Raison D’etre

I wasn’t really a good kid back in Primary School. Very often, I’d be pulled out of English class, PE class or assembly to the side of the corridor, field or the hall for doing something weird. Perhaps it was one of my enhanced paper bullets that I shot with some super strong rubber band. I did do my research on paper bullets. I folded ones that made people cry whenever it hits. And I hit. I realized I wasn’t really the tough kid type so I balanced my comparative advantages, learned from Mao, did guerrilla warfare and shot bullets from the dark.

I also kicked sand around during PE class. I threw a basketball really hard on the floor to see how high the ball can bounce. I call people names. All sorts of different things.

There’s one thing in common though. The teachers who pulled me aside always started with “you think this very funny ah.” This was followed by a few rhetorical questions that were basically rephrases of the first sentence. I almost thought they were doubting a China kid’s ability to understand simple (broken) English. That was less of an issue than my temptation of answering “YES, YES YES YES” to all their questions.

If it was not funny, why the hell would I have done it.

Advertisement