Slumdog Millionaire & The Little Nyonya

Caught Slumdog Millionaire last night... loved it! So this is what I've been burying my eyes and ears in... Anyone with an interest in missions and the changing world should catch some good movies, magazines or books to keep themselves on the cutting-edge.


Take this with a pinch of salt as it was shot from an outsider's (Danny Boyle, Englishman) point of view. However, having been to India myself, and spent daily time at the slums and orphanages for 2 months, I would say those depictions of slum happenings do strike a chord in my memories. More so, I loved how the social commentary on India's poverty, racial tension, child exploitation and abuse panned out. On another note, the glimpses of violence upon unprotected children and cheap attitude towards life called out justice and compassion from my heart.

But what echoed my concern was Slumdog's accurate portrayal of today's breakneck speed of globalisation. It touches an issue I've been grappling with - the changing face of missions and our world. In what I do, the quinessential principle is to be "culturally relevant". When I tried my hand at ethnomusiciology*, it became more amorphous guessing the tastes and hearts of this generation... they prefer to let traditions go, because of their irrelevance to life today.


It's kinda like Peranakan culture here, or our own attitudes towards our Cantonese/Hokkien/Teochew roots... the younger generation doesn't appreciate old pantuns (traditional Peranakan Malay songs) or making kueh/ayam buah keluak. What happened with 'The Little Nyonya' was a deliberate attempt by media to resurrect interest and Singapore being a befitting environment for the wave of revival to flourish. What does this say about the youth of today, and the youth of each different ethnic group? What do they value - nostalgia, roots, passing on a culture, family pride? ...Or new-fangled innovations, fresh ideas and modernity? Even I never valued the wealth of Cantonese recipes my mother harboured until recently confronted with its possible demise in my hands, and asked her to teach me some of her signature dishes.

Guess when it comes to young people, whichever culture they're from, it's always wise to suss out their existing values and ask why they exist. And to make sure you're engaged with the moment they find themselves in. I'm finding it flying past me faster than I know it.... It's nice to know God is in the moment and on top of it too. So I'd keep asking Him and finding those anwers as I pray for this world and generation.

Any thoughts, anyone?

* Ethnomusicology (adapted from Jeff Todd Titon): the study of "people making music." Ethnomusicologists are as interested in the people making the music as in the sounds of music they are making; the whole process and contexts through and within which music is imagined, discussed and made, not just the musical sound structures themselves; what music means to particular groups of people - what part it plays in their lives.

- blythe doll in kebaya image from http://www.jooli.com