"How I Came to Write the Play"

How did I come to write "Emily of Emerald Hill?"  How much of it is true?

Several people have asked me how I was inspired to write "Emily of Emerald Hill."

One day I was having lunch in Ipoh with my close friend, Ong Su-ming.  She told me about a striking monodrama she had seen in London, about Emily Dickinson. I had seen other one-person plays too, so the format was familiar to me.  Su-ming suggested that I should write about the life and times of her grandmother, a grand old lady in Ipoh. 

"Well for that matter I have agrandmother of my own!" I said, and that was how I began to write a play about a strong-minded Peranakan matriarch.

I grew up in a big house in Emerald Hill Road, presided over by my grandmother.  Her husband, Mr Seow Poh Leng,  died during the war.  My grandmother, Mrs Seow, also known as Polly Tan --  ruled over the big extended family that lived in "Oberon."

My grandmother's great-grandfather was Tan Tock Seng (the founder of TTS hospital.)  Her family had lived in Singapore for many generations.  The men went to Raffles institution and ACS.  My grandmother was educated at Raffles Girl's school.  She spoke Peranakan Malay at home, but also spoke various Chinese dialects -- Cantonese, Hokkien, and a few phrases of Teochew and other dialects.   She wore either the Nonya's sarong-kebaya, or a Chinese cheong-sam. She was of course a great cook in Nonya style. She could play the piano and sing songs by Stephen Foster such as "Way down uppon the Swanee River" and "Old Black Joe."   (See the note, on "Alabama Coon.")#alabama

Thus my grandmother was typical of the English-educated Babas who flourished around the middle of the last century.  By my generation, times had changed.  As I grew up, the English educational system tended to cut me off from my cultural roots.  I did not learn to speak Peranakan Malay, or to cook the food. I do not know a great deal about Peranakan culture.    Yet by descent and by heritage, I proudly claim to belong to the Babas, the Straits Chinese, the original assimilated Singaporeans.

My grandmother could be friendly and sociable with all kinds of people, just like Emily.  She could also wield the whiplash of her tongue mercilessly.  She ran her big household with skill and efficiency. (Modern students who laugh at Emily ordering the servants around, do not realise that requires a high degree of organisational skill, like managing a company or commanding a battalion.)   She was also the "Fixer" in the family.  Even those family members who had moved to other houses still depended on her for marketing, to find a servant, etc.

So when I began to write this play, I portrayed my grandmother as clearly as I could.  I have learned since then that she was very typical of the Peranakan matriarch,  in the way she bullies and controls her family. At the time I wrote the play, I was not trying to portray a typical woman -- I was just portraying my grandmother as I remembered her.

I asked myself, "Why would a woman behave the way my grandmother did?" I realised that in a male-dominated society, a woman uses domestic power gain influence.  A woman who has been hurt and abandoned as a child, would grab every possible means for control and security. But the life story of "Emily" is not the life-story of my grandmother.  Please note, my grandmother, Mrs Seow Poh Leng, did not live the life that Emily lived.  Yet this much is true:  in the 1960's her mansion "Oberon"was pulled down, and the condominium "Emerald Mansions" was built on its site.  My grandmother ended up living alone in a terrace house with only the servant for company, with her beloved grandson (my brother) dropping by to take her out for a drive.

What then  is true? This is not the true story of one woman -- it is the story of a generation. Every family has such stories, of the female ancestor who was married at a very early age, the relative whose son committed suicide. The golden boy who comes to grief, the charming but ineffectual males, the sisters-in-law engaged in incessant power-struggle, every Peranakan family had them.  How about Mr Chee, the wily old banker, and Reverend Schneider, the Methodist bishop? Mat the Driver and Ah Sim the servant,  Kebun the gardener and Botak the fishmonger, These were the familiar characters of my childhood.

Thus "Emily of Emerald Hill" is derived from my experience of growing up  in a Peranakan family in the 1950s.   It portrays a world now lost, which survives in the memories of many people of my generation.

Every New Year my grandmother had the kebun hang up the red curtain over the big front porch, and my  male cousins flung crackers to explode all over the front drive. You know that ice-cream churn, the wooden tub with the iron canister surrounded by  an ice-salt mixture?  Every year my grandmother used to make jagong ice-cream for us.  All my cousins still remember it …  (sigh) … those were the good old days

Stella Kon 2001

"How Much is Real?" interview

HOW MUCH IS REAL?

It is always difficult to say where fact stops and fiction begins.  Stella would like to make it known that the character “Emily”, while inspired by memories of her maternal grandmother, does not reflect the facts of her grandmother’s life. Neither do Richard, Kheong, Doris and the rest represent actual people.

  “My grandmother was married quite young – but not at fourteen.  She wasn’t a penniless orphan, her husband didn’t go off to live in a mistress’ house, and her son didn’t commit suicide!”   Yet events like these happen in every family – hushed up, whispered about, heard surreptitiously by the child listening in the corner.  “You take these things that you hear about and you alter them a bit… someone was married at sixteen, you make it fourteen, and so on…”  Through this myth-making process, Stella has created the story of Emily’s life, which strikes us with a haunting sense of familiarity, as it mirrors the legends of our own familial past.

--

“Emily is based on my reflections on my grandmother.  She was educated – she studied at Raffles Girls School—and had lived in Australia and Britain.  She wore either cheongsam or sarong-kebaya alternately; she spoke English well, and Malay, and three or four Chinese dialects.  She was a many faceted woman, a society lady who could entertain, and cook up a storm, and spend hours at the mahjong table. And she could charm people!  To this day, people say to  me admiringly – ‘I remember your grandmother—a wonderful woman!’

She managed the whole household.  Young people today laugh when they hear Emily ordering the servants around, they think she’d so spoiled and idle, they don’t realise the management skills it takes to run a big household. Even after her daughters moved away from Oberon, she was still doing everything for them.  I asked myself – why did she do it?   What motivated her? What made her like that?  The story of Emily is not the true story of my grandmother’s life – and yet it is in a way the story of every woman of her generation, who could only find power and fulfilment in the role of wife and mother.”

Stella Kon, 1999

"The Play and I"

THE PLAY AND I

“Emily” was conceived over lunch in a vegetarian restaurant in Ipoh, in 1982.   I was with long-time friend Ong Su-ming.  Her children grew up together with mine, and for over twenty years she has been a source of creative inspiration to me.

Singapore’s third national play-writing competition had been advertised and I was considering writing for it.  I told Su that my previous plays,  although they had won the competition, could not get produced because their casts were too big. Su suggested that I should write a one-woman play!

I had seen plays in that format and it was not unfamiliar.  Su started telling me about the life of her own grandmother, and the rich period background which could be made into a play.  Presently I said, “For that matter, I have a grandmother of my own!”

I began work on the play – then titled “Memoirs of a Nonya”.   During the next four months I went to live in the United Kingdom where my sons were going to school. I completed “Emily” in December 1983, in Richmond, London.  The script was composed on my early Apple-clone PC; printed out on a borrowed printer; mailed to Ipoh for photocopying and binding; and submitted to the competition in Singapore.

Months later I heard I had won the competition.  Then no more news; no Singapore director wanted to do the play.   But meanwhile, Su had brought the script to Malaysian director Chin San Sooi – another old Ipoh friend.  San Sooi is an innovative director who had worked before on my plays, and

I have learned a lot from him.  He saw the one-woman format as an opportunity, not as a problem.   On 17 November 1984 he presented Leow Puay Tin’s premier performance of “Emily,” in an old clubhouse in Seremban.

Favourable reports of the play spread to Singapore, and people asked why a Singapore award-winner had been first staged in Malaysia.   Max le Blond took up the challenge and presented Margaret Chan as Emily, in the Singapore Drama Festival of 1985.

About a year later I was living in Scotland, where my sons were at the Edinburgh Academy, when someone phoned me from Singapore to say  “Emily is coming to Edinburgh.”  At first I did not believe it; but true enough, the British Council had invited Max and Margaret to present “Emily” at the Commonwealth Arts Festival – which just happened to be in Edinburgh that year.  So by a strange coincidence, my brain-child, Emily, came to the town where I was born – in the year that I was living there.

Margaret and her team came to Edinburgh. I was able to bring from my house the big chair and other  items of furniture which were required for the set.  I was able to be there when the play was performed before an audience of artists and writers, from all over the world.

We were much encouraged to see how this international audience responded to “Emily.”   They were not puzzled by the local allusions and language, which seemed to suggest the richness of the cultural background.  They recognised and applauded the universal elements of the play.

In the years since then, “Emily” has been performed over a hundred times, by more than six different actresses.  And the question has been raised, whether there is any point in having so many different productions; whether something fresh and new is being created, or whether “Emily” is being repeated – just because it is there.

I have seen most of the different versions, and talked to the actresses and directors. I understand from them -- there are many ways of presenting “Emily.”  Leow Puay Tin showed Emily as the child from the gutter who rose to eminence; Margaret Chan portrayed her as the confident grande dame.   Jalyn Han  (in the very interesting Mandarin translation) showed the little girl rejected by her mother.   Aileen Lau tried to show the inner fear and insecurity which drives Emily to dominate others.    Pearlly Chua, in over 60 performances, has shifted her focus over the years, from the hurt and rejected wife, to the mother who loses her son.

Indeed, for the actress each performance is a fresh encounter with the complex and demanding role – and what the audience sees is the way one actress meets the challenge, on one particular evening.

Over the years, “Emily” seems to have touched people deeply in a variety of ways.  It seems to resonate so deeply inside them, that they want to return to see it again and again: San Sooi says that his audiences in Penang and KL are full of “repeat customers,” revisiting Emily whenever she is in town as one might revisit a beloved aunt or grandmother.

I felt honoured to hear of the architecture student who wrote his thesis around “Emily.”  Others have been moved, after seeing the play, to explore their own heritage.

A schoolgirl once said to me,  “Now I understand my mother more.”  I liked what she said very much.  I think this is the reason why I write – to bring people to a deeper understanding of themselves, and of the people around them.

Stella Kon 1999

The Time-Structure of "Emily of Emerald Hill."

THE TIME-STRUCTURE OF "EMILY OF EMERALD HILL."

"Welcome to Emerald Hill!”  We first meet Emily Gan in 1950, as a capable domestic manager, a fond mother and a society hostess.

 As the play progresses, we deepen our acquaintance with Emily.   Just as when one meets a new friend, we learn her life-story in bits and pieces, and the most intimate details come last of all.  Emily’s progressive self-revelation is the linear structure of the play.

The first flashback to Emily’s childhood and early marriage shows the traumatic vulnerability and powerlessness of her youth.  When we return to the 1950’s we see how Emily’s present flows out of her past.

The second act brings us to the late ‘50’s, followed by a flashback to the glory days of the early 1930’s.  Emily’s domestic triumphs culminate with a return to the late ‘50’s, “babi buah keluak” and the story of Kheong’s break for freedom.

The last scene shows Emily’s old age in modernizing Singapore.  Her mind drifts free of time.  Her memory rewrites the past as she would have liked it to have been, with every battle a sweet success and herself secure in the love of her big, strong son.

Stella Kon, 1999

"Alabama Coon" (corrections to text)

"ALABAMA COON"(correction to text)

"I'se a little Alabama coon,   I'se not been born very long ... "   This is the correct text.   "I'se" is an abbreviation for "I is," misprinted as "It's" in some versions.

This is a real lullaby that my grandmother, Mrs Seow Poh Leng  used to sing to her grandchildren in Oberon.  I have never seen it the song in a book: but once after the perfromance of "Emily," an Australian man came up and said, "My grandmother used to sing that song."  The melody is available from me on request.  If someone can show me how to insert a MIDI file, we can put it up on this site!

An Alabama 'coon means, "a little black child from Alabama," supposed to be the cute broken English of a negro baby or picanniny.  This is one of several such songs, popular in the 1930's, which purported to be the songs of happy darkies on the cotton plantations of the Old South.  Other songs were by Stephen Foster included "Way down upon the Swanee River,"  "Old Black Joe," and

"My Old Kentucky Home."

So there were these Peranakan families who had never been to America and  never seen a black person, singing about black slaves who were happy and contented in their slavery.  Were they totally ignorant of the realities of slavery?  Or was the idea of keeping slaves a confortable and familiar one? -- certainly, many Peranakan families kept bond-maids who were slaves in all but the name.

What about the race issue? Peranakan families tended to be racially bigoted.  Most Nonyas would have been horrified if a child of theirs brought home a black person as a future spouse.  Isn't it fascinating, that they could call their babies "little picanninies?"  Isn't it odd, that  they didn't mind their teen-age sons painting their faces black and and being "nigger minstrels" in groups such as the "Moonlight Minstrels?"  Maybe the idea of a "Nigger" was as unreal as the idea of a "vampire" in today's society --  a harmless and amusing game, with nothing to do with real life.

Does this suggest an aspect in which Peranakan society, in the glory days of the 1930's, was insulated from the realities of life?