Ages ago the term "Sarong Party Girl" was coined to describe a local Asian lady (e.g. Eurasian, Chinese, Malay or Indian) who usually dresses and behaves in a provocative manner, and who exclusively dates and prefers "angmo" or white men. The term first achieved international notoriety after the 1994 publication of Jim Aitchison's book "Sarong Party Girl", which offered a satirical portrayal of the SPG and related aspects of Singaporean culture. I read the book and found it hilarious. I have given the book to my angmo men friends who have been sent to work in Singapore to open their eyes to the spoils of the land!!
The stereotype Sarong Party Girl would be tanned, speaks with false foreign accent (try American or Australian), and is provocatively dressed. Of these three traits, I find the tanned skin OK because some people are just dark or tan easily. The false fake foreign accent is jarring on the ears because they get their tenses and sentences mixed up and she may suddenly sprout: DO you TOLD her about this problem?? Urrrrrrrrgh!!! The provocative dressing is also some form of ridiculous eye candy for me although I do wonder at their atrocious dress sense.
Many years ago, my neighbour was dating a Malay SPG named Maria. J told me that she was a teacher and he was really pleased with her "classy" ways and he was totally smitten with her. In reality, she was taken by his moolah. When we first met her, she was dressed provocatively. A short while later, she was really togged out in designer stuff that J had "showered" on her when Maria relieved J of his ATM card and went on a shopping spree. She was really gleeful at the extreme good fortune to snag herself a rich angmo who was willing to spend on her.
Maria went on shopping sprees at Salvatore Ferragamo and Dior and came back with large bags with shoes, a cutie small chain purse, quilted handbag, iconic bow belt, a snazzy wallet and other expensive pressies at regular intervals. One languid Sunday afternoon when we were in the communal garden, she confided that she wasn't really interested in J because he was an old man (J was at least 24 years older than her) by her standards. Maria also said that he was smitten with her, but she wasn't so with him but would stick around because he was generous. She gleefully informed me that she has spent about $20,000 of his money on herself and her family and friends, eating and buying presents. Wow!! I was totally stunned by her frankness and how callous or mercenary she was. OK, I do understand if the man wants to spoil you, but it seemed nasty. Could I say that she came from an impoverished family and she was just getting what she could, when she could??
I often really wondered if she was really a teacher because in some of the conversations we had, she sounded really brainless or dumb. Firstly there was the bad English sentence and grammar structure that cast doubts. Sometimes when us neighbours sat chatting and "gossiping" or when we talked about work, she looked totally blank or had that "catch no ball" expression. One day, I asked her if she found her students cheeky or tiresome or if she had any problems with discipline in class and she looked at me blankly and said that she didn't teach a class but assisted in a child care centre. I don't know if Maria misled J, or he was so infatuated with her that he could only see the wonderful veneer on her.
I never knew what happened of them because I moved out of Changi Village to my own little apartment nearer to civilisation.
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