2008年5月26日

种----族

参与了“艺树人”在前两个星期五呈现的活动，从中好像更了解自己对于种族关系的想法。

1）Race In Schools - SteReotypes And OtheRs
在参与当中的一些游戏时，我很惊奇地发现我们很多人原来在无形中对一些人或一组人持有一些刻板的印象。例如：很多人都认为印族同胞说话时很大声、而且很爱说话还有喜欢为自己的行为辩护。（注：我只是举出一些在活动中出现的情况，并非有心针对任何族群）

经过大家积极地参与和讨论，我听到很多有趣的故事和亲身经历。听着在场的人叙述他们的经历不禁让我盟生一个问题：我们对于其他族群的刻板印象究竟是我们个人的偏见亦或者是有一定的真实？所谓无风不起浪。

当然，尽管我有这样的疑问，我还是不赞成把任何族群定型，更反对用我们持有的刻板印象去看待其他族群的人。我想很多人都很了解并且也知道，什么样的行为是对的、是好的。例如：我们都知道对于其他族群的同胞们必须有一定的敏感度。可是，知道的和真正能够感受的毕竟不完全一样吧。

身为华人，也许我们太习惯属于社会的 majority，因此要忽略少数族群的感受，绝对不是不可能的。

生活中，我也遇过一些让我有所领悟的事情。嗯，例如我认识一个印族同学——我一直没有问她的宗教是什么，而我也在无形中认为她是兴都教的信徒。后来，我终于问她，然而我得到的答案并不如我所想像的。原来，她是回教徒（Indian Muslim）。这个经历让我开始思考我们是不是习惯性地把种族和宗教这两个其实没有任何特定关系的概念联想在一起？我们理所当然认为马来人就是回教徒、印度人就是兴都教徒。然而，我发现我们却没有把华人看成佛教徒啊！为什么我们可以接受并且不事先以为华人是佛教徒，可是对于马来人或印度人却有事先的判断呢？

在活动中，演讲者也提到“name-calling” 这一点。听她提起这一点，我便想起我在学校电梯里听到的一番对话。当时，两名学生在讨论考试成绩。他们说到关于每次考试名列前茅的外国学生时（多数是来自中国和印度的学生），用了两个名称来称呼他们—“Ah Tiong”（中国人） 和“KLK”（Keh Leng Kia/印度人）。的确，我想类似这种不礼貌的名称对我们并不陌生。

最后，我今天到了小印度。那里到处都是印度人，只有一些华人。当下，我能够想像少数族群的朋友平时置身在多数是华人的社会中，有什么感受。我在小印度，虽然和周围的人保持友善的关系，店员也对我很友善，但是在心里深处总是有一点的不安。因为我毕竟离开了我所熟悉的人和文化，而且对于对方的文化我其实并不非常理解。

所以，我想，我们必须时时刻刻提醒自己“种族和谐”这样的情况其实建立在一个极为脆弱的基础上。因为我们扪心自问，我们并没有做到对其他种族的文化等有一定的了解。我们只不过是在相处的层面上，能够维持一定的礼貌和不干涉。那，我们想要的“种族和谐”是不是仅停在这个层面？还是，我们要真的用心去维系种族之间的关系？

Race

During the games and activities, I was surprised to find that most of us actually held similar sets of stereotypes for certain groups of people. For example, many of us felt that Indians are loud, talkative and argumentative. (*Note: For my purpose, I am purely highlighting what happened during the discussion and activities. It is not my intention to deliberately pick on certain groups of people)

I heard many interesting stories from people’s sharing of their experiences. As I listen to their stories and why they come to hold certain sets of stereotypes for particular groups, I started to have a question in my mind: Are the stereotypes that we come to hold about certain groups a result of our narrow-mindedness and prejudice or are they really based on some level of truth?

Naturally, even as I question the level of truth in our stereotypes, I am still against classifying a group of people under “tags” and “stereotypes”. I am even more against judging people who belong to certain groups based on prior stereotypes of the group. I guess many of us understand and are aware of what kind of behaviour is “correct”, what kind of behaviour is “good”. For instance, we know that we ought to be sensitive towards other racial groups. However, what we know and what we truly feel are not exactly the same, are they?

As Chinese, we are perhaps so used to being part of the majority of society that it is not impossible to neglect the feelings of the minority groups of people.

I have had some personal experiences which taught me things about myself and other people. I know an Indian school mate. I never asked her for her religion and I had somehow assumed that she was a Hindu. Finally, I asked her if she was Hindu, and the answer she gave me was beyond what I had expected. I learned that she was an Indian Muslim. This experience I had made me question our tendency to make a false connection between religion and race. We are used to thinking that Malays are Muslims, Indians are Hindus. However, it seems unfair that we have come to accept that not all Chinese are Buddhists but we still cannot seem to do the same for Malays and Indians.

During the talk, the speaker-facilitator mentioned the point on “name-calling”. I recall a conversation I heard in the lift of my school. Two students were discussing about their recent examinations results. When they were on the topic of the foreign scholars who always topped the class, they used terms like “Ah Tiong” (China Scholars) and “KLK (Keh Leng Kia)” (Indians) to address these groups of people. The fact is, such impolite terms are not new to us.

Lastly, I happened to be in Little India today. The place was filled with Indians, with the exception of a few Chinese. At that moment, I can really feel what the Indians and Malays probably feel when they are in the midst of Chinese. Although I had an enjoyable experience with the people at Little India, I still felt insecure sometimes because this was not the environment and culture that I am familiar with, and I also did not know much about their culture.

Hence, I feel that the “racial harmony” that we have in Singapore today is probably built on a rather weak foundation. We most probably know very little regarding the culture and lives of the other racial groups. All that we have managed to do are to maintain cordial relations as well as keeping out of each other’s matters. Then, what is the kind of “racial harmony” that we really wish to have? Do we want to keep on maintaining relations on a superficial level or do we want to go beyond that to really try to understand a different culture from ours?

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关于艺树人

艺树人是本地剧场戏剧盒旗下的青年部，由12位充满热忱的年轻人组成的团体。我们希望能通过戏剧对各阶层的民众有更深入的了解和联系。

艺树人的创立是为了提供青年一个多方面训练的平台。通过三年的培训，艺树人希望能培育处一群拥有文化和社会意识的本地戏剧实践者。

我们使用一个名为O-A-O-R （ Orientation – Artistic – Organisation – Regeneration/ 定向 – 艺术性 – 组织 – 再生 ）的模式，让青年们得到的不仅是艺术方面的训练，也学习组织群体和制作管理的技能。除此之外，他们会接触到各种类的戏剧，例如论坛剧场、新闻剧场等等。他们同时还会接受其他艺术形体的培训，如音乐和多媒体。

除了提高社会问题的认识和讨论，艺树人希望能质问及挑战人们的思维，并改变大众对低下层或边缘族群的一些刻板观念，让单方向的独白转化成双方都能参与的对话。

2012 年将会是第一届艺树人青年的最后一年。我们将会在毕业前呈现一部作品，而灵感来至于高行健的《车站》。这作品会是艺树人培训三年来的精髓，也是我们对于原作和现今社会的反思。

About ARTivate

ARTivate - the youth wing of local theatre company Drama Box - is made up of a group of 12 passionate youths who aims to reach out to the community through the arts.

ARTivate was first established with the aim to provide a platform for youths who want to explore and gain all-rounded insight into theatre. Through a three-year program, ARTivate hopes to nurture a group of youths into cultured and socially aware theatre-practitioners in Singapore.

Using an O-A-O-R (Orientation-Artistic-Organization-Regeneration) model, these youths are trained not only artistically but also in organizational skills and production management. They will be exposed to different forms of theatre such as Forum Theatre and Newspaper Theatre. They will also be trained in other art forms such as music and multimedia.

Besides bringing awareness to the themes explored, ARTivators hopes to question, probe or even challenge minds. They want to engage audiences in discussion – to turn monologues into dialogues.

As 2012 will the last year of the pioneer batch of ARTivate youths, they will be putting up a piece of performance, Bus Stop, inspired by “Bus Stop” written by renowned playwright, Gao Xing Jian. This performance will be a collation of the trainings the youths had undergone for the past 3 years, as well as a critical perspective and evaluation of the script, in reference to the current society the youths are in.