Friday, June 24, 2011

“完美”都市 A fine city

Singapore is a fine city. 我们已经学会自嘲说新加坡是个完美的城市,也是个罚款的城市。在行人过道50米以内过马路罚款50元,在MRT进食罚款500元,乱抛垃圾、公共场所抽烟等都以金钱挡灾。如果通过fine真的可以塑造完美的国民、优雅的社会那还好办,fine了这么多年,我们还没优雅起来,我们的城市是外表的fine,不是骨子里的fine。

乱过马路,以每一通罚款50大元来计算,若没被执法人员逮个正着就等于赚了50大元,以此计算,这辈子不晓得赚了多少冤钱,或许可以买一间袖珍型公寓了。第一次发这种50元的发财梦还没成年。话说当时还在新加坡工艺学院念书,所谓念书,其实是在学会搞学生活动的时间远远超过读书时间。父亲总是埋怨从来没看过我们这样子读书的,起早摸黑,天蒙蒙亮就出门,夜阑人静的时候还没归家,星期六星期天也回校不误,难道家没有一点值得留恋之处吗?



(行人过马路安全运动Road Safety Campaign c.mid 1970s)

当时确实有好些同学为了学生活动跟家人闹得不愉快,搬出来在学校附近金文泰租房子,同屋共住。我们搞学生活动称为“搞工作”,这些同学当然是“工作伙伴”了。我们的工作伙伴热火朝天干劲高,似乎都本末倒置,工作搞得超好,功课则一塌糊涂,大概已经忘了来念书的最原始的目的。结果三年的文凭课程,有些伙伴一年“毕业”,被校方请出大门,有些伙伴读了五年最长期限还是毕不了业,同样得忍痛离开校园。

当时学会中一个多才多艺的会友KM口琴手风琴歌唱相声样样精通,是个不可多得的演艺人才。某一个深夜十一时许,我们乘着同一辆209号巴士,从Dover Road直到Hill Street 警察局(现在的MICA)前下车,我们都十分惊讶。我的家就在警察局前车站对面,窗口对着车水马龙、灰尘滚滚的“水仙门二马路”,到了半夜,偶尔会有汽车驶过。KM说他回阿公的家,阿公就住在车站斜对面咖啡店旁的仰康药行后面。中学时后面的水仙门大厦刚落成,他还常跟着老表们在水仙门大厦内追逐。我也常跟弟妹们在里头玩捉迷藏,地方大又有冷气,是另一类充满新鲜感的游乐场,可是我们都对这另外一组人没半点印象。

(我们就是这样从车站越过马路,赚取$50. c.1970s)

(仰康药行在图左方。c.1970s)

(仰康药行装潢。当时的药行只卖药,不像现在的药行像杂货店。c.1970s)

站在车站,左边是天桥,右边是交通灯。反正夜已深,警察局内的警察也大概在打瞌睡了,我们就越过马路吧!一二三四,我们越过了四条车道,抵达“彼岸”,彼此为各赚五十元,合赚一百大元而沾沾自喜。在那个年代,五十元可是我一个月的生活费哩!

原来50元是这么好赚的,以前赚到的都没记账,似乎是白白浪费了,以后赚到的,可要好好记起来。自此以后,手法越来越熟练,赚多了反而觉得是种罪过,尤其是生儿育女之后,才明白fine的苦心,只希望下一代能够好好地过活,不希望他们在虎口下遭遇到原本可以避免的意外,过马路前总会思考一下,给下一代树立正确的榜样。

(仰康药行旁河边的大华茶室,著名的卤鸭和旁边的大华肉挫面。c.1970s)

后来KM和我都进入NTI继续另一轮学生生涯,他还活跃于学生活动中,而我则跟学生活动越走越远。

跟老婆提起“乱过马路”的陈年旧事,她说其实还有学生优惠价的。当年她的妹妹也就是我的小姨还是个学生,在Parkway Parade前没有遵守行人交通规则,被便衣警察拦住,打个四折,只收20元。她怕被父母骂,结果姐妹同心,由老婆写支票了事。

你还记得新加坡在那一年那一月那一日正式落实行人过马路罚款法令吗?

1977年7月1日。

Friday, June 17, 2011

A&V years

Some time between 1964 and 1967, National Panasonic(那申纽) set up a show room at North Bridge road opposite St. Andrew Church. Although the National showroom was squeezed in between Capitol Theatre and Bata, the neon brightened up the sky at night and made it a prominent landmark.

(North Bridge Road. c.1970)

My grandmother would bring me to National to watch free TV programmes when the night fell. Two TVs were showing Chinese news in black and white, and English news for the other two. The TVs were like bulky cabinets which housed the assembled picture tubes and electronics. Switching on the TVs in those days required a lot of patience. It usually took more than a minute or two before the sound and picture appeared. It also went against the theory of light travels faster than sound. We usually received sound a couple of seconds earlier than images.

Broadcasting in Singapore began on 5 May 1923 when Radio Singapura was established as the first local mass market radio service. 40 years later, on 15 February 1963, Singapore launched the first television service through Televisyen Singapura (TV Singapura) under Radio Television Singapore (RTS). The inauguration of regular television broadcast took place on 2 April 1963 with four hours of English programmes daily in Channel 5. Channel 8 was introduced on 23 November 1963 to broadcast programmes predominantly in Chinese.

(Typical "1st generation" bulky B&W TV found in Singapore)

RTS became part of the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) in 1980. SBC was fully privatized in 1994. Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS) took over the television broadcasting arm of SBC and Radio Corporation of Singapore (RCS) took over the radio broadcasting arm of SBC.

In 2001, the broadcasting groups were restructured again into Media Corporation of Singapore (MediaCorp).

The changes from RTS, SBC, TCS, RCS to MediaCorp were too complicated for ordinary folks like us. For the general mass, the concern was to receive valuable AV entertainments to brighten up our days.

(Classic from RTS: 王沙野峰,1970s)

(Classic from SBC: 红头巾,1986)

(Classic from TCS: Stepping out, 出路,1999)

(Classic from Mediacorp: The Little Nyonya,小娘惹,2009)

Despite the long history of radio broadcast in Singapore, I only owned the very first palm size portable AM radio in 1974 when I was a secondary one student. It took me tremendous effort to convince my dad to buy one at a price of less than $10. The reason I provided was that we did not have a TV at home to receive news on time. I felt extremely handicapped when communicating with teachers and schoolmates the next day. The most cost-effective option to bridge such gap would be a small radio. After weeks of consideration, dad finally decided to buy a transistor radio as a gift for my secondary education.
(Portable AM transistor radio)

In the same year, colour TV was brought in to Singapore market although Singapore broadcasting technology had yet to be fully colour-ready for quality signal transmission. In July, I went with my neighbour to People’s Park to watch a midnight live telecast world cup final between Germany and Netherland. People’s Park was flooded with crowd to watch the football match in colour. Netherland was the favourite as hot as their orange jersey. They even scored an early goal. But eventually Germany displayed the finest teamwork and greatest efficiency in alignment with their traditional black and white outfit and won the match 2:1.

From a portable radio, we advanced to own a portable black and white 16” Philips TV in 1977. Apart from paying more than $300 for the TV, we had to fork out another $100 to install an outdoor TV antenna outside the window. The reception remained bad with the antenna. We were told that where we lived was too close to Fort Canning. The TV signal was partially blocked by the 60m hill and partially affected by the huge telecom radar fitted on top of the hill. We could install the antenna at the roof top just like our neighbours but this would cost a few hundred dollars extra. We chose not to spend precious money.

The 16” B&W TV brought us many enjoyable nights. Of the four channels (5 and 8 are Singapore channels, 3 and 10 are Malaysia channels), we usually locked on to Hong Kong serials such as 三国演义、小李飞刀、陆小凤、变色龙 and 网中人. On Sunday afternoon, Channel 8 used to show Cantonese films acted by 谢贤、胡枫、刘嘉玲、陈宝珠and many other famous Hong Kong stars. On special occasions, we would switch to Channel 5 for Malaysia cup and British FA cup live telecast.

During my national service days, we accumulated enough to upgrade to a 20” Philips KT3300 colour TV at $600+. I remembered the TV model so well because soon after not long, I joined Philips Video Factory in Toa Payoh and learned that KT3300 was the most reliable model. It did not have the common hiccup problem (cracker sound that could cause heart attack as and when. It usually diminished after a few weeks) during run in period as faced by many other TVs produced at that era. KT3300 lasted for more than 10 years. However it could not outlast our very first B&W TV which was only given away 2 years ago at fully functional condition.

(Highly innovative advertisement)

Since then, we witnessed the rapid wave of technology changes over time. From CRT, it developed into flat square tube (FST), projection TV, HDTV, plasma, LCD, LED and 3D. In 2004, I visited Japan NTT Cyble Communications Laboratory Group (Yokosuka) and deeply impressed by the 4D technology which has yet to be commercialised today. We were like boarded a yacht riding in giant wave without having to put on 3D spectacles, and yet we experienced the 3D effect and the familiar kind of sea sickness! The demonstration was virtual but the feeling was exceptionally real.

(Outside NTT Cyble Communications Lab Yokosuka, 2004)

Since then, we also kissed goodbye to our very first portable radio. Step-by-step, we moved on to 2-in-1 radio cum cassette player, stereo radio, and HiFi with multiple modern features and surrounding sound effects.

(Portable stereo radio cum cassettee player and recorder)

Today, we are also able to access to radio broadcast through handphone and computer. We do not have to dial a fixed line or use a mobile phone to communicate with each other, not forgetting that we have to pay huge overseas fees to telecom companies. We can simply download Skype and enjoy free AV communication over internet. We watch MediaCorp programmes through starhub cable. We could also watch many TV programmes and live broadcasts through the net.

(Kissing goodbye to $110 TV license fee from 2011 onwards)

Despite all these technology changes, what amazed me most was that we still had to subscribe to the legacy of paying the compulsory radio and TV license fees. Over the years, no one in the government was bold enough to abandon such out-dated practice until the recent year 2011 budget announcement. Perhaps it was also staged as a gift for the general election?

Friday, June 10, 2011

洪门弟兄(7 of 7)- 传说

1914年柔佛并入英殖民辅政的“马来属邦”,1917年废除港主制度,1919年义兴公司被令解散。经过六十多年风雨沧桑岁月后,椒蜜王国就此解体淹没。随着柔佛州椒蜜业停止生产后,那些开发出来的土地都纷纷改种树胶。开荒的华人劳工,仍然继续在蕉风椰雨中奋斗着,奠定农产繁荣的基础。


(入党宣誓:自入洪门之后,必要顺天行道...自入洪门之后,必要尊老爱幼....)

新山华社流传的“一山一庙一校”,是义兴公司这个传奇性组织的的统合格局。柔佛义兴公司虽以潮州人为主,但由于其“独尊”地位,其它籍贯人士亦加入该组织,使它成为一个跨方言群的本土化民间组织。

(义兴公司收据)

义兴公司领导新山华社期间,当地的华人神庙、公冢及学堂,没有明显的分帮立派的色彩,新山“五帮”(潮州、福建、客家、广肇和海南)协调分配,共同供奉柔佛古庙的五尊神祇,共同使用中华义山,共同扶持宽柔学校的发展。1922年成立的柔佛华侨公所,以及在战后成立的新山区中华公会都秉持着当年的义兴传统。

中华义山是当地最古老的华人坟山,从山脚下拾级而上,不出百米即可见明墓。明墓并非明朝之墓,墓中埋葬的也不是先人遗骨,而是义兴公司的账本和108位先烈的神主牌。当年柔佛义兴公司被令停止活动后,1921年建立明墓以纪念这些早期反清复明的义士,包括“候明义士” 陈开顺, “奉天合之一道,一片丹心,反清复明,以顺天意之同流。”


(中华义山,明墓)

义兴在解散时将公司所存的余款二万元(约为当时四个港区全年的收入)尽数捐献给1913年创办的宽柔学校,绿水青山度绵长,对宽柔的发展影响至深。宽柔学校发展至今,已有宽柔五所小学、宽中二校与南方学院,学生约二万人。从无到有,再延伸至大专之道,宽柔走过百年路。而新山中华公会和宽柔诸董事至今仍然每年春秋两祭“明墓”,以纪念当年义兴公司对华文教育的贡献。

(宽柔学校)

如果说中华义山代表过去,宽柔学校代表未来,那么柔佛古庙则是衔接过去与未来、神界与尘世的媒介。古庙何时建立已不可考,根据庙内刻着同治乙亥年的洪钟,可能在1865年或更早。古庙于1870年由当时新山义兴公司领导人陈旭年兴修扩建,取名柔佛古庙。柔佛古庙同时供奉元天上帝、感天大帝、洪仙大帝、华光大帝和赵大元帅五位主神,由五帮分配奉祀,体现了“五帮共和”的思想。


(柔佛古庙,2010年与1950年)

据说古庙游神的风俗也从那时开始。 每年农历正月二十,古庙里的五位主神由信众请至中华义山下的行宫。正月二十一傍晚,五神乘坐的轿子次第出宫,一直持续到凌晨,在正月二十二由信众护驾回庙。对于新山人来说,或许那才是为春节所画上的最完美的句号。

(古庙内的洪钟,同治乙亥年是1865年)

(华光大帝是古庙供奉的五位主神之一)

(1960年代,柔佛古庙游神,警察还穿着短裤)

(柔佛古庙游神,2009)

柔佛就在新加坡兀兰对岸,隔着一道只有一公里的新柔长堤。传说中最美的距离是两岸,因为有两岸,我们能够两望烟水里,逐步挖掘出一篇篇摄人心房的古老传说,衔接出先人离乡背井、垦荒求存的动人故事。在这段凭着业余嗜好,搜索新马两地洪门事迹,尝试把点点滴滴串联成合理的“剧情”的时刻,发觉原来禅心未死,还有深深感动,甚至偷偷流泪的时候。我们和那个年代的“他们”,其实也隔着一条河,我们和“他们”,也正站在桥的两岸。

《两岸》—小曼

因为两岸/才有相望的眼/才有相待的心/才有相思的梦
因为两岸/才有相逢的激情/才有相送的无奈/才有回忆的倒影
因为两岸/心和心之间/恒有一座不坠的桥/
传说中最美的距离是两岸/

Friday, June 03, 2011

洪门弟兄(6 of 7)- 新柔华人一线牵

传说中最美的距离是两岸。我们在新马的生活与文化背景有许多相近之处,长堤见证了两地的社会发展,也成为联系两地的桥梁。每天清晨,一群新山人起早摸黑,越过长堤来新加坡工作;下班后越过长堤,回到万家灯火的对岸。


(新柔长堤)

1923年长堤落成之前,往来新马以渡轮代步,时光往前推至1844年,Temenggong Daing Ibrahim发出一张“港契”后,陈开顺率领潮州侨乡从新加坡到柔佛拓荒,种植甘蜜与胡椒,成为陈厝港的港主,塑造了新柔华人一线牵的历史命脉。

(1923年前,川行新马间由渡轮代步)

为了配合当时柔佛经济和社会发展,陈开顺采取各种措施化除柔佛义兴公司私会党的形象,致力为该公司转型,成为有正当宗旨和目标的社会组织:

1. 商业化,从事正当行业。陈厝港开发以后,义兴公司按照市场需要从事商业活动,主要经营甘蜜胡椒的种植与买卖,而不单只是捞偏门,如鸦片烟馆、赌馆、妓院等。

2. 纪律化,去掉私会党不受纪律约束的原始属性。柔佛义兴公司成员按照生产程序,致力把荒地开辟成甘蜜园和胡椒园,并把甘蜜和胡椒成品销往各地,按规定期限向柔佛王室缴纳税收,同时参与维护当地社会安定的活动,使柔佛义兴公司成为一个有利于社会安定的华人组织。

3. 公民化,遵守当地各项法律,努力为当地社会作出各种贡献,履行公民应尽的义务,成为当时柔佛苏丹安邦定国的良民,社会地位显著提高。

有鉴于此,Temenggong Daing Ibrahim之子Abu Bakar继位后,于1873年颁布《柔佛统制港主法令》,第十三条明文规定“港主应遵守先王所颁布之命令,不得于‘义兴’之外另立会党”,间接承认“独尊义兴”,一党独大的合法地位。

1855年,陈开顺得到Temenggong Daing Ibrahim的许可,率领人马开辟Tanjung Puteri,以取代25英里外的哥打丁宜(Kota Tinggi)的旧柔佛(Johor Lama)。陈开顺建立柔佛州第一所警署,并担任警署署长,有效地保障该地的社会秩序。过后,他迎接王室和行政人员,搬迁至这个充满活力的新城市,命名为新山(Johor Baru),成为柔佛的首府。


(Johor Lama,今日的宁静小镇)

关于新山这个中文名,有各种说法,比如新山当年的华裔先贤习惯把对面的兀兰(Woodlands)称为“老山头”,而把“Johor Bahru”称为“新山”。另一说法是当年潮州人多,Johor Baru成为小汕头,既然汕头在潮州,那么Johor Baru这个小汕头就称为新汕头吧!新汕新山,新山便由此得名了。

http://nmsmandarindocents.wordpress.com/2010/09/12/%e6%90%ad%e7%81%ab%e8%bd%a6%ef%bc%8c%e6%b8%b8%e6%96%b0%e5%b1%b1/

还有一个可能,柔佛从Johor Lama迁都到Johor Baru,等于从旧山迁到新山,取名“新山”显得顺理成章。


(新山的古与今,据说新加坡的店小二餐馆在此新山烧鸭店取经)

话说回来,1890年新加坡社团法令生效后,英殖民政府封闭海峡三州府义兴公司的活动,以打击私会党。 相较于新马其它地方,帮派械斗及土地争夺之事,在柔佛开拓发展史上是比较少见的。其中很大原因,在于义兴公司是受到柔佛王朝认可推崇的华人组织,同时也是早期柔佛华人社会凝聚力的核心。