In Stasis

I've been sick needless to say. Rather overwhelmed.

Title of the post is In Stasis - more apt for this blog. Apt for myself too. Being busy doesn't mean you've accomplished anything.

My bro came back for a couple of weeks. He chosed the wrong weeks to come home though. two weeks b4 term break is usually busiest. Couple that with preparations for upcoming concert... sigh...

I'm having a slight headache now actually.

Aiyah, my brother's homecoming wasn't as fruitful as I would have liked it to be. Mainly cos I've been busy myself, and trying to make time to spend with him is hard cos he's got his own friends to go out with.

Plus now got girlfriend, which I'm quite happy about actually. But he goes out a lot with her. Bleah. I think next time I'll date his girlfriend out myself and see how he likes it. -_- bwahahaha...

On the plus side, his coming home heralded the 1st 4 seasons of 'Allo! Allo!' - my all time favourite Brit comedy. Plus, Spongebob Squarepants season 2! Woohoo...

This CNY season's been mahjong peppered. I'm getting better at it I must say. Bwahaha... can anticipate people's cards liao - to a relative measure. Can't believe L_' unbelievable record during E_'s birthday though. You see these people in orchestra rehearsals, and you never know how irritating they can get (esp. when the game is on their side and they're not afraid to show their glee). I'm glad I went for the Bdae party. I was actually thinking of pleading tiredness and go home and sleep. But couldn't escape cos another one of my friends made me go with her.

That day I went to the new YST building for the first time. Reminded me of one of the European art galleries. My friend's office was beautiful manz. Before that I went to another friend's office in SMU. All these new buildings are really nice. But my fav is still the YST one.

Just attended 'Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land'. Stan Lai is a genius. If I wasn't having this headache I would say more about it. haha... ok okay~ The play was poignant and at the same time side-breakingly funny. My favourite actors were the guys from Ming Hua Yuan - a Taiwanese opera troupe. Though I depended a lot on the subtitles to find out what they were spouting in Minnan (a variation of Hokkien), still didn't detrack me from their performance. At first I was clueless about the political aspects, cos not really in tune with the China - Taiwan history. After that I realised that the play was talking about dreams, ideals and reality.

One play talked about lovers who dreamed of living their lives together, but torned apart in reality. Getting married, setting up families... but no matter how reality unfolded, they still held on to their dreams of finding their first love. The other play talked about a fisherman escaping the cruelties of reality in utopia 'Peach Blossom Land', but unable to forget the past, leaves utopia for reality. When he realises how good utopia was, he is anguished when he finds out that he can never return there again, since he chosed to return to reality. In his anguish, he ponders if utopia was a dream or reality.

I thought about how the clash of political ideals between the Communist party and Kuomintang. How each group had a ideal of how 'utopia' or an ideal nation should be run. Everyone in that play was searching for an ideal, the unnamed woman searching for her ideal lover, the fisherman searching for his ideal harmonious reality, the lovers searching for each other and their lost dreams of living life together. In the end, people bid farewell to lost dreams, left wondering what had gone wrong. Two theatre groups were booked mistakenly on the same day, whose fault was it? Even if the fault was established, we still need to live with it, make changes, compromise and continue with life. Was the fisherman wrong to leave utopia despite warnings that he would never come back? But he chosed to do so for the sake of his loved ones. Who is to say that his intentions were flawed? Whose fault was it that the lovers ended up separated for decades?

At the beginning of the play, the girl advised her lover who lived through the war, to forget and to continue living. He replied that some things cannot be forgotten. Some things must be remembered. That's probably the main running theme. Can China and Taiwan ever reach that compromise? When ideals do not materialise in reality, can you ever relinquish your lost dreams and live on? But I think Stan Lai brought about that possibility, that dreams can be lost, and that you can continue with your lives, but at a great price. The fisherman continued rowing in the vast oceans, racked with his failure to bring his loved ones to utopia and knowing that he himself can never find utopia again. The lovers parted knowing that they each have to continue their own lives with the families they had set up apart from one another. The unnamed woman bid farewell to her ideal lover at the cost of her own sanity.

The play ended so solemnly that the audience couldn't bring themselves to clap. Otherwise cheers would have rang out from the durian. That I think spoke more of the performers' ability to affect our emotions. If we had cheered enthusiastically at the beginning, it would have been superficial. The fact that hours after the play ended, we were still pondering about it, savouring the sweet, the sad and the comedic moments of the play, speaks more. So once again...

STAN LAI IS A GENIUS!

Okay, I'm now really having a bad headache. Am now going to switch off and go to sleep. I'm sorry Q_ for missing your mahjong party. The last couple of weeks of running around has finally taken it's toll on me. I'll see you all soon.