ah bengism

there was a time, when if you had a 明 in your name, you'd be called Ah Beng. and thats all to it.

then along with time, and some buddies in the form of Ah Seng, Ah Kow, Ah Beng was used to address any chinese guy on the street. it became the singaporean equivilent of "Tom, Dick, and Harry".

then somwhere along the early 90s, Ah Beng was a term used to refer to those ne'er-do wells, dialect spouting(usually hokkien and swear words), which soon evolved into uncouth, young wannabes. easily recognizable, they'd be the ones who wear tight fitting collered shirts usually in a bright garish colour, long tight jeans with sweeping ends, slick gelled dyed hair usually in centre parting, long wallets and to complete the equation, a comb with a long sharp pointed handle. they'd often have techno beats on their handphones/music device and would usually point out their favourite past time was the Dance Dance Revolution machine in the arcades.

now, the modern Ah Beng has evolved to a trend following, still techno music blasting(from his handphone) t-shirt wearing guy, just sans the centre parted hair, jeans, wallet and comb.

so with all that evidence and history, that proves that i am no Ah Beng.

so why do friends i meet still call me one?

i am no follower of trends, i wear whats on top of the pile of clothes. i cant stand techno music, and feel liek whacking the next guy who blasts it from his handphone on public transport, and even if i do spout hokkien and swear occassionally, i reserve them for special occassions(namely during a football match). so what makes me an ah beng?

sure, i've been in fights, but i dont really shout thos juvenile and amatuer "yo-ah-yo" chants. those are for posers, and wannabes. i smoke, but i'd doubt the normal ah beng smoke as much as me. i speak hokkien and swear, but thats because i AM hokkien and as for the swearing, you sometimes just gotta let it out. so where's the justification?

and i'm pretty sure that if i AM an ah beng, you'd be hard pressed to find one more eloquent than me.