Big Time in Little Street
Just watched a local tele-movie. Wasn't too bad.
I find that Singaporeans have a very strong tendency to criticise local productions. I personally find it hard to take some of the critical attitudes seriously when they appear to be the subtle precipitation of Western (or Hongkongese) indoctrination. The simple question to ask here is why should local products be held against foreign standards. I think it's good enough that our local shows have our own local flavour, that our local artistes have their own local accents and quirks, however discordant they may be with the language and behavior of Westerners. Sadly, it appears that many of us shun local productions out of 1) some wholehearted belief that our standards are always static and 2) that a failure to conform to Westernised expectations of a good drama or a good movie represents a complete failure to entertain.
If anything, I am quite receptive to local productions partly because I can easily relate to various features of the show. More importantly though, a large part of my receptivity is formed out of tolerance. The very concept of tolerance already suggests that local productions are poor and in need of some understanding. But I think this is precisely where many of us are unforgiving. It's fine to be not tolerant but it seems like many of us transform that lack of something into an active force of intolerance, leading to the many harsh critiques of local productions. As if that's not enough, we want to persuade others that our critique is right and that local productions are always distasteful, always off the mark. Instead of remaining passive we cultivate an atmosphere of criticism when we pass remarks such as "local dramas are so stupid". Such an atmosphere is not only harmful to the actors in the local media industry, it actively influences our own and others' attitudes, turning it almost into a trend to make fun of local productions.
For the record, I think local productions are quite poor in many aspects, most notably that of plot. But I am tolerant of that. My tolerance comes from the following considerations:
- A small population pool means a small pool of talent, as well as a small market to generate revenue needed for development.
- The industry, instead of catering to middle class tastes, caters instead to less demanding tastes. This could be because it makes financial sense to do so, but it could also be due to the lack of resources to develop more refined products. It may be interesting to note that the creators may possibly be misinformed as to what the local audience really wants too.
- I'm no media expert, but I would venture that artistic development occurs in natural and progressive stages. We need to be in that phase of "constant attention to economic and social issues in society" before we can shrug that off and develop products which explore more imaginative issues. One may also argue that the current preoccupation with money, unemployment and extra-marital affairs reflect the state of society we are in now. To put this into perspective, consider that once upon a time America was preoccupied with dramas such as Days of our Life and Baywatch, before moving on to the many stellar dramas they have now.
- A harsh atmosphere, as outlined above, affects the artistes and directors' confidence. I would think that many artistes are unnecessarily self-conscious of their performance with respect to Western ideals, to the extent that they over-compensate in terms of local quirkiness and slapstick humour, and crude jokes.
It should be noted that I'm not pushing one to watch local tv productions. Instead, I'm encouraging us to not create and perpetuate an atmosphere of criticism. In the event that criticism is made (and, believe me, I do have my fair share of grievances), one should be aware of the foreign schemas which structure our judgements of local productions.
I find that Singaporeans have a very strong tendency to criticise local productions. I personally find it hard to take some of the critical attitudes seriously when they appear to be the subtle precipitation of Western (or Hongkongese) indoctrination. The simple question to ask here is why should local products be held against foreign standards. I think it's good enough that our local shows have our own local flavour, that our local artistes have their own local accents and quirks, however discordant they may be with the language and behavior of Westerners. Sadly, it appears that many of us shun local productions out of 1) some wholehearted belief that our standards are always static and 2) that a failure to conform to Westernised expectations of a good drama or a good movie represents a complete failure to entertain.
If anything, I am quite receptive to local productions partly because I can easily relate to various features of the show. More importantly though, a large part of my receptivity is formed out of tolerance. The very concept of tolerance already suggests that local productions are poor and in need of some understanding. But I think this is precisely where many of us are unforgiving. It's fine to be not tolerant but it seems like many of us transform that lack of something into an active force of intolerance, leading to the many harsh critiques of local productions. As if that's not enough, we want to persuade others that our critique is right and that local productions are always distasteful, always off the mark. Instead of remaining passive we cultivate an atmosphere of criticism when we pass remarks such as "local dramas are so stupid". Such an atmosphere is not only harmful to the actors in the local media industry, it actively influences our own and others' attitudes, turning it almost into a trend to make fun of local productions.
For the record, I think local productions are quite poor in many aspects, most notably that of plot. But I am tolerant of that. My tolerance comes from the following considerations:
- A small population pool means a small pool of talent, as well as a small market to generate revenue needed for development.
- The industry, instead of catering to middle class tastes, caters instead to less demanding tastes. This could be because it makes financial sense to do so, but it could also be due to the lack of resources to develop more refined products. It may be interesting to note that the creators may possibly be misinformed as to what the local audience really wants too.
- I'm no media expert, but I would venture that artistic development occurs in natural and progressive stages. We need to be in that phase of "constant attention to economic and social issues in society" before we can shrug that off and develop products which explore more imaginative issues. One may also argue that the current preoccupation with money, unemployment and extra-marital affairs reflect the state of society we are in now. To put this into perspective, consider that once upon a time America was preoccupied with dramas such as Days of our Life and Baywatch, before moving on to the many stellar dramas they have now.
- A harsh atmosphere, as outlined above, affects the artistes and directors' confidence. I would think that many artistes are unnecessarily self-conscious of their performance with respect to Western ideals, to the extent that they over-compensate in terms of local quirkiness and slapstick humour, and crude jokes.
It should be noted that I'm not pushing one to watch local tv productions. Instead, I'm encouraging us to not create and perpetuate an atmosphere of criticism. In the event that criticism is made (and, believe me, I do have my fair share of grievances), one should be aware of the foreign schemas which structure our judgements of local productions.
2 Comments:
depending how criticism is made as it can be the motivating factor to make us to improve too.
I totally agree! I am quite sick of my friends who diss channel 8 dramas almost by default. herd instinct. I suspect the Matthew Effect has something to do with it. Our preconceived notions color our perception.
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