By Andy Chen
Deputy Editor, Life! and Lifestyle
andyc@sph.com.sg

 

ROUGHLY one in three Singaporeans tuned in to the finale of the MediaCorp Channel 8 drama serial, Little Nyonya.

But not too many were happy with the ending.

Jeanette Aw's title character, Yueniang, did not enjoy a happily-ever-after ending with her prince charming, Chen Xi, played by Qi Yu Wu.

Instead, the Little Nyonya of Japanese and Chinese Peranakan descent abandons the love of her life, leaving him to think she died in a fire. Then she goes off to marry a British lawyer, probably in hopes of starting a United Colours of Benetton/United Nations DNA strand in her family gene pool.

Maybe she just preferred fusion food?
Source: Mediacorp

Apparently, the powers-that-be at Channel 8 thought it was a good ending. "Realistic" is how they described it. And they aren't necessarily wrong either.

In life, you don't always get what you want, and when you do a good deed like help your step-cousin escape from an arranged marriage, you could well end up raped, abused, impregnated, tortured and left for dead by a monster of a husband. That kind of things MUST happen all the time back in the old days. And THAT must surely be realistic.

I don't know what kind of life experiences the scriptwriters and drama producers have had (and I don't want to be presumptuous, in case some of them have had relatives who have been raped, abused, impregnated, tortured, forced to eat bugs, worms and rats, and then left for dead).

But realism flew the coop the moment an ageing matriarch played by Lin Meijiao could throw a 20-something Yueniang taller than herself into the sea from a ship as effortlessly munching an ang ku kueh. I mean, come on, even Pierre Png has to exert more energy coping his Chinese lines.

Even more "realistically", Yueniang survives, as does her young daughter who is also tossed into the ocean like last season's sarong kebaya.

The quest for realism must also be the reason Yueniang, always looking fetching in her thin, sheer Peranakan blouses, could remain a virgin for years, despite running around with a bunch of uneducated thugs. Must be something in the Peranakan food she feeds them that dampens their libido.

I could go on, but you get the point (even if the drama producers didn't).

This. Is. A. Melodrama.

It is why housewives and closet aunties tune in to watch this instead of following developments in the Gaza Strip on CNN. Give 'em either a romantic walk into the sunset or have EVERYONE go up in flames.

As the Chinese idiom goes: Tong gui yu jin. Romance or doom!

None of that half-assed "realistic" rubbish.

How do YOU think Little Nonya should have ended? Leave your comments here and take our poll!