Western Influence

I grew up in a dialect-speaking household. My family spoke Cantonese at home as my mother and grandmother did not know a word of English. I only picked up English when I started school. But very quickly, I became fluent in the English language, through my voracious reading habits, and perhaps to a lesser extent, through the television programmes that we watched.

English may be my adopted language but through the language, I began to absorb elements of western culture. Overall, the impact of western influence on me – my thinking, my outlook and my way of life – has been substantial.

If I were to examine the western influences in my life, the first change took place in terms of food. As a traditional Chinese family, our diet used to consist largely rice and noodles, including chee cheong fun. For breakfast, we normally ate bread and biscuits with Milo, sometimes egg, sometimes broth (porridge). That was all.

It was my cousin's girlfriend (now wife) who introduced us to things like Kellogg's Cornflakes, Campbell's Soup, Ham and Steak. We also began to cook Hamburgers at home, bought Hot Dogs from our favourite hot dog stand at Taman Jaya and ate Waffle with Maple Syrup and Root Beer from the A & W Drive-in, which was the only fast-food restaurant in Malaysia in the seventies. We loved all these new western tastes and experiences. This type of cuisine may be taken for granted now (oh, so pedestrian, I hear you say) but at that time, believe me, it was something else.

In terms of literature, I was influenced by my two elder brothers who introduced us to UK comics like Beano, Dandy, Tammy, Mandy and later to British magazines like Jackie.


I also got to read the paper-back fictions that they passed down to us - which were pretty, erm... educational. Because of my brothers, I read Harold Robbins and Jacqueline Susann when I was an innocent 12-year-old. I remember being shell-shocked as I turned the pages of those novels because these adult fictions were a quantum leap from the Enid Blyton, Nancy Drew and The Three Investigators books that I had been reading. There were some passages that I had to re-read to understand exactly what they meant... but I learnt fast. And my outlook broadened considerably, to say the least :) Today, these novels would be considered trashy but at that time, well, they were just eye-openers, lol!

In terms of popular culture, American hegemony was not absolute then, like how it is today, and definitely not as accessible. There were no internet or i-tunes or CD's or MP3's. We only listened to the local radio and bought cassettes of our favourite artistes. Cassettes were magnetic tape recordings (left) and we listened to the songs on a cassette player. The original cassettes were expensive and it was only later that cassette piracy came in a big way. In those early days, we needed to save to buy the original cassettes. Alternatively, we paid a small fee to the cassette shop and asked them to tape selected songs for us on blank tapes. I remember our favourite cassette shop at that time was called Horizon at the Jaya Supermarket.

But when I was in my early teens, my second brother was studying in London and he used to compile pop songs for me on cassettes. He recorded the latest songs or even the entire UK Top 40 radio programme on blank cassette tapes and he would send them to me from the UK by post. I used to so-look forward to receiving such cassettes in the mail. As a result, I invariably began to follow the pop charts in the UK Top 40, rather than the US Billboard. Boomtown Rats, Culture Club, Police... they were all big British bands at that time. It was not surprising thus that I favoured Top Of The Pops to Solid Gold.

Finally, my second brother was the one who introduced me to English soccer and tennis. Not the physical game, please, but as a spectator sport. At that time, the English Premier League went by a different name but the big clubs playing at the top division of the league were more or less the same. Liverpool, MU, Arsenal, Spurs. Then, Nottingham Forest was a big name. Although I was not a big fan, I took an interest in the league, even up to today. I also started watching and following the tennis championships. Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert Lloyd... I remember when I visited UK in the 90's, I made it a point to take the train to the town called Wimbledon to see the Wimbledon stadium where the famous tennis championships are held every year.

Due to these influences, I've always had a strong affinity for all things British. I absolutely love the British accent. I love British movies - Chariots Of Fire is one of my all-time favourites. I used to read all the news about the British monarchy, especially when Princess Diana was alive. I watched her wedding to Prince Charles live on TV. Even today, I feel a class above when I eat scones and jam and sip Earl Grey. In the World Cup, I am always a firm supporter of the English team.

Is that just the Colonial hangover, I wonder?