Singing Hokkien and Collective Effervescence
Sometimes when I look in the mirror I wonder who the ang mo (caucasian) is. Sunday I had a similar experience at the 74th Anniversary combined worship at Paya Lebar Chinese Methodist Church. As we sang the Hokkien songs (I used the Romanized text) I was feeling proud to be Hokkien. Wow, all our voices so nice, blending together, so beautiful. When my colleague gave announcements in Hokkien I followed in English. Well, I sort of designed the service. But someone after thought I was interpreting Hokkien into English. Mei banfa. Wo bu dong. No, I enjoy my Hokkien and other Chinese friends, but my ancestry is from the other end of the Euro-Asian landmass. My mother was English and my father German (Volga Deutsche), and the two spoken languages I tried to learn in my youth are German and Spanish, not Chinese. But back to the combined service at PLCMC, I am interested in the experience of solidarity evoked by that congregational singing. There I was, a U.S. citizen, a "f