How it all started
I was a kid in the 70's living in a village. Back then we had radio and black and white TV. We didn't even own a TV. We were at the mercy of our TV owning neighbours who were also our relatives related to us by blood. My favourite place to watch TV was at my Ah Pei's home. He was my father's older brother. He was nice to us and would let us choose the channels. Well, there were only 4 channels to choose from really - English, Chinese or 2 Malaysian channels.At Ah Pei's home, I watched The Carol Burnett Show, Tarzan and every single cartoon. I also watched the news or whatever Chinese show that my cousins were watching. Occasionally I gave Ah Pei's family a break and went to watch TV at my other uncle's home. Well, technically I watched TV outside his home, standing at the open door. Although we were related we did not have actual blood ties. (I think he was adopted) Anyway, he had a huge family and a few of his girls were around my age and watched a lot of TV. Which benefited me. Except us kids weren't allowed to enter the home. Sometimes I was allowed to continue peering at the show at the door. Sometimes my presence would irk the family so much they would turn off the TV in a huff. But I loved TV more than my pride and I would keep on returning. Oh, I think I've ruined plenty of their weekends.
In 1976 my entire village relocated and most of my neighbours cum relatives moved with us to the same housing estate. For some reason, my mother did not buy a TV. She had received compensation from the government for the relocation and I was pretty sure we could afford a decent TV. I think she suffered from post-welfare-trauma syndrome. My family was on welfare for a while in the early 70's and it must really haunt her not to have money to feed her 9 kids. Fortunately my Ah Pei lived two blocks away and during that period Hong Kong drama was hot. Back then dialects were allowed on TV and despite us not knowing much Cantonese, whenever the night dramas were on, my siblings and I would walk over to Ah Pei's home. We did this for quite a long time. During this period, I didn't watch much TV because living in a housing estate was different from living in a village. Most families keep their doors closed and locked. I couldn't just enter their homes. I had to ask to be invited in. One night after our regular visit to watch TV at Ah Pei's home, my sister announced that we would buy a TV. I was so relieved. By then colour TV was the norm.
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After our first TV entered our home, my life changed forever. There was so much TV to watch. I watched everything. The Donny and Marie Show, Hogan's Heroes, Charlie's Angels, news, Cantonese drama, the Sunday's football games and even German sports games. I think for a while I knew how to count in German. Eventually the TV broke down because it got overheated. We had to use a fan to cool it down otherwise the images would turn green. Ah Toshiba, how angry I used to get at you.
We did get a better TV eventually. I forgot who paid for it. We became less poor and the price of TV did become more affordable.
One day something changed the face of Singapore TV forever. Around 1979, dialects were banned on Singapore TV. The reason was to increase the mastery of Chinese. By then, I had been hooked on Cantonese drama and it was a crushing blow to me. Subsequently, all drama in dialects were dubbed in Mandarin but I couldn't watch them. It was so unnatural and I couldn't get used to it. Later Singapore's Channel 8 started producing local Mandarin dramas and I tried watching them. A lot of the early local Chinese dramas were dubbed in Mandarin as many of the actors couldn't speak Mandarin well. Still I watched them as by then, my dear mother had become a Channel 8 TV addict. My home was small and if the TV was on, you're watching it as well.
My mother only watched TV till 9pm and after that the TV belonged to me. I started watching a lot of art movies, documentaries, courtroom drama, law and order stuff. During this period, I grew out of Chinese drama and then one day I stopped watching any Chinese drama totally.
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After that my TV diet consisted mainly of American and British TV. Sitcoms, drama, movies. In 1984, Oshin, a Japanese TV drama was shown on Singapore TV. I became hooked. The melodrama consisted of 297 15-minute episodes and I watched every single one of them. In 1985, there was a rerun and I watched all 297 episodes all over again. In 1994, Oshin was shown on Singapore TV again but this time in English and would you believe it? I watched all the episodes again. Watching in English was weird and I really would have preferred subtitles.
In 1995 I got married and my TV diet was still mostly American and British TV. There was a lot of sitcoms and a lot of TV series. Then in 2000, my husband introduced me to a show called Survivor. When it was aired in Singapore, I paid no attention to it. During its re-run, my husband persuaded me to watch and I was hooked. From 2001 onwards, I watched many reality TV shows, some of which were trash. Till today, the only ones I like are Survivor, The Amazing Race, Project Runway and America's Next Top Model. What made watching these shows so much more enjoyable was I watch them with my family and we had so much fun ranting. My husband has long given up on these shows but thankfully my son is my faithful companion.
In 2014, I gave up my craft market business and suddenly had a lot of time to kill. I was also feeling down and wanted to watch something mindless and once again I turned to Oshin. I found a bootleg version online and the best part about watching it along with a group of fellow Oshin lovers was the ranting. That felt so good. However, Oshin ended prematurely as the person doing the subtitles stopped one day. Feeling lost and purposely, I decided to study why Hana Yori Dango, a manga series is so successful having been adapted into an anime series and a anime film. On top of that it had been adapted into live-action TV drama in Japan, Taiwan and Korea plus two live-action movies. I did not pluck Hana Yori Dango from the air. I had heard about this manga series from my kids who have watched the anime series. I had read about the TV adaptations in Japanese, Korean and Chinese. I was fascinated by its success. And that was how I got sucked back into Asian TV drama.
