March of the Tans

Waking up early in the morning today (In Hainanese we call it "hi gui da da") at around 30 past 6, both my grandfather, my father brought me on a termly outing with the Hainanese Tan clan association. The trip was incredibly enjoying and fruitful despite being one of the only two children present, with a reasonably large age difference between us and majority of the adults.

Being dragged out bed, we first headed for the Association located at Seah Street near South-beach Road and allowed my grandfather to burn some joss sticks as a form of respect to our ancestors. When I first stepped into the place, thoughts began to flush through my mind as the smell of burnt joss sticks drifted in the air. ‘The place is bound to be run-down’ I thought. The horrid thoughts however, suddenly began to vanish as I was greeted by a well-furnished room that was kept exceptionally clean and tidy! I found out that the association does not employ cleaners and did all the cleaning on their own, I was absolutely amazed! Everyone seemed to be playing their part in keeping the place in tip-top condition and each of them is aware that their own individual effort is crucial in maintaining the place, no matter how small the job may be. Everyone takes his or her own responsibility.

The day followed by hopping onto the bus to our destination. We waited for quite some time before heading off for someone had lost her way. Her brother, whom I noticed was already on the bus, began complaining about her lack of a sense of urgency and started washing dirty linen in the public. When she had finally arrived, his lamenting took a turn for the worse and had become a scolding, also hinting that he was and is never like that. He kept on saying that she was the only one at fault and that he as a brother was disgusted at her behavior.

But think about it; was it entirely the lady's fault in coming late? Was it necessarily her fault for losing her way? Had she even came to the association before?

I began to feel a little restless at the sight of this incident. I mean, the lady had not been to the Hainanese Tan clan Association ever before! So was it right to tell her off for not knowing where to go? This lead to her taking the wrong route which wasted a lot of her time and our time. The man might have told his sister exactly where the place was and clarified with her again. He should have also woken her up early aware that she had never been to the place before and might still have difficulty in finding the place. His lack of responsibility and selfishness not only affected the whole ' Battalion' of us going, but also himself by starting the day off in a bad mood which could have affected his health for he is approaching senior citizenship. Therefore, I feel that one should always reflect on oneself first before criticizing on others.

As we now put that matter behind us, we alighted the bus and strolled to the Marina Bay Barrage. The Barrage was built basically to ensure the sustainability of Singapore's water by temporarily blocking up the seawater from entering and start cleaning the water within Singapore to transform the Kallang River into reservoir.

Standing between the Old and the New water, I tried comparing the quality of the water by just looking at the colours of the two types of water and there seemed to have a significant difference!


Despite huge effort being put to fanning oneself, the weather still remained as King until we reached the bus when our spirits where lifted by a simple gust of cold wind just when the door slid open.

The next destination was the Asian Civilization Museum, the Kang Si emperor. He is said to be one of the greatest emperors of all time and ruled for 61 years. He was said to be chosen for he survived smallpox and was thought to be the strongest amongst his siblings. He worked hard throughout his reign to meet high expectations for he was expected to demonstrate that he was worthy of his high office. He was the one who had introduced a new communication system channel called the 奏扸 in order to receive information directly from specifically chosen officials. He finally died as a result of severe cold.

One of the most spectacular sights was this old looking protractor used during that time. This instantly gave me a shock for it looked exactly the same as the ones that we use today! If not, slightly bigger! Technology right now, compared to back then, had totally involved for the better to suite the needs of people. However, some inventions back then were extremely well thought of that even now in the 21st century, we are constantly using them. So things invented in the past need not be useless to us now, in fact, they are the essential basic building blocks in creating our modern day inventions that make our lives more comfortable today.

Before proceeding to lunch, we took a ride on the Singapore Flyer, watching out for the past, eyeing the present and catching a glimpse to the future. The view was simply stunning! Things have changed since my father’s and grandfather’s time, the Singapore which they once knew had evolved into a bustling city filled with high-rise buildings and shopping malls instead of those attap houses they used to live in, now only the fond memories of their childhood days remains. We had a chance to observe models of buildings of what Singapore would be like in the years to come, just hope that that change would take place within my years on Earth!


The day finally ended with a visit to the New Parliament opposite the Supreme Court. We made somewhat a grand entrance with people coming out to welcome us, someone even joked that the police were stationed to protect us! We had been made compulsory to go through a security check due to strict regulations and I felt like I was in the Air-port going through the security check as well.

We were escorted to the viewing gallery of the chambers where all the meetings took place called the ‘Riverside Gallery’. The reason having built the public viewing gallery is to show the transparency of the Singapore government. The layout of the chambers was similar to the ones in the UK for it originated from there. I found out that if a meeting is to be conducted, a lot of planning and preparation had to be undergone to ensure a smooth discussion. After having heard the in depth explanation of how the meetings proceeded, I also learnt that there were a few protocols to take note of when present for the meeting, for instance, the bowing. One had to bow to the Speaker of the meeting (someone sitting on the highest seat who oversees the proceeding of the Parliament to ensure a smooth discussion and is held responsible for allowing who to speak first and the duration of his or her speech.) before entering or leaving the chambers. Just imagine if one had a diarrhea on that day!

The visit to the parliament was certainly an eye-opener to me as I am now aware that a lot of work is needed to just hold one parliament discussion. Though I felt that I have not known enough yet, I plan to visit the Parliament once more to attend a live discussion! One hilarious moment of the trip was when one of the tour guides had forgotten that we were from the Hainanese TAN clan Associationand started calling out, "Mr Tan!" You could imagine the number of faces that turned around to face her! Including me! The next time I catch a parliament discussion on TV, I will be able to have a clearer understanding of what is going on and whose seat to look out for!

The trip organized by the association today was wonderful and I have seriously learnt a lot from it including a sense of belonging and pride of being a Hainanese Tan. I am also warmed by the fact that this trip was organized by elderly people who want to get together to socialize and catch up on each other. This trip had demonstrated the immense capability of the older generation despite of age catching up on them, they build strong bonds and new friendships with each other and that this will play a very important part in their lives for when tough times draw near, theses small things will then matter the most, being aware that there is always someone willing to render support… to a friend.