Farewell to a fine actor
2 nights ago, I was playing FB games in the room.
D was watching the news in the living room when he suddenly came in and said “Sh*t, Huang Wenyong has died.”
I quickly went out of the room, at the same time saying “what do you mean he has died??”
He had passed away due to lymphoma on 20 April, at the age of 60.
In the recent few years, I had rarely watched local drama serials.
But I definitely remember watching Huang Wenyong all the time when I was young.
In those days, there was little entertainment, so all we did was watch TV.
There were also not that many artistes or variety of programs.
Most of us Singaporeans would remember watching 雾锁南洋, 新兵小传, 迷离夜, 舞榭歌台 etc.
Huang Wenyong plays Ah Shui, the main character in the 雾锁南洋.
The show, together with him, forms part of my childhood memories.
As a kid, I would also learn all their songs and sing along whenever the program was played.
Over the years, he has played various roles in 100 over shows.
We grow old with him, or the other way round.
We have watched him play young men roles, then more fatherly roles.
Actually, till now I still feel shocked and sad by his death, even as I am writing this.
It just shows how much of him is in my memory, without me realising it.
I literally grew up watching all those drama serials by the then Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), because in the 80s, that was almost all we had.
They would come on for an hour every night, and sometimes I would watch the reruns in the afternoons when I am back from primary school.
Last night I told D that I miss listening to Huang Wenyong’s voice and that we will never be able to hear him again.
He doesn’t have a DJ-like kind of voice, but it’s pleasant enough to make him a host as well.
Of course I do not know him personally.
However, he has always come across as a nice and humble person, very unlike what you would expect of a TV star.
In fact, none of the younger artistes in the TV station gives that same down-to-earth air, in my opinion.
Many people said he said he had looked visibly thinner last year on a TV show.
I had no recollection of that because I did not watch it.
However, googling it easily showed pictures of him looking much thinner with sunken eyes.
I would like to remember him with this picture instead, which showed him looking really good.
Good bye Huang Wenyong.
picture taken from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/entertainment/star-awards-pays-tribute-to-huang-wenyon/646028.html
Milestone
First 4-digits deal.
Milestone.
Historic moments in 2013
It has been almost 2 full months into 2013, and this is my very first post.
We had a historic moment early this year. We have a female opposition party candidate winning a SMC seat in the Punggol East by-election. Hurray! History was created on 26 Jan!
Last 2 weeks we were busy celebrating Chinese New Year. Not that busy for me actually. Not that I had a lot to do for the festive period, except more than a week of grating pineapples for pineapple tarts, and trying frantically in vain to buy new clothes. I can’t believe how much prices in department stores have gone up, and why do so many dresses now look like rags with poor material and holes all over??! I ended up wearing my old clothes which I very much prefer. Brands that were selling dresses at $50-$80 a few years back had their dresses starting from double those prices, with quality that isn’t any better than before. I kept saying to Mr D that I would feel more emotionally balanced if I spent those money buying pots and pans or whatever tools for my kitchen instead. Those few hours of trying to shop left me thinking whether I had been hurling up in a hole these years, or has my thinking been drifting away from that of the masses? To think that at one time, I was a shopaholic??
Even though we had some idiot guy banging into our car from behind on the first day of Chinese New Year (luckily no one was hurt and no major damage done), CNY generally went along better than I had expected, and before we knew it, 24 Feb was the last day of it.
But I want to pen it down, that 16 Feb should be another significant day.
Prior to that day, the government released a White Paper on population. That drove a lot of us nuts. With many issues that are emerging or accumulating (if they have already emerged), we are hearing things that our little island is going to have 6.9M population in 2030, and that Singaporeans are not a big group in that figure.
I honestly really miss those days when we do not feel squeezed for space every where we went. Those days where we do not have so many traffic jams and there roads were much more empty. Now, I feel claustrophobic and reluctant to go out as much as I did, because I do not enjoy jostling that much, and those traffic congestion even late at night at 11pm drive me nuts. The thought of your country being made up not mainly by foreigners also makes it hard to digest for many people. It feels as if we are being squeezed out from our own homes and those at the top can’t feel a single thing. Then the newspaper was filled with letters from the public, with lots of voices and opinions.
But on 16 Feb, there was a protest a demonstration held at Speakers’ Corner. The turnout was huge. About 5000 people turned up despite the rain, with their umbrellas, wanting to have their voices heard. The turnout had far exceeded my expectation. In my entire life, I do not recall seeing anything like this. I had expected people to make noises behind their computer screens, but remain at home when it comes to events like this. This has got to be a day in history. I felt hopeful. I felt proud. I felt protective. I felt happy that people are taking actions to make themselves heard (even though there are several people around me who do not even bother to know what is going on around us and I think they ought to feel ashamed of themselves).
There was a video going being shared around, which showed the event ended with the people singing our National Anthem. As soon as the singing started, the hair on my hand stood. I even had the urge to stand up and sing as I watched. It was that instinctive and emotional. Never felt like that before.
That night, I kept thinking about it and smiled..
