Greener Pastures
In English, it’s called cradle snatching. There is far more interesting Chinese expression. It’s called 老牛吃嫩草. For the uninitiated, the picture above shows 82-year-old American Nobel Laureate (Physics) Franklin Yang with his 28-year-old wife Weng Fan.
Such situations are not new to any society and both English and Chinese expressions carry negative connotations. The majority of sour gr … I mean kaypoh people will not have nice things to say about such couples. And if you knew that Weng Fan’s father is marrying her aged husband’s grand-daughter, you may throw up your last meal even if you’re not very kaypoh. How boring would this world be without these interesting characters who do the extraordinary.
Back in Singapore, our local celebrity Marcus Chin has created the same sort of stir in the media these couple of weeks. The reason? Everyone thought that Marcus has dumped his wife of 23 years to go with a sweet young thing whose age is quite close to his years being married. The same expression of 老牛吃嫩草 was used, this time with condemnation as Marcus is still technically a married man. Marcus defended himself by pointing out that bulls of all ages need to eat grass. There is no rule saying that old bulls can’t eat young grass. He made the mistake of not addressing the issue of his marital staus. In response, fans and haters blasted him big time. Is Marcus such a disgusting guy? Why do some people pretend to know what is right and good for him?
I first saw Marcus on TV when I was in primary school (early 70s). He was known as 建彬哥哥 in a children’s show called 小小天地. I also saw him off TV. He was a regular visitor at the block at Commonwealth where I lived. On a few occasions, I took the lift together with him. It was rumoured that he was going after a girl living at my block. In secondary school, a classmate told me that Marcus was his primary school teacher.
Marcus took part in the Chinese Talentime. I was one of his supporters. Too bad he didn’t win. He later hosted variety programmes and performed in comic sketches. He disappeared from the entertainment scene for a while, then made a comeback in recent years. I think it’s good that he has come back. He is a witty DJ and a very talented performer. Singapore’s entertainment scene will not be the same without him.
Last night, Marcus appeared on TV to tell his side of the story. He explained that his marriage has been on the rocks since 16 years ago. Being brought up a certain way, they were reluctant to get divorced even though both were suffering. Finally, they couldn’t take it anymore and were officially separated since October last year. His relationship with his young assistant started in January this year and she wasn’t the third party that caused his marriage to break up. He also pledged 60% of his monthly income to his soon to be ex-wife and gave full ownership of their apartment to her.
He also apologised for his defence of 老牛吃嫩草. Whatever for? Nobody knows if he’s got any razor marks on his chest like our Kelantan princess. Nobody knows whether his wife has contributed positively or negatively to his current situation. Nobody knows if it was his wife who kept mentioning the D word while he endured it till he finally snapped. Maybe as a performer on the local scene, he needs to maintain a politically correct image so that his fans will not hate or abandon him or worse still, Mediacorp gets blamed for harbouring immoral artists.
Finally, allow me to congratulate (belatedly) our table tennis superstar Li Jiawei on her wedding. Did anybody from Singapore fly over to Beijing to congratulate with the happy couple? Would she recognise her fellow Singaporeans? Marcus can take a few lessons from Ms Li. Timing is important.
