and liver. Kappas have also been known to attack travellers and animals, including horses tethered by the river bank This is done so as to reinforce the idea that the river and its surrounding territories belong to the kappa and intruders will be dealt with severely, usually with death.

The Kappas feed themselves with cucumbers and blood, and use cucumbers to travel on them. These cucumbers fly like dragonflies.

There are only two ways to escape from the clutches of the Kappa.

One way to deter a Kappa would be to bow to it, and it would be obliged to bow back, thus letting the water drip from the depression in its head. It would then have to return to the waters to refill it. Another way would be to throw a cucumber with one’s name inscribed on it, and the Kappas, who are very fond of cucumbers, would not bring harm to that person.

Monstrous as they are, Kappas are very intelligent and can be propitiated by humans. They can be befriended by wise men to whom they will teach the art of selling bones.

Interestingly, there are many Japanese terminologies that are associated with the Kappa. For example, there is a Japanese saying ‘Kappa mo kawa nagare’. Literally, it means that even a “Kappa” can get carried away by the river. The modern translation is that anyone can make mistakes.

Also, in Japan, you can find the kappa maki. This is a variety of sushi and its ingredients are seaweed, cucumbers, rice, salt, sugar and rice wine vinegar. To eat it, you only need to put some soy sauce on it. It is so called the kappa maki because the colour and texture of the cucumber resembles that of the kappa, not forgetting that cucumbers are the kappa’s favourite food. And believe it or not, in Vancouver’s reputedly best Sushi Bar and Japanese Restaurant also goes by the name of Kappa.

‘Kappa’ also means raincoat in Japan. And do you know that the Kappa haircut has also been quite popular with Japanese females. To add further, there is also a kitchen ware town in Asakusa, Tokyo called “Kappa-Bashi” in Japanese. Its original name, however, is Kappabashi Shopping Centre.

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Before reading on, do spend some time going through the under-mentioned four questions and see if you can identify with any of them.

Question 1
Do you feel a constant pressure to achieve and be the best?

Question 2
Do you have to be in control all the time?

Question 3
Do you feel that you can never be as good in doing something as other people?

Question 4
Does your self-esteem depend on how others perceive of you?

If you have answered yes to any of the above questions, don’t worry. This article was written to help you.

At this juncture, I think some, if not most of you might already have guessed the theme of this article. Yes, I’ll be teaching you how to manage stress and how to make stress work for you.

We complain about stress everyday. But what exactly is stress?

Stress is the feeling of tension or anxiety we feel under certain conditions. Or as others might put it, the “war and tear” of our bodies.

Contrary to popular belief that there are 101 factors that cause stress, simply thinking of these 101 factors will already make you stressed. So, forget about them. I’m telling you now that there are only four stress-building reasons, which are related to the four questions which I posed at the very beginning of this article.

Let’s review the questions again.

Question 1 – Do you feel a constant pressure to achieve and be the best?

Are you trying to be like Tina Turner who goes “simply the best, better than all the rest, better than anyone else, anyone I’ve ever met”?

If you acknowledge this, I hereby pronounce you guilty of the first charge of trying to be perfect.

No one in this world is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. Instead of criticising yourself for not being perfect, just remember that there will always be people who are better than you and there will always be people who are worse than you. Don’t compare yourself with others. Just do what you must do and do you best.

Question 2 – Do you have to be in control all the time?

If ‘yes’, you are guilty of the second charge of trying to be strong.

To you, any lack of control is a sign of weakness or failure. As such, you are constantly putting yourself in a tight position, with no room for flexibility at all. Relax, let others take the lead. It might be good to be a follower sometimes.

Question 3 – Do you feel that you can never be as good in doing something as other people?

Answering ‘yes’ would deliver the third charge of trying to be careful.

In your bid to be extra careful, you give up the forest for the trees. You take great care of the minor aspects but neglect the major aspects, allowing them to stress you later.

Question 4 – Does your self-esteem depend on how others perceive of you?

A ‘yes’ would man that you are guilty of the fourth charge of trying to be popular.

It seems that you live for the sake of others. You are better at caring for others than caring for yourself. In order to avoid displeasing others, you hide your negative feelings, allowing them to come out at full force later to stress you.

‘Yes’ answers to all these four charges indicate road-blocks to a tress-free life.

There is no way we can eliminate stress. What is more important is to know how to make stress work for us.

Thinking on the brighter side, stress does have positive effects. Positive stress adds an element of anticipation and excitement to life. We all thrive under a certain amount of stress. Datelines, assignments, competitions and presentations add depth and enrichment to our lives. Stress is essential for life. People moan daily about feeling stressed. Yet imagine a life without stress. Imagine having nothing to do or think about for the whole day. How boring it would be. How stressful it would be to get by every minute.

Stress levels increase when you are concentrating on your most alarming thoughts. But stress levels fall when you turn your attention away from these areas. Thus, an advice as to how to reduce the level of stress in your life would be to actively turn away from negative stress building thoughts and focus on the positive stress busting thoughts.

An example of a stress builder would be this.

“I’ll never get this project done in time.”

Don’t say this. Think positive. Create a stress buster and tell yourself this instead.

“If I stay focused and take it one step at a time, I’ll make steady progress.”

Add stress busters to your life.

Instead of stressing yourself and be reminded that the examinations are less than say one week away, create a stress buster. Think positive. Motivate yourself by thinking of the long holidays after the examinations. Think of the vacation you will be going for. Think of the part-time job you will be getting and the extra income it would give. Or better still, take it one step further. Think of all the good grades you will be getting for all your modules.

So the next time you feel stressed, don’t. Just turn your attention away from the stress building thoughts and create stress busters.

Written by: Lionel L (21 Oct 1998)

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Afternote (4 Mar 08)

I submitted this article and it was accepted. It’s now available for download from EzineArticles.com directory. Cool. And by virtue of this, I have the right to display the accolade on my site

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There has been much talk over the past few years of the need to inculcate a sense of nationhood and the odds Singapore had to overcome after independence in the minds of its people, but more importantly in the minds of the schoolchildren.

Ask any Singaporean or foreigner to name you some of Singapore’s achievements and he or she will be able to do so. Best airport, busiest port, most hardworking labour force, greenest city…

Indeed. All of what has been named are testimony to the fact that Singapore is a successful fine city.

Politically, we are a fine city. Our government is one of the cleanest governments in the world. Our judiciary system is efficient and highly regarded by all.

Economically, Singapore is the undisputed financial centre of Asia. Even in the light of the Asian economic crisis, Singapore is not so badly affected as compared to our neighbours because of our strong fundamentals. Our foreign reserves are exceptionally healthy, that we can afford to amass millions of ringgit in the Malaysian banks and offer Indonesia a five billion dollar loan. And we are proud to say that we are the world’s top share owing nation.

Socially, our housing estates role models for other nations including Hong Kong. Our new towns like Tampines and Pasir Ris have won international awards and worldwide acclaim. Our crime rates are low. It is safe to go home late at night without the fear of being mugged or robbed. You cannot find slumps in Singapore and almost all Singaporeans own the houses they live in.

We have also done well as far as education is concerned. Our students have beaten their foreign counterparts in international maths and science competitions.

The list of achievements go on. Singapore – the cosmopolitan city, the garden city, the fine city.

But wait a minute, are we really that fine a city after all?

No, I don’t think so.

The price we pay to be a fine city is just too high. In fact, Singapore is a “fine” city!

There are just too many rules and regulations in Singapore. No chewing of gum, no spitting, flushing of toilets, no durians in MRTs, installation of urine detectors in lifts. It is absurd. One would go bonkers trying to remember all these rules and regulations.

Having too many rules and regulations stifles creativity. Our government is actively encouraging its people to think for themselves. We hear calls for the establishment of “thinking schools”. But can we? After all, our government has been doing all the thinking for the past thirty-three years. And now they are telling us to think fir ourselves. Is it not a bit too late? All our thoughts have long dried up by now. We cannot think. We need others to think for us.

Second, we are not so fine after all. The majority of Singaporeans have never been through any hardship. All we have had is the good life. People have become soft. When there are problems, we complain and complain and complain. What ever happened to the survival instincts which our grandparents and ancestors had? Did we not inherit these virtues? Sad to say, apparently not.

Families are becoming more affluent as both parents are earning. Singapore has become a city of affluence. Yet whenever there is charity to be done, we shy away from it. The organisers have no choice but to beg us for our donations. Hong Kong and Taiwan superstars and singers have to be flown in to entice Singaporeans into parting with two or five dollars each. But what I find most shocking is this. Singaporeans donate to charity not for the sake of charity. Rather, they do so in the hope of winning the first prize of a luxurious condominium.

Currently, the emphasis is for all of us to lead a healthy lifestyle. Eat healthy, exercise regularly. The brochures state: You must exercise at least three times a week. But honestly, how may of us really follow the advice?

“Too busy, so tired”. These are just some of the more commonly heard excuses. Singaporeans are too busy making more money so as to upgrade themselves in the material sense. A Toyota last month. A Mercedes Benz next month. A five-room HDB flat two years ago. A bungalow in five years’ time. And even after attaining their goals, Singaporeans are never satisfied.

And because of our rising affluency, we pamper ourselves every week to high tea and buffet, gorging ourselves slowly to death. We hanker for high-class escargot, which are actually snails; while the people in Africa have nothing to eat.

In our bid to be number one in as many areas as we can, in our bid to maintain this fine city image, something has to give. Numerous surveys have shown that more Singaporeans are migrating because life in Singapore is just too stressful. There is too much pressure.

Schools are only too keen to upstage one another in the annual ranking of schools. The principal pressures the teachers. The teachers pressure the students. The students complain to their parents and their parents feel pressured too. When there is a school project to be done, the entire family gets involved. I recall the time when the Straits Times brought up this issue in the article titled “Help, my daughter’s projects are ruining my life.” It is also not unheard of for parents, especially mothers to take urgent leave during common tests and the examination period so that they can coach their children better to face the “examination hell” with more confidence.

Your mother must have told you this:

“Boy/Girl, make sure you do better than Auntie Mary’s son/daughter in the exams. Is that clear? Mummy don’t want to lose face…”

In our bid to maintain our fine city image, the only people who benefit are the psychiatrists. But again, not before having to sit through listening to the complaints of their clients.

Much as we know that Singapore is not the successful fine city it appears to be, nobody seems to want to change. Why?

Because change is a risk. Nobody can guarantee that change will be for the better. Change might be for the worse. And rightfully too. Why should we change? As Habibie puts it, we ‘a small red dot’ have arrived at where we are today and achieved so much in the short span of thirty-three years because of our sheer hard work, sacrifice and most importantly, our system.

Why open a can when you know that there are worms inside? After all, the can still looks fine on the outside!

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Just as we form first expressions of people seconds after meeting them, similarly, we form first impressions of a presentation seconds after hearing the introduction. Thus, an introduction should be designed to draw the listener’s attention to the topic of the presentation.

Some speakers choose to start like this, “Today, my presentation is about love.” While this does introduce the topic, it is not a very creative way to start a presentation. More effective methods could have been used and it is my aim to share with you some of these techniques.

The common theme that runs through all the different methods used will be based on the theme of love.

Introduction No. 1: Method – Begin with a Quotation

Quotations can be used to start a presentation.

“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name,
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.”

This is the famous balcony scene in which Juliet swears her undying love for Romeo. The quotation used successfully encapsulates the overall theme of the presentation, which is the theme of love.

Introduction No. 2: Method – Humour

It is important that the humour one intends to inject into the introduction relates to the topic of the presentation.

Q1: “What is love?”
A1: “Love is a three ring circus: engagement ring, wedding ring, suffe-ring.”

Q2: “What is love?”
A2: “Love is an institution in which a man loses his bachelor’s degree and a woman gets her master’s.”

Introduction No. 3: Method – Reference to a Historical Event

Faced with the unenviable task of choosing between his throne and his love, Edward VIII chose to abdicate and married American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson. Such was the power of love which gave him the courage to forsake the throne for his love.

Introduction No. 4: Method – Personal Experience

I remember the time when my grandfather passed away when I was still in primary school. I did not think much about it then and did not understand why everyone around me felt so sad. But as the years went by, I realized how little I loved him when he was still alive. He did so many things for me, but I never once appreciated them, even taking him for granted. How I wish I could turn back time and tell my grandfather the three most beautiful words in the English Language which I have always wanted to but never had the chance “I love you.”

Master these four methods and you can use them anytime, anywhere and to start any of your presentations.

Written by: Lionel L (2 Aug 1998)

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The queue theory has absolutely nothing to do with profound mathematical or scientific theories, so please rest assured.

“Don’t jump the queue”, “Queue here”, “Get into the queue”. These are just some of the more familiar expressions we see or hear almost everyday. Queues are everywhere, ranging from the bus-stops, MRT stations, hawker centres to the supermarkets.

Indeed, as far as Singapore is concerned, queueing is an activity in itself. It is not difficult to understand why life is composed of an endless queue of queues.

In the 1970s, there was the infamous national campaign which aimed at teaching people how to form orderly queues at bus-stops. People then did not know how to queue. They had to be taught so. But there has been no turning back since. From young, we have been conditioned by circumstances to queue so as to attain certain goals and advised to queue early.

Even before a baby is born, he is made to queue for his turn to come into this world. This is especially true in the case of twins of triplets. Everyone wants to be the eldest child, but there can only be one. Even after both siblings have been born, they will have to continue to queue for their mother’s attention. If both babies cry at the same time, the probability of either one baby receiving the intended attention is halved. However, if one particular baby joins in the queue and waits for his turn, crying only after the wailing of his other sibling has subsided, then he gets the attention he wants.

Brace yourselves and be prepared. The queueing game has just begun.

I remember the time when I was in primary school when all of us had to queue up after recess time to have an opportunity to squat next to the drain in the quadrangle. To do what one may ask? To queue up to brush one’s teeth. Imagine being the last in the queue and finding heaps of Colgate or Darlie in the drains and having to clear them up. But on another occasion, while queueing up to be reprimanded by the form teacher, I was glad to be the last in the queue. After all, having scolded more than twenty of my other classmates, she would not have much energy left to scold me.

The pre-university days marked the queueing for the supposed belle of the junior college. No doubt I was also of the budding Romeos in the queue, but a pity I never got to her. Thinking back, I should have jumped the queue then but I guess I never did so, for fear of a fractured nose.

Perhaps the best place to see queues and personally be involved in queues on a daily basis is during National Service. Mealtimes do not come just like that. The opportunity cost incurred is having to queue with a tray in one hand and a mug in the other, only to be greeted with the hostility of the cooks who never failed to intimidate us. After all, we still needed to depend on their food servings for survival.

The epitome of the queueing game reveals itself when it is finally rime to take a shower after a hard day’s training. But alas, you still need to queue! Perhaps the only consolation in this case is getting to admire the wet, naked physiques presented in front of you in full, uncensored view.

University life again gives full play to the notion of queueing and seems to relish this fact by encouraging multi-queueing. This was most evident from the queueing for the signing up of tutorial slots. All the queueing took place on the same day and at the same time across all faculties, resulting in massive human traffic jams along corridors and outside departments.

Before settling down, one again has to queue at the Registry of Marriage. This phenomenon reached its climax in 1997 when countless number of couples-to-be joined in the queue just to take advantage of not having their five thousand dollars deposit confiscated if they could produce their marriage certificate before a certain dateline.

The queueing does not just stop here. After a child is born, the vicious cycle starts again. Anxious parents queue overnight to secure a place in the childcare centres and nursery schools for their children. And when the property market was bullish, people willingly queued in droves just to be among the first few to purchase a condominium.

Sad to say, even when a person has vanished from the surface of the earth, he has to queue for a final resting place for his weary bones.

When his soul departs from his body, he has to queue to enter the gates of heaven or hell. In the unfortunate event that he enters hell, he is destined to queue again, this time at the Forgotten Bridge. Those of you familiar with Chinese mythology will then know that after he has gotten his queue number, the legendary Meng Po will grant him a bowl of water which will help him forget his past. Only after he has drunk the water is he eligible to start queueing for his reincarnation.

So, do you know the morale of the story?

Queueing is here to stay. For those of you who don’t like queueing, then the moon is the only place for you because there will be nobody to queue with you on the moon. But before you can fly off to the moon, there is still one thing you must do. You still need to start queueing at the station to book your ticket to the moon.

Hence, the three golden rules of my queue theory which you must know to succeed in life are as follows:-

Rule 1 :            Start queueing

Rule 2 :            Queue early (to avoid disappointment)

Rule 3 :            Return to Rule 1

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The bamboo, a tall plant of the grass family thrives in the tropical climate of Thailand, Burma and China. Its hard, jointed stems are used for making furniture and in building houses. As a bamboo grows, it absorbs silica from the soil. The silica is stored in the hollow, jointed stems and this makes it hard. Fence posts, bridges, fishing poles and parts of musical instruments are also made from bamboo. When the stem is split into stripes, it can be woven into rugs, mats and fishing nets.

Every once in a long, long while – every thirty-three to sixty-six years, or in fact every one or two human generations, bamboos commit suicide for reasons we do not understand (some say it is sunspots), but this is no more than a guess. The giant bamboos burst into bloom, sending up enormous flowering shoots which take the place of the ordinary leafy shoots. These flowers use up all the plants’ reserves of food and the result is that the plant dies.

We must also not forget that the leaves of the bamboo plant are also used to wrap dumplings for the Dumpling Festival. The Dumpling Festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Its origin dates back to the death of the poet cum patriot Qu Yuan around 278 BC. He was an honoured minister who was undermined in his efforts to fight corruption in the state of Chu. Slandered by false accusations, he was disgraced and banished. In his twenty years of exile, the heartbroken Qu Yuan helplessly observed the state being destroyed from within. In despair, he drowned himself in the Mi Luo River, but not before writing some of the finest poetry in Chinese Literature. After learning of his death, the villagers immediately searched for his body. They threw rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves for the fish, to prevent them from eating the poet’s body. Today, the Chinese hold the dragon boat races to remind them of this tragic event. But more importantly, they remember Qu Yuan and the importance of loyalty and commitment to the community by eating dumplings filled with meat, duck’s eggs, lentils, chestnuts and spices during the Dumpling Festival. The pyramid-shaped dumplings of today include different varieties – the bean variety, the glutinous rice with meat and mushrooms type, the Peranakan version which is sweeter and the alkaline dumplings which are normally eaten with sugar or honey.

The bamboo plant is elegant and graceful. It is the subject of much interest to nature lovers and painters. The bamboo has its functional use and is also edible. The Japanese value and relish bamboo shoots as delicacies. The Japanese are basically seasonal people. During spring, the bamboo shoot is eaten with reverence as appetizer or vegetable that goes with the main dish.

There is also a romantic view of the the bamboo, of how ill-fated lovers meet under a lump of bamboo and sing songs to each other. There is no doubt the bamboo has a lot of significance for the Asians.

Communist China sealed herself from the Western world in 1949. The term “bamboo curtain” was used to describe the imaginary barrier that prevented communication and contact between Communist China and the West. A closer look at the bamboo will reveal that it is hard on the outside – just like the rigid and inflexible communist regime. Yet it is hollow inside. This directly reflects a heartless approach in the way she settles her political problems.

The latest and perhaps most powerful attack on Chinese tradition was mounted by the Cultural Revolution which started in 1966 and ended in 1976. The Cultural Revolution aimed to root out both customs and habits from China’s past and foreign way of life.

04 June 1989. Tiananmen Square. The day when a bloody crackdown by the military authorities on the pro-democracy protests took place. For forty years, China’s reflexes had been conditioned by authoritarian rule. For the late paramount leader of Communist China, Deng Xiaoping, the students overrunning the streets in Tiananmen Square spelt terror and chaos and they must be brought to heel. The authorities were in great fear that decision making would be transferred from the corridors of power to the streets of Beijing. And the pride of China – its troops were called in to suppress the student masses! The army tanks overran many students, killing thousands and injuring hundreds.

It appears that the bamboo curtain has been lifted a little. China has now opened her doors to foreign investors and is actively encouraging them to invest in joint partnership projects. However, will she allow the winds of change to blow into her corridors? 

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