Was invited to speak at a forum and dialogue session with Professor Edwin Thumboo on the same panel. Completely overawed at first, but hey, I am President of Aware!
During the dialogue session, someone asked him about local writers, and Prof Thumboo said to use the word Singaporean, and not local. When asked why, he explained that the word "local" tends to have negative connotations.
This is especially apparent if you think of "foreign" as the counterpoint. "This business suit is locally made". "This business suit is imported". Which would you buy? "The course is taught by local teachers". "The course is taught by foreign teachers". Which would you choose?
Prof Thumboo then went on to quote Confucius who said that it is important to name things correctly and truthfully.
Thank you for making this point, Prof. Feminists have always insisted on using gender neutral words - eg. Chairperson or just plain Chair. Call us pedantic, but one automatically assumes a male when seeing the word Chairman. Strictly speaking, only a man can be a Chariman. Think about an actor and an actress. Which one do you think is more capable of playing a very serious role?
After all, we are a Confucian society, and therefore we should take his teachings to heart, no?!
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You have had a busy day, this first day of your blog. I am a very spiritual person. (Spiritual, not religious, as I believe that the spirit of love is lost when it has a name and rules and is judgemental of others.)
I found your blog on the "newly updated" scroll bar. I think the spirit world helped us to meet.
From what I have read so far we both seem to be women of peace.
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