One of my favourite dishes at the basement food court of Lucky Plaza is the stewed beef brisket 牛腩. The stall is managed by a Chinaman and a female colleague. I had no problems with them until one fine day when a group of 4 very well-dressed Chinese beauties came to the Asian Food Mall at Lucky Plaza. One of the ladies was just leaving the stall with her food when I arrived and placed my order for the beef brisket. I was placing chopsticks, spoon and chilli sauce on my tray when the lady turned back and placed another order.
The Chinaman quickly proceeded to prepare the lady’s order. I waited. Her dish was ready and the stallholder put it on my tray – all prepared with chopsticks, spoon and chilli sauce to boot. He wanted to hand everything over to the Chinese lady. I felt it was unfair and gently protested.
“这是我拿的。”I said, pointing to my tray.
The Chinaman refused to place the lady’s dish on another tray and let her get her own chopsticks, spoon and chilli sauce.
“这是我自己拿的。”I repeated.
At this point, the Chinaman looked annoyed and seemed about to throw the dish into my face.
“不是你的!” he insisted.
Walking away might have been a little petty. Furthermore, I had already paid. And fighting with a Chinagirl for a tray would certainly not be the right thing to do. She must be enjoying the good service – another customer getting the chopsticks, spoon and chilli sauce for her. Not only was I bullied by having my order pushed back when she came back to order after me, I now had to surrender the chopsticks, spoon and chilli sauce I took to her. What to do?
As I stood there, looking disgusted, it suddenly dawned on them that I’ve been treated unfairly. The Chinaman put the lady’s dish on another tray and asked her to get her own chopsticks. She walked off, expressionless. The stallholder muttered an apology and my order was finally ready. I’ll never go back to that stall again.
But I still can’t explain why they behaved the way they did. In China, someone in my position would have spat and hurled expletives at them. One thing’s for sure, the more mild-mannered and forgiving people in our society are bound to be taken for granted by a rapidly growing immigration of 欺善怕恶 folks from a very different society.
Alas, we have no choice. The 4 pretty but nasty ladies could well be table tennis players. They could be Singapore’s only hope for an Olympic medal when Li Jiawei springboards her way to the US/Canada/Australia or even back to China. If the 4 ladies were beef promoters, we may risk having no one to promote our national beer. Shouldn’t we just swallow our pride, let them in and treat them as our own even though the feeling is not mutual?
A friend once said that we shouldn’t feel that way because Singapore is an immigrant society after all. Yes, my parents came here from Malaysia. But how many contributions have they made to this country? How many economic recessions have they endured? They went through thick and thin with the nation. They were poor, working class folks who were never given any attractive packages or welfare. What about these new, pampered “immigrants”?
把新加坡当跳板，算什么移民?
Dewdrop Notes
Dr Chan's Kitchen