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How did the samsui woman become the object of nostalgic fantasy?
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The hit drama Samsui Women (1986), featuring actresses Hong Huifang (left) and Zeng Huifen, was the first Singapore Broadcasting Corporation production to be dubbed into English.
PHOTO: MEDIACORP
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SINGAPORE – The night before the demolition of a terrazzo-tiled dragon playground harking back to the 1980s, a young Singaporean organises a sit-in protest. She claims to be protecting cultural heritage and memory, but soon gets exposed as having no real connection to the playground – except for the fact that she wants “to make a point”.
The plot of millennial playwright Joel Tan’s 2015 play Mosaic, which satirises the hollowness of nostalgia, is playing out before people’s eyes today. It goes something like this: Upon learning that a samsui woman mural might be erased from a Chinatown shophouse, social media is set ablaze with protests for and against the artwork,
