(Not qualitative but quirkyalone. Qualitative is with a small ‘a’ — that is, ‘Qa’ — instead.)
I think I’m dead glad to be living in this day and age. Women are no longer expected to marry young or at all (though there are still some pressures that way). Most of my friends were single until after JC. Although there is always that government interference, they are yet ubiquitous at my age (except for some SDU sponsorship in various orientation camps). Being single is not considered an anomaly (since it appears a number of people are single, whether they wish it to be or not). I’m in the generation where we can expect to wed later and our elders have already been forewarned and they are kind of like my mom, I suppose, hopeful but not realistically so.
Of course, on the flip side, one can arguably say that a single person does not have the same privileges as those married (buying houses of the HDB variety, vacation excuses, maternity leave and benefits, tax returns, etc) or the support of our government (who wants us to have more babies — and for our own good too). But as human agents, we do have a viable choice of remaining single, I think. I hear more people saying even, that a boy/girlfriend can be too troublesome. I wonder if such changes would help us in defining more and different/alternative ideas of what ‘family’ means in the future.
For me, I think I have some QA compatriots even if they may not define themselves as so (particularly the single and unavailable group, you know who you are). I have hopes for the future too because I don’t think most people of my acquantiance, for instance, despise singlehood and usually have at least some good things to say about it. I think most of us have gone beyond the equation of couplehood = fulfilment, singlehood = bad bad bad. There is an intelligent recognition that each situation has its own merits. (I am aware that this is a vast generalization but still… I feel hopeful of the future.) I have not encountered any deeply embedded gut hostility to singlehood so far.
Even in the realm of couplehood, I’m hopeful because I see more ‘cool couples’ than the complicated TV series drama variety (though I say this reservedly because I do know these damn drama couples). I was reminded of this when a friend of mine introduced her boyfriend as a friend first before mentioning that he was her boyfriend too (I also thought this was kind of cute, hahah). Maybe it’s a sign of the times.
At any rate, living in this generation gives me hope for the future as a happily self-labelled QA. Thank you people of my own generation. You have given me hope.
Addendum: OTOH people who don’t have children now may be scrapgoated for the ills of having a declining native population. Oh well, who knows.
QA friendly (future?) Singapore
(Not qualitative but quirkyalone. Qualitative is with a small ‘a’ — that is, ‘Qa’ — instead.)
I think I’m dead glad to be living in this day and age. Women are no longer expected to marry young or at all (though there are still some pressures that way). Most of my friends were single until after JC. Although there is always that government interference, they are yet ubiquitous at my age (except for some SDU sponsorship in various orientation camps). Being single is not considered an anomaly (since it appears a number of people are single, whether they wish it to be or not). I’m in the generation where we can expect to wed later and our elders have already been forewarned and they are kind of like my mom, I suppose, hopeful but not realistically so.
Of course, on the flip side, one can arguably say that a single person does not have the same privileges as those married (buying houses of the HDB variety, vacation excuses, maternity leave and benefits, tax returns, etc) or the support of our government (who wants us to have more babies — and for our own good too). But as human agents, we do have a viable choice of remaining single, I think. I hear more people saying even, that a boy/girlfriend can be too troublesome. I wonder if such changes would help us in defining more and different/alternative ideas of what ‘family’ means in the future.
For me, I think I have some QA compatriots even if they may not define themselves as so (particularly the single and unavailable group, you know who you are). I have hopes for the future too because I don’t think most people of my acquantiance, for instance, despise singlehood and usually have at least some good things to say about it. I think most of us have gone beyond the equation of couplehood = fulfilment, singlehood = bad bad bad. There is an intelligent recognition that each situation has its own merits. (I am aware that this is a vast generalization but still… I feel hopeful of the future.) I have not encountered any deeply embedded gut hostility to singlehood so far.
Even in the realm of couplehood, I’m hopeful because I see more ‘cool couples’ than the complicated TV series drama variety (though I say this reservedly because I do know these damn drama couples). I was reminded of this when a friend of mine introduced her boyfriend as a friend first before mentioning that he was her boyfriend too (I also thought this was kind of cute, hahah). Maybe it’s a sign of the times.
At any rate, living in this generation gives me hope for the future as a happily self-labelled QA. Thank you people of my own generation. You have given me hope.
Addendum: OTOH people who don’t have children now may be scrapgoated for the ills of having a declining native population. Oh well, who knows.
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