Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Sharon Au
As some of you should know, I'm a huge fan of Sharon Au. I remembered her vibrant and cheery personality as a host on City Beat years and years ago when I was a kid. I didn't really understand the content and what they were talking about but I laughed anyway.
Subsequently, she decided to put her media career on hold and pursue her university education at Waseda University (which, my aunt says, is a "university for geniuses" hahaha). While she was there she also went to France one year for an exchange program, making her effectively trilingual... No, quadrilingual actually (is there even such a word?).
She's been back in Singapore for over a year now and being one of her avid followers, I knew that she was facing troubles readjusting to Singapore. K basically the whole point of this post is cos I saw her featured in an interview in 早报 two Sundays ago (15 July 2012). I don't really know why the interview struck me and although I had trouble grappling with the Chinese (since I don't actively read/write Chinese anymore), I was curious enough to finish the article. Which is quite a feat really, considering how I don't really read the papers and read books anymore (which is terrible). So here, I'm going to translate the article into English just for the record.
The Japanese, French and Singaporean's cultures of love vastly differ
Air stewardess, celebrity, student, career woman... Few people get to experience so many different roles in one life. Singapore, Japan and France – few people get the chance of having lived in all these countries, much less be able to claim that they have friends or even boyfriends from these places.
Sharon Au is only 36 years old, yet she has done all of that. Destiny and one's personality plays a role in determining how our lives turn out. In 1994, she could have gone on to university, yet she chose to become an air stewardess to explore the world; in 2005, she left her successful entertainment career to become a student.
Having seen the world, how does she view men and women? How does she view the different roles in society? How does she view family and freedom?
Sharon Au (ex-TV artiste, current MediaCorp administrative staff)
1. Japanese, French and Singaporean men – what are their unique qualities?
Japanese men are very cool – you'll often see them smoking cigarettes, and they don't really like to talk. In a café, when you see a Japanese couple on a date, you usually see the girl talking. On Valentine's Day, a girl gives a boy a present to express her liking towards him. It is only a month later, under the situation where the boy feels the same way, will he reciprocate and present her with a gift as well. (Side note: this occasion is known as White Day)
The French man's romanticism flows in their blood – it's not just part of their culture, it's basically ingrained into their DNA. Their goal in life is to make women happy – they will write poems or songs for you.
The Singaporean man is the most sincere of the three cultures, they aren't extreme at all. They're not cool and aloof like the Japanese man, but they aren't passionate and fiery like French men either.
2. What are your reasons for liking Japanese, French or Singaporean men?
Every place has it's own type of culture when it comes to love. The Japanese man has got lots of style, but you have to put in continuous effort. They taught me that knowing how to love someone is something very admirable.
When I was in France, I was drawn by their culture of love, it affected me really deeply. But the French men are passionate and fiery, they invest their emotions quickly, but these emotions can leave just as quickly too.
In juxtaposition, some people feel that Singaporean men aren't stylish and cool enough, and aren't expressive enough. But honestly, Singaporean men are very down-to-earth and they don't have any huge emotional fluctuations.
There is no one type that is the best, every type has its own good to savour and bad to undertake. I've experienced the good and bad of all three types before.
3. What happened to your last relationship with your French boyfriend?
We were together for three years, and it has ended. The time we spent together in France was sweet. But after I left France, the long distance relationship came along with being unable to interact and meet directly. This took a toll on our relationship, especially when we were feeling emotionally or physically down. This physical absence is something that even technology cannot help salvage.
He was from Lyon, France and originally planned to move to Singapore. But after the tsunami in Japan, his parents were especially worried. In their eyes, that equates to the occurrence of such a huge natural disaster in the whole of Asia, so they were insistent on him returning home. Because of circumstantial and personal reasons, in the end we still broke up.
4. Having been back for 1 year and 3 months, how have you been doing in Singapore?
Me being unable to resettle and adjust to Singapore – the problem doesn't lie with the place, the problem lies with me.
Imagine a bird who has been cooped up in a cage, but it doesn't know it's trapped in a cage, and goes on living in ignorance. One day, you open the cage and release the bird, giving it six years of freedom. After that, you place the bird back into the cage and lock it up. By then, no matter how comfortable the confines of the cage, the bird will still be unable to feel at ease.
5. Air stewardess, celebrity, student, career woman – which role do you love the best?
Student. Although I was poor for those 6 years, and even had to work part-time at McDonalds' to earn extra money, but by comparison the freedom it came with made me very happy.
After returning, I feel less happy. This has to do with the environment and my identity. When I was in Japan, I often think to myself, No wonder my acting was so bad then, I thought up everything then, my view on life in the past was so narrow.
6. What have you read lately? And what are some insights you've gained?
Playwright Michael Chiang gave me a book he bought in New York, "Why be Happy When you Could be Normal", written and autographed by Jeanette Winterson.
The title of the book is actually something the author's mother told her. The author is a lesbian, and after her mom found out, she was very shocked.
The author told her mother, "I'm very happy, I've come out of the closet, and I'm finally happy!"
But the mother, being strongly religious, replied, "Why be happy when you could be normal?" In the end, the author decided to leave her home.
Besides the theme of homosexuality, the author writes in detail about her childhood, her thoughts on life, which greatly reflects what I've been thinking as well. When I first saw the title of the book, I thought it was a sign telling me to accept things as they are, but in the end the book was really about the author's pursuit for freedom.
7. If you could be anyone in the world, who would you be?
The female owner of a bakery in France. When I was in France, I loved staying in the bakery.
People often walk in tired, the weather perhaps very cold outside, but after they've been in the bakery a while you start to see the change in them. They look and pick breads they want, and they might then sit down and happily enjoy their food, or they leave the store happily with their purchase.
The owner knows all of the people who walk in, and even knows what bread they want and how they want their bread cut. They will talk while preparing the bread for purchase, and there's a feeling of community, and you sense the history of the place.
The bread isn't expensively priced, I suspect the female owner only earns enough to pay her rent. But in Europe, earning money isn't for buying houses or cars – it's solely to lead a happy life, like enabling one to go to the south in summer to suntan. Every single day is an enjoyment, and you don't have to wait till the holidays to seek bliss. It all sounds very surreal, but it is a way of life there. It's hard for Singaporeans to imagine because we don't place importance on these relations anymore.
8. Having been overseas for 6 years, is there anything about returning home that makes you exceptionally happy?
Why would I not be happy after returning? What makes me the happiest is being able to visit my mother for a meal whenever I want to. No matter how happy I was overseas, my greatest regret has always been being unable to be with my mother. When my mother fell ill, the fruit grocer living below her made a call to Japan to me and said, "Your mother is having a high fever and she told us not to tell you because you're having exams, but we felt that you should know."
At that point in time, I wished so badly to be in Singapore.
9. What is a woman? What is Sharon Au?
Women are clever creatures, when they aren't bogged down by the troubles of love.
Sharon Au can be happy, but only when she doesn't dwell on the past and doesn't want to take flight.
K end of transcribe hahaha
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