Published in "Little Ironies: Stories of Singapore" in 1978, 'The Taximan's Story' is a short story written by Catherine Lim and it is a first-person narrative written in the form of a monologue. Centred on the taxi driver, he is the main character and the story is told from his perspective.
'The Taximan's Story' depicts the problems and observations of a taxi driver, revealed to us as he engages his passenger in conversation. However, we're only shown the taxi driver's part of the exchange and not the passenger's. As the story progresses, he begins to share more and it develops from his personal background ("my father cane me, I was big enough to be married, and still, got caning") to his experiences in driving the taxi ("as taximan, I know them and their habits") and climaxes when he reveals the problem he has with his daughter ("I rush up to this wicked daughter and I catch her by the shoulders and neck and slap her and she scream, but I don't care"). The story ends with him dropping off the passenger at her destination, before saying that he "must go off to Hotel Elroy" where "there [are] plenty [of] young people to pick up". It leaves us at this point where the taxi man ironically is profiting off the youth who are behaving in the way that he has condemned his daughter for.
'The Taximan's Story' appealed to us, and we decided to explore it in more depth. Below are a few pictures and videos that we took as we tried to recreate and identify some of the scenes that are in the story.
Picture 1: Mr Lim is seen gesturing. He could be sharing some of his views with the passenger and is instinctively waving his hands to prove his point.
"Long time ago, Singapore not like this - so crowded so busy."
Picture 2: Mr Lim is again gesturing, but this time more wildly and more rapidly with his hand. He could be excited by what he is sharing with the passenger.
"But these young girls and their boyfriends don't bargain, they just pay, pay and they make love in taxi so much they don't know if you go round and round and charge them by meter!"
Picture 3: This is a photograph taken along Orchard Road near Orchard Towers, and is where Mr Lim pointed out today's equivalent to the sleazy areas of Orchard Road that existed in the past.
"I go and wait outside Elroy Hotel or Tung Court or Orchid Mansions, and sure enough, madam, will have plenty business."
Picture 4: A picture of Orchard Towers, an infamous place with a reputation not unlike the places that the taxi driver has mentioned in the story.
"Must go off to Hotel Elroy - there plenty young people to pick up."
Video 1: Mr Lim recalls his experience with some tourists from Sweden. In particular, he corrects the way that they were trying to flag down the taxi, as we do it in a different way here.
Video 2: Taking us around for a drive, Mr Lim showed us the parts of Singapore that are considered more sleazy. He also recounts his younger days and how Singapore was like back then.
'The Taximan's Story' highlights several concerns that the Singaporeans of those days faced. One of the most striking themes in the story is the conflict between tradition and modernity.
To the taximan (the narrator in the story), tradition in Singapore is losing its place as progress is made and the country begins to embrace modernity. The narrator laments that the young people today are "not like [them] when [they were] young", implying that the current generation is somewhat lacking and inferior in terms of morals. This is further emphasised by how he claims that "[his] parents say [do not] do this, [and they] never do" - in essence, the taxi driver believes that the youngsters in his generation are more filial, more obedient, and more morally upright.
His tone is disdainful and dismissive throughout the story as well. His repeated lexical choice of contrasting words such as "today" versus "ago" in his monologue shows that the taximan is very aware of the changing times, where he can compare between one time period and another. In fact, after many instances of "today" comes the taximan's comments on the younger generation - they are less than their forebearers.
Tradition versus modernity is particularly interesting to us because it is an issue very much still relevant today, even though we may be dealing with different traditions than those of that time. The struggle to embrace both our roots together with progress has brought about this conflict, and while many of us are still trying to find a balance, it is inevitable that change has very much deterred us from being able to find an equilibrium for them.
In order to understand the story better and hopefully gain more insight to the issues highlighted, we interviewed Catherine Lim as well as Mr Patrick Lim, who is a Comfort Delgro taxidriver. They have provided us with their perspectives, and they can be found in two other separate entries.
No comments:
Post a Comment