Where East Meets West

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 6 (Supplement)

Where East Meets West

By M.K.

XT AVE you over been to China? If one lives in Singapore there is no need to ask that question, as one may so easily bo whisked away in a motorcar from that beautiful city to tho littlo Shanghai of British Malaya. _ What romance there is to bo found in the narrow streets, tho tall shop-houses and the aromatic food stalls huddled together and all doing a roaring trade! Let us forget our luxurious bungalows nestling on the hillside, our clubs, our modern hotels, our theatres, and take a jaunt by night to mingle with those who have adopted this country as their own, giving in return their energy and strength, so that life may be enjoyed in comfort. First we go to a Chinese " wyanp; or theatre, where the playors, garbed in the gorgeous raiment of their forefathers, give a weird exhibition of antics onlv understandable to the Oriental. With staccato-like movements of head, hands and feet and a jangle of high-pitched voices the show goes on, endless in its monotony, while tho fantastic players walk to and fro on the stage, tho audience neither clapping nor encouraging. Presently, apparently without rhyme or reason, the players disappear—the show is over. Here we are again in the dingy narrow street, where everything from a lantern to a gruesome-looking Chinese coffin is made. An old man is at work on a small box, carving tho most intricate design with the finest of tools. His wrinkled face, inscrutable, and betraying no knowledge of our presence, never looks up from his job of work. The old oil lamp under which he carves his beautiful design sheds a fitful and joyless light. We leave him and come to the bright electric lights of a barber's shop, where young China gets its shave and its modern haircut. Here you see a pretty young Chinese girl wield the foamy shaving brush over her customer's face with the skill of a professional. Then there is the " dhoby," or laundry, where the ironing of hundreds of garments of all shapes and sizes goes on unceasingly.

GLIMPSES OF NIGHT LIFE IN SINGAPORE

And now it is time we thought about supper. We push and jostle our way through the thronged streets, whore lamp-lit food stalls line each available space. In front of each stall are tiny three-legged stools, made evidently for persons of fragile proportions. We finally decide on a meal of-"mah mee." and tako our respective seats while the tasty preparation gets a final stir in tho huge iron pot before being dished out. One man slices prawns, already cooked. Another dishes out the " nice " —a spaghetti-like preparation, a ladle of boiling soup, a few pieces of pork, a sprinkle of fried onions and a dash of prawns—to say nothing of the ground chillies, for no food in tho East is complete without its sprinklo of hot stuff. Finally we are deferentially handed tho chopsticks. Personally, after trying unsuccessfully to thumb and finger my sticks I give up in despair, and stab my prawns in the back. The spaghetti simply slithers off the sticks and falls in a tangled mass in my lap, while tho soup—what is left of it —probably finds its way back to the melting pot! But "niah mee" is just one of the many varieties of food which tho Chinese eat. Salted eggs, which look like little mud pies to our unaccustomed eyes, are preserved for many moons in a clay pack, and still retain their flavour. Bowls and bowls of freshly cooked rice, the staple food of tho Asiatics, resemble little moutains of snow in the smoke atmosphere of the charcoal fires by which the cooking is done. We pass slowly to the end of the narrow street, past a tall shop-house well lit from the inside. We stand and peep through tho iron grill that forms its barricade of privacy. There is nothing to soe, but wo hear many voices; sometimes we hear a man singing softly to his accompaniment of a Chinese fiddle. To us it is unmusical, our ears are trained to different melodies, but in the East we have romance, gaiety, and pathos, and it all mingles strangely with this bustling throng that is part of the night-life in this Eastern outpost of the Empire.