Chinatown Ah Peks!

People around us are showing much concern:

"Aiyoh! He's gonna become a banana! Outside look like a Chinese boy, but probably gonna be a white boy inside!"

"Are you sure he's gonna be able to speak a word of Chinese? I bet he's gonna sound strange!"

"Is he gonna keep his roots? Will he know what roti prata is and can he appreciate chay kueh teow with cockles?"

Well, Jellybean has been surrounded with people of different tongues for the past few months and is subtly becoming a multilinguist through all the influence. English, Mandarin and Cantonese mainly, with the occasional Malay and Singlish, some Hokkein from Taiwanese TV dramas theme songs, and broken Japanese now and then, courtesy of Daddy and Mummy's crazy half-past-six-Jap-learning Mahjong gang. So no worries; it looks like he's got half of Asia conquered!

And looking at the picture above, it's not hard to imagine Johno and Grandpa Edwin years later, sitting together in a non-airconditioned Chinatown coffeeshop, sipping Chinese tea and slurping bak ku teh, surrounded by fellow Chinatown Ah Peks all clad in their trademark white singlets.

And that's oriental for you, people!

*Glossary for the unfamiliar:
roti prata - Indian pancake with curry
chay kueh teow - fried flat rice noodles (a Singaporean favourite)
Singlish - unique Singaporean English
bak ku teh - pork-ribs soup
Ah Peks - elderly men