The latest addition to the recent slew of Chinese "dialect" works - following Royston Tan's omnibus 667 and Ministry-endorsed TV drama, Have You Eaten? - is W!ld Rice's Grandmother Tongue. The premise is simple. We watch a grandmother and her adult-grandson bond - in Teochew, one of the many "dialects" in Singapore.
From the get go, Grandmother Tongue does superbly well in setting up the state of Singapore's "dialects" for the audience. The paradox of the "Speak Mandarin" policy in 1970s are pointed out, farcically, point blank when SAP-school-going Grandson (Tan Shou Chen) cheekily questions why Chinese is his 'mother' tongue. If his 'mother' tongue is meant to connect the younger generation to their roots, why not go straight to the "dialects" that our grandparents speak?
To drive the point home, Grandma (Jalyn Han) breaks the fourth wall and asks for her candid grievances about the government to not be translated into surtitles. Catching the audience off guard, she points out those who could not laugh along, only to invite them back in when she tests their knowledge of the colloquial Hokkien swear words; the only thing to have withstood the test of time, it seems.
As actor Rei Poh's commendable repertoire of characters take turns to grace the stage, we dwelve deeper into the disconnect that Grandma faces; it cuts deep. From witnessing a tone-deaf representative's failed attempt to guide Grandma to learn Mandarin via a smart phone she isn't familiar with to a medical-check-up-turned-game-of-charades with healthcare staff who can only speak English, we witness how Grandma has been cast aside in our modern-day city state.
The comedic vignettes transition artfully through a minimalistic set and meticulous lighting in tandem with the heartstring-tugging soundtracks, to Grandma's struggles to have her funeral rites as she knows it instead of her son's newfound religion. Although Grandma's voice grow weaker, her final laments are deafening. Will our current generation ever make up for lost time and reconcile the differences with our grandparents? Or will we live in our separate worlds?
Grandmother Tongue resonated strongly with me. As someone who is supposed to be Teochew but never learnt a word even at my paternal Grandfather's death bed. As a grandson who is now watching Cantonese dramas to learn enough Cantonese to hold a conversation with my maternal Grandma who watched me grow up. As a young person who has peers that never grew up with their dialect-speaking grandparents. Is it too late?
It was a privilege to be among the audience left in rapturous laughter during a Teochew drama. W!ld Rice's restaging of Thomas Lim's Grandmother Tongue is cheeky and most warmly welcomed. Bittersweet and poignant, Grandmother Tongue is the quintessential homage to a hidden part of Singapore's fast-disappearing heritage.