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slightlyliterary's review
2.0
Rating: 2.5 stars
A generally eye-opening read regarding a very specific community of Eurasians, but not a well-delivered one.
First of all, this is one gripe many others also shared: the fact that De Silva's title and synopsis were misleading. I was expecting mini-essays discussing how CMIO categorisation had impacted her experiences as a Eurasian in Singapore, but instead a large portion of this book spoke of the author grappling with her poor knowledge of her culture, with a few chapters sharing more about the history of Eurasians. This disconnect made me quite confused while reading because CMIO was only deliberately spoken about for one chapter.
And while I appreciated learning more about the Malay-Portuguese Eurasian customs she spoke of, her insights and reflections on her culture felt repetitive since she kept on bringing up the same point for almost every personal experience she shares: that she felt embarrassed and sad for not really knowing her culture and how it came about. While interesting at first, this constant repetition was disappointing because I would have liked if she had expressed other angles of her experience rather than just scratching the surface.
Another problem I had with this book was that there was absolutely no transition between chapters. There would be personal experiences given, followed by some sudden historical fiction chapters, and then back to personal experiences again. It was jarring and sloppy. I realised why it felt that way when I came to the end of the book; it comprises of a few of De Silva's previous works that were published in other journals. I have no problem with a book being a collection of works but there was a lack of coherence in the arrangement, so the reading experience wasn't a very good one.
Overall, it was an educational read on the community of Eurasians, but it could've been better.
A small note: I was so shocked to see so many grammatical errors and some questionable sentence structure in the book. I guess it's kind of minor, but it doesn't sit well with me.
A generally eye-opening read regarding a very specific community of Eurasians, but not a well-delivered one.
First of all, this is one gripe many others also shared: the fact that De Silva's title and synopsis were misleading. I was expecting mini-essays discussing how CMIO categorisation had impacted her experiences as a Eurasian in Singapore, but instead a large portion of this book spoke of the author grappling with her poor knowledge of her culture, with a few chapters sharing more about the history of Eurasians. This disconnect made me quite confused while reading because CMIO was only deliberately spoken about for one chapter.
And while I appreciated learning more about the Malay-Portuguese Eurasian customs she spoke of, her insights and reflections on her culture felt repetitive since she kept on bringing up the same point for almost every personal experience she shares: that she felt embarrassed and sad for not really knowing her culture and how it came about. While interesting at first, this constant repetition was disappointing because I would have liked if she had expressed other angles of her experience rather than just scratching the surface.
Another problem I had with this book was that there was absolutely no transition between chapters. There would be personal experiences given, followed by some sudden historical fiction chapters, and then back to personal experiences again. It was jarring and sloppy. I realised why it felt that way when I came to the end of the book; it comprises of a few of De Silva's previous works that were published in other journals. I have no problem with a book being a collection of works but there was a lack of coherence in the arrangement, so the reading experience wasn't a very good one.
Overall, it was an educational read on the community of Eurasians, but it could've been better.
A small note: I was so shocked to see so many grammatical errors and some questionable sentence structure in the book. I guess it's kind of minor, but it doesn't sit well with me.
tofugirl's review
1.0
As a Singaporean, I'm keen on supporting the literary scene, and I really wanted to like this book. I didn't.
There is no doubt that this book is important in that it acknowledges and chronicles a bit of Eurasian history and culture where there is none in the mainstream, but the writing style was extremely grating. The narrator frequently goes on stream of consciousness ramblings that add no value to the narrative at all ("[My Latin spirit] looks olive-skinned, and seems to be wearing a red dress. But this might be the subconscious influence of the WhatsApp emoticon of a woman in a red dress holding maracas I sometimes use.") and are painful to read. She throws in stream of consciousness paragraphs that are self-referential and completely irrelevant like "While I'm snapping a photo, a thought occurs to me. Did I actually say "Oh my lord, the sugee?" just now? I have never, in my entire life, uttered the phrase. What am I, someone's Aunt from the Deep south?". Spare us.
There is no doubt that this book is important in that it acknowledges and chronicles a bit of Eurasian history and culture where there is none in the mainstream, but the writing style was extremely grating. The narrator frequently goes on stream of consciousness ramblings that add no value to the narrative at all ("[My Latin spirit] looks olive-skinned, and seems to be wearing a red dress. But this might be the subconscious influence of the WhatsApp emoticon of a woman in a red dress holding maracas I sometimes use.") and are painful to read. She throws in stream of consciousness paragraphs that are self-referential and completely irrelevant like "While I'm snapping a photo, a thought occurs to me. Did I actually say "Oh my lord, the sugee?" just now? I have never, in my entire life, uttered the phrase. What am I, someone's Aunt from the Deep south?". Spare us.
nonfirqtion's review
1.0
I did not like this book at all! Given the title, I was expecting a more critical assessment of the CMIO policy (for context: Singaporeans are categorized according to their race i.e.: Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Others; Eurasians, or Filipinos, Thais, Burmese would fall into the category of Others. Yes, it’s a leftover colonial policy and dictates a large part of our lives, and determines what you get policy-wise as well.). De Silva does not critique the system or structures at all. So if that is what you are looking for, look elsewhere.
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Eurasians are often not considered part and parcel of the Singaporean identity and I can empathize with her not feeling at home here in her place of birth: getting called Malay – when she’s not, feeling angry at how people are badly appropriating Eurasian cuisine, learning a language that is not your own etc. It’s all justified frustrations. What I did not like was the lack of introspection on De Silva’s part. Although Eurasians are the minority, it is not uncommon that they come from families with “old money”. So they are privileged: class-wise. This whole book was devoid of any form of self-awareness. Her paternal grandmother lived in a bungalow and her mother’s “kampong” was not a kampong at all! The moment you can have the whole house to yourself, with a space to build a porch, it does not become a kampong. A kampong in the 60s/70s, would be a wooden house, shared by four other families – communal toilets, communal kitchen and no space for a porch. It was incredibly infuriating because it felt like a lot of the times, De Silva tried to portray her family and her as part of the lower class, minority, disenfranchised… when her home, opportunities, school, heritage, says otherwise…
.
I sympathize with De Silva’s identity crises, but the lack of self-awareness that her ethnicity (being considered part white), name, language, and intergenerational wealth affords her made reading this book incredibly difficult (for me).
.
One thing I liked about this book is knowing that there are efforts to revive Kristang and the history of Eurasians and their ancestry.
.
Eurasians are often not considered part and parcel of the Singaporean identity and I can empathize with her not feeling at home here in her place of birth: getting called Malay – when she’s not, feeling angry at how people are badly appropriating Eurasian cuisine, learning a language that is not your own etc. It’s all justified frustrations. What I did not like was the lack of introspection on De Silva’s part. Although Eurasians are the minority, it is not uncommon that they come from families with “old money”. So they are privileged: class-wise. This whole book was devoid of any form of self-awareness. Her paternal grandmother lived in a bungalow and her mother’s “kampong” was not a kampong at all! The moment you can have the whole house to yourself, with a space to build a porch, it does not become a kampong. A kampong in the 60s/70s, would be a wooden house, shared by four other families – communal toilets, communal kitchen and no space for a porch. It was incredibly infuriating because it felt like a lot of the times, De Silva tried to portray her family and her as part of the lower class, minority, disenfranchised… when her home, opportunities, school, heritage, says otherwise…
.
I sympathize with De Silva’s identity crises, but the lack of self-awareness that her ethnicity (being considered part white), name, language, and intergenerational wealth affords her made reading this book incredibly difficult (for me).
.
One thing I liked about this book is knowing that there are efforts to revive Kristang and the history of Eurasians and their ancestry.
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