yandao.com - Memoirs of a player wannabe

For the first time of my life have I saw a paikia (local slang for gangster) family – and by that I don’t mean just two or three people; More like five or six.

No, it’s not all that rare to someone who’s always on the streets, but for those who do know me, I’m not that someone. Honest. (though my contacts stretch beyond those mere punks) and yes, I’ve had my share of fun on the street, too.

Let’s get back to the family, there was: Mum, Dad, Son #1, Son #2, Auntie, and Uncle. That may seem normal.. but what was catchy was that they knew everyone.. Well, almost everyone – if all the secret-society looking members counted.. Brightly coloured hair, obsene tattoos, and oddly placed piercings added to the look. I would have taken a photo could I run fast enough. Yea?

Handshakes were exchanged, nods of affirmation, brief words, and the works were exchanged between those parties. It somewhat looked like a scene from a HK underworld flick. It actually took me some time to realise that I was in the West of Singapore, far West, probably “terroritory” of 1 major traid locally.

What really caught me by surprise was how much the parents cared for their children. I mean, people like us always have the perception that those gangsters must have had a not-so-good family, and that their parents probably didn’t give a damn if they got slashed by huge knives or broken Tiger beer bottles. I was very wrong.

Some messy-looking guy who was related to the family walked by, and said the usual greetings to Son #2, and took out a 20-stick cigarette pack.. Son #2 declined it, and then the guy walked away. The gangster-like parents noticed, and a brief exchange of similar words in hokkien was heard:

Mum: [vulgarity here] You want to die, ah? Have these kind of friends, know you underage still give you cigarette. What if you got caught by police how?

Dad: *agrees* Your brother is legal, that is why he can smoke. You want to have a criminal record in the future, ah?

Son #1 (who was still smoking): Yah, cannot give you [a cigarette].

I was impressed, not by the fact that this was a small matter, rather by the fact that even gangster-families who were so hard on the outside, cared for their children so much, and didn’t wish that they stray from the law. Yet, this is contradicting?

I don’t really know what kind of conclusion to draw from this… Ahh..