Alt Screening: IN TRANSIT - Journey to the West (Singapore Premiere)

Organised by Asian Art Archive, a subsidiary of the National Library Board
With post-screening discussion by A/P Dr Sin Harng Luh from NUS Dept of Geography

Filmed by a French director, Jill Coulon, and enacted entirely in Mandarin with English subtitles

Shows a group of China Chinese tourists on a tour group package to six European countries in twelve days.

Picture gruelling schedules, ticking off photo moments at iconic monuments with most of the journey spent on a tour bus.

Why? Why would anyone spend so much money to do just so much in so little time? Are they really so busy? Is there just so much left undone? Is there some sort of "kiasu" mentality inherent in Asian culture?

I found out that China Chinese only had 10 days of annual leave after working from 1-10 years. These guys in the film must have been in the workforce for at least 15 years to have accumulated so much leave!

Which made me feel slightly grateful for the mandatory minimum 7 days leave we have here, even if we've worked less than a year. That is until I look to the long annual leaves in the Western states.

There was some discussion of how one's self-identity is formed by comparison with the Other. 

There was a hint of the background of China Chinese with the Communist, Maoist background and the regime that they were brought up in. But in the show I saw another perspective. The China Chinese tour guide related his experiences with westerners. How the Westerners mistook them for being suppressed and poor. That was in the past hon. Look at where they are now. Everything!

I felt so sorry for them because they are just not living. But have I not been on such trips myself as a kid? Is it capitalism at play which made my parents sign up for such package? I do know that my parents really don't remember much of where we went, especially when it was such a rush trip. It tired then out more easily.

Yet my mom was still in praise of the convenience of such tours. Maybe it's what these China Chinese sought too.

I really like the film, which had so many layers to be dissected. If only I could watch it again!