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《rice》by Mary Loh Chieu Kwuan

Realization of identity from conflict, we are born with identities. When we were just small kids, we were shaped by our parents and given the identity they created for us. It is only until we grow up and come into contact with modern or foreign culture and value that our identity is challenged and then we start to search for our true identity. The identity we look for may not necessarily be totally different from the identity we used to have. But the searching process allows us to re-think about our identity in the modern world. In a country with history similar to Singapore’s, its people have a deeper understanding of this search of identity. This is because Singapore was a British trading colony until 1963 when it joined Malaysia. After two years, Singapore withdrew from Malaysia and became independent. Under the influence of the complex history and its multi-ethnicality, the younger generation of Singapore is confronted with the conflict between the traditional value of their parents and the modern value of the West. At home, they are required to follow the traditional value in front of their parents. At school or at work, they are faced with the Western value, behavior, etc. However, it is only under the conflict between tradition and

Westernization that one can finally realizes his or her true identity. In the short story, written by a Singaporean Mary Loh Chieu Kwuan, the protagonist faces a similar problem. The following will discuss the

conflict mentioned and how it leads to realization of one’s true identity.

Before the discussion of conflict of identity, let’s talk about the symbolism of in the short story first. In a traditional agricultural society like China, rice is the main kind of food for the general public. Although eating rice is a habit, people who are not rich or are even poor do not have much chance of eating a bowlful of rice as selling rice is almost the only means of earning money to support the family of these people. Therefore, the importance of the ordinary-looking rice enables it to represent agricultural society in which rice is the most popular source of food. Even though some agricultural society or countries have now shifted their focus to secondary or tertiary industry, rice is till used nowadays to symbolize the tradition of society or countries. Thus, from the title of Rice, we know that it is a story of tradition and rice in the story is associated with traditional value or practice or simply past memory. The status of rice also represents the status of tradition, it is cherished by those who value tradition but, meanwhile, ignored or despised by those who prefer modern or Western value.

There are several tradition elements highlighted in the story. To begin with, we should cherish rice. The mother in Rice teaches the protagonist how to cook rice when she is only ten years old. The mother says, Now, pick out all the sand and unhusked rice and if you see any little black crawling weevils, pick them out and squeeze them to kill them. You put both hands in the pot and rub the grains of rice gently

between your hands. Now pour out the water and be careful that not a single grain of rice spills with the water. Rice is precious, remember that Stir it to make sure that the rice does not stick to the bottom of the pot.

The process of rinsing rice grains, filling the pot with water and boiling the rice is simple but the mother is patient and explains every detail and precaution of the cooking process as if it was an important ritual.

Another traditional value is that male is supposed to earn money for the living of his family while female is supposed to take care of the house and her family. When the father and the mother in Rice quarrel, the man expresses his anger towards the fact that his wife dare to answer back. He thinks his wife should remain silent when he scolds her because the clothes [she wears], the roof over [her] head and the food [she eats], everything [she has] owe to [him]. In his traditional mind, his wife, who is financially dependent on him, should be obedient. Thus, his wife

answering back is considered an insult to the authoritative status of a man in his family. As for the wife, she is still concerned about her husband even though she has just quarreled with him and she has been expelled from the house. Standing under the rain, the exhausted wife dares not to forget her husband. She remembers that he has not had rice yet for meal. So she asks her daughter, the protagonist, to go home and serve the father his rice. Since then, the mother puts more effort into

making sure that her husband does not go hungry without rice. She would serve him rice before she goes out or she would hurry back home to serve him rice in time. Here, we can see how gender is stereotyped in the mind of the older generation and how people accept it without questioning.

Besides, the story reveals the superstitious element of traditional society. As rice is considered very important in agricultural society, the older generation makes up myth or superstitious stuff to scare their children so that the children dare not waste the precious rice. It is said that not a single grain [is] to be left on the plate or else, every single grain left would appear as ugly marks on the face of [the] eventual Intended. Thus, being scared about their future husband, the children faithfully [clean] out plates for not wanting to marry any man with a scarred or marred complexion. They even generate guilty feeling when they date with men with chronic acne as that may be retribution for that one plate of rice [they have] not finished. Parents try every method to pass their tradition value to their children. They even scare their children so that the tradition value is forced into their mind.

Therefore, we can see so far that the younger generation is impacted with the traditional value of their parents since they are still very young. Their parents think that by stuffing tradition into their children’s mind, the children will immediately accept the tradition and are willing to pass on the tradition. However, the younger generation is constantly impacted with the Western value and this leads to their better understanding of their own identity.

The Westernization of the protagonist in Rice is illustrated as follows. First, in terms of food, the protagonist has turkey for Christmas. She loves pasta, cheese, bread and salad. Her love for Western food indicates that she has contact with Western society and gradually adopted the Western eating habit. That is why she finds rice bland and boring. She even stresses that [she] cannot take rice two meals in a row [she] rather go hungry. Here, she is even rejecting the tradition of her society.

In addition to food, education also makes one think more about tradition. As mentioned above, parents like to use superstition to scare their children in order to pass their traditional value. The protagonist is comfortable with the superstitious belief until she goes to university and does philosophy. She is inspired to think about the validity of this scary belief and the logic of this [undergoes] severe examination. The protagonist is able to challenge the non-scientific belief with the help of Western philosophy. She even questions why this rule never applies to men.

As the protagonist is Western-educated, her world has been in constant contact with both Western value as well as the traditional value of her parents. These two kinds of value may have conflict with each other like the superstitious belief case in the preceded paragraph. The marriage of the protagonist and an Englishman is seen as a conflict from her father’s traditional point of view. Her father thinks that Westerners are all kwei-lo and that they behave badly. He is worried