May 30, 2010

The importance of being resilient

Foreign talents who make S'pore their home can add to our resilience and success
By Lee Wei Ling

Earlier this month, on May 14, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew addressed the China Executive
Leadership Academy in Pudong. He told the audience what he had said to Deng Xiaoping when
Deng visited Singapore in 1978.

Deng had congratulated my father on the progress Singapore had achieved. My father replied: 'We
are the descendants of the landless peasants of the southern provinces. You have the zhuangyuan
(the top candidates in the imperial examinations), the literati, artists, the cultured and the
talented. Whatever we have done, China can also do - and do better.'

Deng did not reply. When he returned to China, he established special economic zones. In 1992,
when he visited Shenzhen, he declared: 'We should learn from the world, especially Singapore,
and do better than them.'

I disagree with my father that the huaqiao (overseas Chinese) are inferior to the intellectuals of
China. He has long believed that those from Jiangsu region are descendents of the top mandarins
who were sent to rule over or retire in this well-endowed region. Jiangsu is often called 'the home
of fish and padi' because the land is fertile and the fish, abundant.

My father thinks that the genes for intellectual ability multiplied in this region. I doubt the theory
because men who are good at passing examinations based on memorising Confucian classics do
not usually select their wives and concubines according to their intellectual abilities, but rather
their beauty.

The genes for academic intelligence are thus soon diluted. Furthermore, most of the mandarins
and their families would not have faced adverse and dangerous situations, the acid test for
courage and resilience.

Resilience in psychology refers to the positive capacity of people to cope with stress and
catastrophes. It also includes the ability to bounce back to normal after a setback. Commonly used
synonyms for resilience include 'hardiness', 'resourcefulness' and 'mental toughness'.

What the ancestors of the huaqiao might perhaps have lacked in academic ability - or more
accurately, the opportunity to receive an education in the Chinese classics - they more than made
up with their courage and resilience.

It took courage and a sense of adventure for our ancestors to make the dangerous journey to
Nanyang (the South Seas or South-east Asia). The journey was extremely uncomfortable.

If an epidemic broke out on board the ship, many would die. Those who made it to Singapore were
quarantined on St John's Island the duration of their quarantine, depending on the diseases they
were suspected of carrying.

Thus the early immigrants from China to South-east Asia were selected for courage, resilience and
physical fitness; plus an ability to survive despite the difficult circumstances.

All this must have involved some degree of intelligence, though that intelligence may not have
resembled classical academic intelligence as measured by standardised tests.

My paternal great-great-grandfather travelled from his ancestral Hakka village of Dapu to Xiamen,
from where he set sail to Singapore in a tongkang. A small sailing boat with two square sails, a
tongkang is not very seaworthy in a storm.

After arriving in Singapore, great-great-grandpa worked for a shopkeeper and later married the
shopkeeper's daughter, also a Hakka. Eventually, he earned enough to return to Dapu and buy
himself a minor mandarinate (class 8).

His wife, however, had never been to China and had no desire to leave Singapore. So she hid her
children, and her husband returned to China alone.
To our wise great-great-grandma, my family owes our good fortune. None of my nuclear family
has any desire to visit our ancestral village of Dapu.

The Chinese immigrants who arrived in Singapore after 1920 came in steamships, which were
faster and safer than tongkangs.

The newcomers were called sinkek, which means 'new guests' in Hokkien. Upon arrival in
Singapore, their village associations would provide them with temporary lodging and other bare
essentials.

My paternal grandmother considered the sinkek inferior Chinese compared to the Peranakan
(which means 'children of the country' in Malay). When I spoke to my father in preparation for this
article, I understood why she felt that way.

The Peranakan, in her view, were the descendants of the earlier, tougher immigrants who travelled
to South-east Asia at a time when sea migration was an extremely hazardous affair.

All four of my grandparents were descendants of the earlier waves of immigrants. The customs,
food and the language of the Peranakan - also known as Nonyas or Babas - was influenced to
some extent by Malay culture.

Those who migrated later, the sinkek, faced fewer hazards, but life was not a piece of cake for
them either. Those who survived and thrived under such conditions must have been resilient
individuals.

Hence, I do not think the Chinese in South-east Asia are inferior to Chinese in China, including the
descendents of intellectuals in Jiangsu.

My ancestors may not have passed imperial examinations. Indeed, all the womenfolk among my
ancestors were not schooled. But their children, my uncles and aunts, have done well in life, as
have their grandchildren.

Personally, if I had to choose between pure intelligence and resilience, I would choose the latter.

I myself am resilient but not outstandingly intelligent, and I am hopeless at art of any kind.

My father risked his life to join forces with the communists to eject our colonial masters - and then
fought the communists. He and my mother knew how ruthless the communists would have been if
he had lost.

Indeed, some of the wives whose husbands joined my father in the fight for independence were
very cold towards my parents. But when the PAP came into power and Singapore flourished, these
wives became friendly again.

That China will overtake Singapore some day is a given. With a population of 1.3 billion versus
Singapore's 5 million, it is but a matter of time. As I have no children, I do not worry too much
about this eventuality.

But for the sake of my brothers' children and those of my friends, I can only hope that Singapore
will be successful in attracting foreign talent and that these foreigners will make Singapore their
home and add to our resilience.