Gosh I realise I haven't updated here in eons but whatever, here it goes.
Last week I attended the South-East Asian premiere of X-Men: Days of Future Past in an unsuccessful bid to see Hugh Jackman and Peter Dinklage, both of whom, own my heart. (Sorry Fan Ice Ice, I'm just not interested in you.) Prior to the attendance of these stars, their less-famous Mediacorp counterparts took to the red-carpet an hour before. As I viewed them (from a highly pixelised and webbed screen) making their rounds, I thought to myself, Who the hell are these people? The only two I could recognise were George Young, because he is easily one of the best looking persons in Singapore's tiny little media industry, as well as Beatrice Chia-Richmond because she staged a local rendition of the play (interestingly titled), Shopping and Fucking. Sadly, I also recognise her because she was also infamously the third party in the failed marriage between two local DJs. (Oops.)
As the emcee of the night (the perennially youthful Utt) announced their names, one could tell the reception from the audience was lukewarm and after trawling through Twitter feeds, I could see I was not the only one who didn't know half the people on the 'blue carpet'. And this got me thinking.
Am I a bad Asian for being so disinterested in the local media and entertainment industry? Judging from what I know about other Asian countries (e.g Thailand, Malaysia, China etc.), their support for their native stars is much more ardent and enthusiastic compared to that of Singapore's. Or should I simply blame my lack of interest on the supposed dearth of local talent? Or is it that our local stars simply do not have the 'X-Factor'? Perhaps is it just a skewed perception I have, that all local productions are inferior to foreign ones?
Until the day Mediacorp can produce a show in the line of Game of Thrones, I suppose I am, sadly, right.
