Singapore Visitor On East-West Integration

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29802, 19 April 1962, Page 2

Singapore Visitor On East-West Integration

Assimilation of the best features of other cultures while retaining the best of one’s own is the answer to integration between East and West according to a visiting Chinese woman, Mrs S. T. Liu, of Singapore. Mutual understanding was not sufficient —races should be able to choose from the best of both worlds what could be satisfactorily applied to their own way of life without its losing its basic character, she said. Mrs Liu is the wife of the marketing officer for the New Zealand Trade Commission in Singapore (Mr S. T. Liu) who is in New Zealand on a combined business and holiday tour.

Mrs Liu’s westernisation includes education, clothes, and certain customs. Her 15-year-old daughter attends an English convent in Singapore, will sit school certificate this year, and learns ballet dancing. But her family speaks Chinese at home, eats Chinese food, and observes certain customs such as Chinese New Year. Her son attends a Chinese school, but will take both Chinese and English school certificates. Mrs Liu is a working mother, and has several interests outside the home. A private secretary before her marriage, her career has taken her into the insurance field, where she is an agency supervisor for an American firm.

The work includes recruiting and training insurance agents, and taking them into the field for selling experience. She is in charge of about 15 persons. Mrs Liu is a graduate assistant of the Singapore branch of the Dale Carnegie Alumnae Association, an organisation which arranges courses in public speaking, leadership training, and the application of Dale Carnegie’s rules for personal success. Inaugurated in Singapore about seven years ago. it now had a membership of about 660, comprising Malays. Chinese, English and Indians. Mrs Liu said.

The courses were run by a Chinese sponsor who had

been trained by an American member of the association After graduation, members formed themselves into groups, each with its own committee, which continued the application of what had been learnt, by debates and prepared and impromptu speeches. Another of Mrs Liu's interests is in the activities of her school’s old pupils’ association. the Fairfield Girls’ School Alumnae. Its purpose was purely to enable past pupils to keep in touch with

each other Activities included cooking lessons, dramatics. and outings. Mrs Liu’s hobbies include tennis, squash and cooking. .Although she has a servant to do the housework while she is at work, Mrs Liu likes to do the family cooking herself on Sundays to make something special for the family.

Keenly interested in current affairs, Mrs Liu commented yesterday on the proposed Malaysia federation. “This would be a very good thing, as Singapore cannot now stand on its own,’’ she said. One reason was that the island-city’s water supply came from Jahore on the mainland. But more important was that Singapore existed only on its trade —merging with the federation would be mutually advantageous. Mrs Liu said. Generally, most persons in Singapore favoured the merger. she said. Negotiations were well under way. with only details to complete.