Transcript of interview with Patricia Ooi (conducted by Amanda Lee), 10 August 2016, 2.30 pm, National Institute of Education.
Patricia is a 57-year old female Peranakan Singaporean who is a freelance teacher trainer and online business owner. She identifies as mainly Peranakan rather than as an ethnic Chinese. As a result, she does not speak Mandarin or listens to any Chinese music. This stems from her background and upbringing – her father was in the British army and their family friends were Malay. Thus, she grew up speaking Malay and being strongly influenced by English pop and Western classical music. Patricia enjoys English pop music by artists like Cliff Richard, Tom Jones and David Cassidy. She also likes a cappella groups like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and King’s College singers. As for classical music, she enjoys musicians such as the violinist and conductor André Rieu, and thinks that classical music can be very inspiring. Patricia is also a huge fan of musicals, having watched The Sound of Music (1965) a dozen times. Her favorite musical is Les Misérables (2010). Patricia admits that she can be very prejudiced against Chinese music and remarked that it is only if she did not see the Chinese orchestra in the contemporary intercultural experimental Chinese music video, that she might enjoy and appreciate it for its artistic value. Patricia thinks that Singaporean music in the past was more meaningful while the music of today is more passé. She also thinks singing National Day songs now is different than singing it before. This is so because she does not think the songs raise the same kind of emotions as before, and recognizes that it might be so because of a shift in her perspective of the country.
“Music of the 70s, okay the Blues, you know, er, [The] Platters, The Beatles, okay. Um ... mainly the music of the black singers of the 70s and the 60s, and Nat King Cole. The, er, Whitney Houston, and, er, Celine Dion, that kind of music.”
“I never appreciated Queen before that, a little bit of Rock side but, er, looking back now, ya, okay, it’s amazing how they can make music that sounds so easy but it’s actually the musical notes are not so easy to produce, you know.”
“I think if you’ve got a wide enough repertoire of classical [music], that you know, fit the different moods that you may have, ya. It can be very rousing, it can be very soothing, and it can be just plain inspiring. Just, just inspiring.”
“Then after watching the musical, I will trawl the net for all the different performers, the different versions, the different singers – I look up the lyrics, and then I go crazy.”
“Chinese opera. Wayang [Indonesian term for puppet theater, used in Singapore to refer to street opera], all the wayang. Ear piercing, if you want words associated to – that’s it earpiercing, ear-piercing, ear-piercing. Period. Prejudiced.”
“Okay, there are some Chinese pop songs which do sound good, nice tune, quite pleasant on the ear, you can dance to it, you can sway to it, but the words are completely lost on me. And again I don’t – that’s – that’s one area of music that I don’t deliberately tune into.”
“That association comes in immediately when you tell me – you showed me the [video of the contemporary intercultural experimental Chinese music], that’s why I said, don’t show me and don’t tell me it’s Chinese. Then maybe I would be more open and more inclined to appreciate the music for its musical value.”
Click on the link below for the full transcript