AFTER the "revelations" about Jack Neo surfaced just over a month ago, I was waiting for my chance to say something about the actor-director. Then things seemed to quieten down quite a bit, so I decided to keep quiet myself for the time being and wait for further developments.
The opportunity finally came when Shin Min Daily News reported in its April 8th evening edition yesterday that he was just spotted in Taipei, shopping at the Shilin night market with his wife, and was apparently in that city for business purposes as well.
I was holidaying with my family in Taiwan a few months ago and we were, coincidentally, taking a taxi from Shilin back to our hotel and chatting among ourselves when the cabby turned around to ask us in his Hokkien-accented Mandarin: "You all are Singaporeans, right?"
"Yes," we replied. We did not bother to give him the obvious "how did you know?" response, expecting that he would fill us in anyway.
"I can tell by the way you all speak," he said, referring to the Singlish mixed with bits of Hokkien and the occasional contribution from "one of the other official languages" that I and members of my family travelling with me were using.
"I've watched movies from Singapore like Money No Enough and I Not Stupid," he added.
Well, thank you, Mr Jack Neo, we thought to ourselves. Mr Cabby, though, might eventually not thank you because we were prepared to give him a generous tip of a hundred bucks (NT) until his less-than-flattering remark.
We did wonder if the cabby had actually seen the movies in cinemas in Taiwan. We were aware of Mr Neo's fame in that part of the world as his movies had been nominated for and even won Golden Horse awards.
There was always the possibility that the taxi-driver could have watched the VCD/DVD versions over and over again, to have become such an expert in "the way Singaporeans speak" - something we can't say we are really proud of.
Anyway, if nothing else, the incident reminded me of another event that I had witnessed involving Taiwanese and Singaporeans some years ago.
This was the wedding of my niece in November 2001. The groom's folks and the rest of their clan were Taiwanese and part of the wedding was held in Taipei, attended by an entourage of more than a dozen of us Singaporeans.
Our hosts, ever aware that our travelling party was more comfortable with English, ensured that their master-of-ceremonies would speak both in English, for our benefit, and guoyu (Taiwan's national language, i.e. Mandarin) for the benefit of their relatives and local guests.
The MC, the groom's maternal uncle, spoke perfect English and he made his announcements and main speech on behalf of the family - in both languages.
Towards the later part of the evening, he sat at our table to chat with us. Then he discovered something that would have made his job a lot easier. He heard us speaking among ourselves in Hokkien.
"Oh!" He exclaimed. "I could have just spoken in min nan hua (Taiwanese Hokkien) and everybody, both our Taiwan and Singapore families, would have understood!"
He might have even exclaimed "alamak" if he had watched some of Jack Neo's movies.