The Huang Cheng People

It has always been my wish to go to Hwa Chong, partly so that I can participate in the production of Huang Cheng Ye Yun. Perhaps partly my brother's influence, since it was because of him that I watched the first Huang Cheng performance in my life and got so attracted to it.

Anyway, here are some very important friends I have made from those tough times. These people who have really gone through thick and thin with me.

I thought it was going to be a pretty straight forward job. It eventually turned out that we all thought so, but ahem.....we were all wrong! It was both exasperating and fustrating to not only comply with what our teacher demands, but also to deal with our customers'sometimes unreasonable requests like for example, the irritating woman who orders her tickets rather late, then refuses the circle seats we allocated for her. Reason? Because her daughter is afraid of heights?! Oh yeah, try harder man... This is now our favourite story to tell....hehe....

Anyway, I was of course not the only person who hard to endure all these, here are the people who had to tolerate all these together with me.. haha...imagine the torture: with me !!!!

• Jo-An: She's the one who has the wackiest sense of humour. She helps relieve stress by singing the Tellytubbies song, which never failed to tickle me. Not just the song itself, but the way she sings it. She's also the one who can always see the lighter side of everything bad. Without her to crack me up, I would have spent a fortune on ahem.... therapy already.
  
• Hwee Ming: She is another weird one. Actually, the proper word is blur. She never meant to make us laugh, but she always managed to. She has this look on the face that says:" I'm here to relieve your stress." Which, by the way, I appreciate very much. She's also the one who taught me the word ostracise, cos she always complained that Jo-an and I always octracised her. Then, she say that she's ostracising us. haha.....I really love this girl man....
  
• Xinyi: Actually, I have know her since rgs days. Despite our friendship, we have never worked this closely for so long before. Because of our friendship, she could always tell whenever I'm on the verge of breaking down. She was terribly efficient as the adminstrative producer, which helped a lot, cos I could always depend on her to tell me what I needed to do.

Daoju means props in Chinese actually, but "props" will never capture the essence of what daoju means to all of us. It is a source of pride for all of us. We take pride in the props we produce, in being the biggest group of the backstage crew...etc etc. There was a lot to be proud of. But personally, it is the people there who mean the most to me.

Most of the friends I made from Huang Cheng Ye Yun come from Daoju, like Jiali, Bing Ying, Baozhu, etc. They have spiced up life in Daoju . Nobody can understand how boring making props can be, except those who have tried it. But, we managed to turn the tiresome work into fun gossiping sessions. Sometimes, we throw insults all over the place. Most of the time, they gang up against me. This may sound weird, but our friendship was built up on that. Even now, although we do not really talk even when we see each other in school, I know that these are the people that I can trust and that they will be there whenever Daoju calls for their help.

I spent the most time in Daoju during the JC1 years, because the ticketing stuff really sucked up most of my energy during the 2nd year. But, I have never been any less committed to it. Sometimes, I get disappointed with it, but I have never given up. I wanted to believe that I could do a lot for Daoju but I felt quite helpless sometimes. Maybe I have tried too hard or maybe I have been too idealistic. Sigh...but maybe I care too much.

In all, Daoju was both a source of joy and heartache for me, but I will never regret my choice. In fact, whenever I think of those huang cheng days, the first image that comes to my mind is that of us working on gigantic props, with starch and pieces of newspapers all over the place. It is a messy sight, but it's also a happy and unforgettable one.