The Little Nyonya
Dec 22, 2008
I am becoming a casualty of the serial drama The Little Nonya.
Which is rare.
I blame this on the fact that I am on leave and with no travel plans in the horizon, I'm now actually just squandering my time however I fancy, however pointlessly.
Getting onto Mediacorp's Mobtv was a bad way to start the holidays. It's too late now. I've whisked through all the available Previews on the latest "blockbuster", the Little Nonya (which is odd, isn't it Nyonya!?).
I'm sitting here suffering a mild bout of separation anxiety. My withdrawal symptoms included a google and a wiki on "the Nyonya" and I unwittingly stumbled on a blog spot belonging to one of the cast, Felicia Chin, which I read with much relief.
The serial drama, though only 30ish episodes long, is a bit of an epic as it spans 70 years. The producers have clumsily gotten me very confused in the beginning by casting more than one person to a role, and assigning more than one role to one actress. I had to ask why the lead actress never seems to age when everyone around her has?! (The same woman portrays a woman and her daughter some 20 years later)
This smacks of the usual Mediacorp production anchored on the tired themes of familial feuds. This one just happens to have the Peranakan culture as a backdrop and this, they force-feed into the story-line... I am guessing at least one thing is for sure. Finally, being of Nyonya heritage myself, it's great to know that maybe now, people would stop making the stupid assumption that "Peranakans" happen when the Chinese marry the Malays..
Gawd!
I find the depiction of the utterly mean-spirited and wicked people around the protagonist shockingly incredible. Everyone (who is cast as "bad guy") wants to harm her or her mom (played by the same actress) and/or her grandma (played by someone else and this person also plays her eventually in old age)... I did warn that this gets terribly confusing.
In this show, the characters are either ALL good or ALL bad. There are no in-betweens, there is no character evolution and they don't seem to learn, reflect nor move on.
I'd usually argue that this is bad drama because it does not reflect life. In life, you don't always find someone who's all good nor all bad. Personal conflict is a common theme. People struggle. In good and in bad.
So why are the characters here single-dimensional?
The portrayal of Peranakan-ness is also a painful contrivance with deliberate excess and meaningless name-dropping about this "kueh kueh" or that spice. Long minutes go by describing Customs and Kueh Kuehs which end up being nothing more than broad generalisations. Besides, one common thing about the nyonyas is that they pepper alot of their speech with Malay expressions. Like "Alamak" (a bit like "Oh my God!") and "Ker sian" (poor thing) or "Sayang" (affectionate term). This is in their everyday speech. Not just in calling out some kueh kueh or dish...
In spite of all these, why is the series so addictive?!!
Because it condenses. It ignores all the varied facets of people and resolutely depict them along singular traits. It's all you ever needed to know about a character.
The set, however fabricated, is beautiful and nostalgic. The costumes, embroidered shoes and kerosangs, however out of place on the modern faces of the cast, are ornate and reminiscent of what my Grandmother used to wear.
And this is easy. Easier than Life.
Everyone turns to TV or Movies or Books for some sense of escapism.
And The Little Nyonya offers just the right dose of this. 3 families work through their deep-set feuds over 3 generations, wearing ornate costumes, living in the rare Peranakan architectures.. and the good eventually triumphs. Everyone wants a story like this.
I do.
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