Understudies

1. Understudies

2. Plot • Overview • In the genre of science fiction, this story presents the case of Sydney Wong, in a Singapore of the future, who wishes to escape the highly-structured life he leads as a model citizen. • Successful all his life and living the ‘ideal’ family life of that of a rich doctor wife and four children, the reasons for his desire to escape can only be implied from incidents in his childhood and adolescence, and as a young man in love with a Eurasian girl. • Unsuccessful in spite of carefully `laid plans, Sydney is replaced and his understudy, Beta Sydney, takes his place with his children and wife, Melanie. • It is easy to recognize the story as typically dystopian, warning of the dangers in the present time. Singapore’s highly organized society, with the Government apparently exercising central control and mapping out the lives of its citizens, granting little personal freedom, is the target of examination and criticism.

3. PLOT AND STRUCTURE • The story begins with Beta Sydney, who after twelve years of understudying Sydney Wong, applies for a new “principal”, presumably another person he can understudy. The focus then switches to the real Sydney Wong and his almost impeccable record of achievements as a model citizen. • The flashbacks to Sydney’s childhood which revolve around his memories of his mother, her love for him and her attention to his particular needs and talent in art in spite of his father’s disapproval introduces an element of familial complexities. The warmth of personal ties will gradually disappear from Sydney’s life as the narrative progresses.

4. The return to Beta Sydney’s interview to be allocated a new principal forces us to pay attention to this “sub-plot” of sorts. This episode is brief, and we are then relayed back to the present circumstances of the real Sydney Wong who starts to put his plan of escape into action. This episode is also brief, and comes just before a more extended account of Sydney’s boyhood friend and classmate, Soon Cheng, who is hopeless at Maths but a gifted basketball player. • This account is interspersed with Sydney’s plans to escape, making use of the services of Michael, who appears to be part of a professional syndicate that manages such enterprises.

5. The story returns to Beta Sydney who takes it upon himself to visit Sydney’s home, and encounters Mr Rodriguez, Sydney’s neighbour who has no idea that he is not the real Sydney. • The interrupted story of Sydney’s helping Soon Cheng is now continued with the unexpected termination of the basketballer’s efforts to improve himself academically, after a word from Mr Ho, the Maths teacher. Soon Cheng slips back into his old position of being the academic underdog and working-class ‘street urchin’.

6. Thus, we see the two episodes in Sydney’s personal life which were meaningful to him sandwiched between the bigger narrative frames depicting the strictly-planned path of the outstanding student and scholar who goes on to achieve material success. • These episodes, involving people who mattered to him, with whom he had close personal ties, of love or friendship, were ended abruptly by unseen authorities. A third is yet to come, involving the unsuccessful love entanglement with Jessie Rosario, but not before we swing back to Beta Sydney’s successful application for a new principal. • Immediately after that short intercession, we are witness to a scene of potential violence when Sydney starts shaking his daughter, Rebecca for saying the fateful words, You’re not following the script! (p. 180)

7. Details are given of the romance with Jessie which ended miserably, again with intervention from the same source of control and authority. We are then shunted back again to the emotional turmoil in the bathroom where Melanie tries to persuade Sydney not to behave rashly in case he is replaced. • The unifying element then, seems to be the all-powerful central authority that controls the lives of all its citizens and replaces them if they prove to move out of line, not following the script, and pose a threat to the administration and existing systems. • The shift from plot to sub-plot or parallel plot reinforces the threat of being replaced if one goes astray. As readers shuttle between episodes, different time frames and spaces in sudden jerks and jolts, we are made to feel/ identify, to a certain extent, the frustration of any character in the story who is curtailed/interrupted every time he or she does not follow the script.

8. The conclusion is contained in the last two episodes. The terrifying climax comes with the scene in the bathroom when Sydney is carried out unconscious, presumably injected with some sedative, or something worse. Then comes the anti-climax of the scene in the supermarket at Carrefour when Julie mistakes the trolley attendant for her father, and subsequently we see that Beta Sydney has settled into his new role comfortably, disapproving of the former Sydney and his daughter Julie for being troublemakers (p. 190).

9. SETTING AND ATMOSPHERE • The setting is distinctly Singaporean, with the cold, clinical efficiency of all systems, especially in work situations and bureaucratic procedures. • The school setting, with Sydney and Soon Cheng as schoolboys, is also familiar, with the emphasis on marks, grades and performance. People are ranked and classified, subject to mathematical and statistical analysis, and recognizable as achievers or losers. • Soon Cheng is stereotyped as the ‘basketballer’, poor at his studies with his father running a noodle stall. A highly-stratified society with few opportunities for individuals to move out of their status is presented.

10. In the Singapore of the future, it is a highly artificial world devoid of natural feelings and controlled by a nameless, powerful force that overcomes deviation from the norm and any attempt at opposition. Thus, there is constant threat and tension, especially for the errant who tries to defeat the system. • Most of the characters are depicted as flat, two-dimensional creations expressing little or no emotion until they are put under threat. The few exceptions, like Hui Ling and Soon Cheng, and finally Sydney Wong himself, are either eliminated or checked.

11. CHARACTERS: Sydney Wong • He is representative of the elite that is groomed for success. With his intellectual and academic achievements, his whole career and life thereafter have been charted for him. Yet, we learn that he was talented at art, but his mother’s attempts to nurture this were thwarted, and she was even forcibly removed for not fulfilling the prescribed role of being mother to two children when that was the policy. • The effects on Sydney must have been devastating. This, coupled with the sudden cessation of his friendship with Soon Cheng and his attempts to coach him in Maths must have led to his eventual disillusionment with the whole system. • We can well deduce the sensitive, kind and caring nature hidden in him, secretly suffering from the way his mother and others like his friend, Soon Cheng, have been treated and can well sympathise with his resentment and attempts to escape this relentless system. He shows initiative and ingenuity in trying to fabricate some minor faults like wanting to speed on the roads, and later setting up a scheme to leave by paying Michael’s syndicate for a plan.

12. Beta Sydney • As far as an understudy can have emotions at all, we glimpse Beta Sydney’s boredom with shadowing his principal. He is unable to come up with a specific reason for wanting this change but applies for it, anyway. • The understudy is, of course, nowhere near the principal in intelligence and coherent thought, as the name Beta, a term used in the world of computing to refer to a trial or prototype version of a programme or software which must continue to evolve before the final product is released, suggests. Ironically then, Beta Sydney replaces the bona fide Sydney. He seems impelled by urges which he cannot logically explain, as when he visits Sydney’s house and inadvertently bumps into Mr Rosario. He has merely been trained to take over, and has neither the finer feelings of the principal nor his desire to escape the system. This is illustrated by his satisfaction at taking over the real Sydney’s life and his agreement with Melanie that his principal was a trouble-maker. • Beta Sydney seems to be a grade lower than the original, but we are unsure if these understudies are genetically-modified clones or real human beings who have been surgically altered to look like their principals.

13. Hui Ling • Sydney Wong’s mother appears to be a woman with her heart in the right place. A good mother who recognizes her son’s natural talents and aims to develop these regardless of the priorities set by the system, she is a foil to her husband, Kim Soon, who sneers at careers in the arts, and faithfully toes the government line, afraid of repercussions. • Brave enough to stand her ground, she does not believe in following the government policy at that time of having two children, and is soon eliminated. The understudy who takes her place has a different hairstyle and dress and looks at Sydney ‘with a strange detachment’(p. 168).

14. Soon Cheng • Sydney’s best friend is from the other side of the tracks, so to speak. He is a stereotype of the hawker’s son without the advantages of superior genes and upbringing, He is good at sports but poor at his studies. When he receives help from Sydney, however, he improves in his Maths grades but is warned to keep his place, and goes back to being the brainless ‘basketballer’ whose prospects of advancement are seriously limited.

15. Melanie • We know very little about Sydney’s wife apart from the fact that she is rich and is a doctor. This is quite deliberate so that we get the impression that character and personality are unimportant as long as one belongs to a certain class and a respected profession. • There is a school of thought that suggests that Melanie had been replaced by an understudy as accused by Sydney, but there is no conclusive evidence that she had been replaced as Rosario had indicated that the ‘authority’ were late in ‘delivering her’. • Melanie adheres to the system and refuses to leave with Sydney. She is later seen to be annoyed with Julie looking for her father.

16. Julie and Rebecca • Rebecca’s reiteration of following the script shows her to be obedient to the system while Julie is rebellious. She refuses to wear the pink clips her mother wants her to wear, accessories which indicate compliance with the conventional image of sweet little girls. Uncharacteristic of a family of high-flyers, she had a D in her Maths test, and insists on looking for her father. Like him, she refuses to accept conditioning and manipulation into a prescribed mould.

17. Jessie Rosario • Her character is not really fleshed out either, and we only know that she has to listen to her father and the authorities or she will be replaced. Her father, too, is just another character who is afraid of official repercussions, like most of the others in the story.

18. THEMES: The Totalitarian State • Keeping to its genre as dystopian futuristic fiction, the story upholds the warning against totalitarian states which reduce its citizens to mere digits in the system. Like George Orwell in ‘Animal Farm’, writers have issued warnings against total state control and dictatorships which use technology, secret police and fear to control their populations. This Singaporean version follows this formula, building on systems of control which we already have in place.

19. The Class System • The present elitism is magnified to a more horrific creation of an upper class, Grade One, where the highly intelligent and academically capable remain in that position, subject to controls over who they marry, the number of children to have and what they are to do with their lives. They are strictly monitored, like all other classes, and any attempt to break out of the system is punishable by replacement with understudies. • They are expected to be perfect, but not too perfect, for that would be cause for worry as well, as Sydney has found out, and thus manufactures minor vices. The State is seen to be custodians of morality as well. • However, it seems that the Singapore of the future would keep all classes in their place, not allowing socio-economic mobility, as seen in the case of Soon Cheng.

20. Prejudice against “impractical” educational choices • Sydney Wong’s earlier love for the arts is frowned upon by his practical father as well as the authorities who see no use for sculptors against engineers, doctors, lawyers and accountants. However, it proves detrimental in Sydney’s case, as in spite of his eventual academic success, some part of his natural being must have been suppressed, only to surface as rebellion. His brave and enlightened mother has been sacrificed. • This could have been the fate of many Singaporeans who chose careers out of necessity rather than passion, only to discover later, that the tide might be turning in their favour when it is felt that Singapore needs artists to enhance its reputation as a global society with a lively arts scene.

21. Danger of dehumanization • Science fiction often holds up the warning of human beings becoming robots, either literally or metaphorically. The emphasis on control, efficiency and materialism could well lead to man losing his capacity to feel. • Sydney’s generosity and compassion towards Soon Cheng is not a factor in the government’s desire to maintain the class system. • Family members can be eliminated and replaced as we see from Hui Ling’s fate, and what happens to the real Melanie. We are not even sure if the understudies are not androids or the products of sophisticated technology since science is so revered.

22. Replacement, emigration and immigration • When human beings are considered mere digits or cogs in an efficient machine, such parts can be easily replaced. When a larger population is required for production and progress, Hui Ling’s lack of a plan to have another child is seen as rebellion and she is replaced. If citizens do not obey, more compliant subjects can be found. To escape, one needs to migrate, as Sydney plans to do.

23. STYLE Tone • The story is told in a detached, objective manner. The events are unfolded in a factual manner and conversations reported exactly as they are, without description of the emotional impact on the main characters. We can only make our own deductions from hints and clues.

24. Subtle use of telling details • When Hui Ling is removed, for instance, Sydney’s feelings are not recorded. We only feel his shock and dismay when his “mother” returns in different clothes and with a different hairstyle. We only sense his agitation when, earlier, he asks his mother where she is going. The matinee which features unhappy men and women from the 70s reflects the simmering discontent and rebellion felt by his mother. • The poignancy of his mother’s departure is felt through the slice of chocolate cake she buys him and the milky pink bandung she pours out for him just before she leaves. This is farther highlighted in the way in which she evades and silences his questions with assurances of love, with eyes that are glistening and a face that is red. • The episode involving Soon Cheng is told in a similar fashion. The emotions of both boys are omitted in the narration of events. Mr Ho’s emphasis on marks and figures is typical of the quantitative approach so prevalent in Singapore. Soon Cheng is a digit too, one that is less valued than the achiever, Sydney.

25. Imagery • Pairing or doubling • The use of pairs runs throughout the story: the principal and his understudy, Sydney Wong and Beta Sydney, a shadow of himself, and Sydney and Soon Cheng are two examples. Sydney is bright but Soon Cheng fails his Maths. Another pair would be the two daughters, Rebecca and Julie who are quite different from each other. One insists that her father follow the script, and the other does not always behave as she is told. These pairs allow for constant comparison and contrast.

26. Wordplay and imagery from acting/drama • There is considerable wordplay associated with acting a part. Understudies are actors who shadow principal actors in case he cannot play his role on stage due to some emergency. Beta Sydney plays out his role prematurely when he visits Sydney’s house on his own accord: ‘It felt odd to play out the role now, as if it were some impromptu rehearsal’ (p. 174). • Actors follow scripts and Hui Ling is warned by her husband that she would be replaced if she continues to improvise,another term from acting.

27. These terms are also related to education. Soon Cheng gets poor marks because he under-studies, that is, studies less. He could get into trouble with his headmaster or principal. He, too is expected to fulfil the role meant for him as part of the underclass. Monitors in the classroom keep order and supervise the rest of the students. In this country of the future, the Monitors seem to be personnel in charge of constant surveillance over their citizens, or the government itself. • There is also a play on the term ‘Human Resources Manager’ (p.33). In this world of the future, such a manager actually takes charge of human resources, the pool of understudies who can replace the principals.

28. Use of humour • There is a grim thread of humour running through the narrative. Beta Sydney is a bit of a clown in his inferiority to Grade One principals. He does not do well in interviews, and would be quite comfortable being a road sweeper or trash collector; yet he does want to, and eventually does, replace the Principal. • At the end of the story, Julie asks the Carrefour trolley attendant if he is her daddy. This reminds us of the rigidity of the class system, and yet Beta Sydney’s boredom is so great that he would not have minded being a manual worker. There is even a little joke about him thinking that if he were caught visiting his principal, HR would have his skin (p. 174). At the start of the story, the form beta Sydney is filling in has the tantalizing question, Want to get out now? Change your skin? Like to be someone else(p. 161)? • The turnaround at the conclusion is ironic. Beta Sydney is glad he has been unsuccessful in his application because now he can replace a principal who has done quite well for himself, though no longer Grade One. • In the horrifying world of science fiction, when human life can be sacrificed for efficiency and progress, a little humour is needed to relieve the gloom.

29. VIEWPOINT • The point of view is shared between Sydney Wong and his understudy, Beta Sydney. In fact, we know more what Beta Sydney feels than his principal because Sydney Wong’s deepest emotions and reactions are not expressed in the sections where he experiences most emotional traumas such as when his mother is taken away, and when Soon Cheng is forced to recapitulate to his labouring-class status. • The author’s viewpoint is of course apparent in his unfolding of shocking and outrageous events that have such devastating consequences on the lives of the citizens. His attitude towards total control by governments and the loss of freedom of citizens is obvious as he makes us sympathise with Sydney Wong, Soon Cheng, Hui Ling and Julie, and only to some extent, Beta Sydney who is part victim and part victor, complicit to the system.