Mimi Fan part 1

A. Colonial Hangover.

This theme is immediately explored in Fei-Loong's ranting in the opening act as he is drinking with Tony. Through these "pre-lapsarian" allusions, Lim draws a parallel between the utopic Garden of Eden and the independent Malayan, which was recently free from the claw of colonialism then. Fei-Loong's dream that "everyone in the world lost his memory completely" that the whole "population on earth has to start again in search of itself" mirrors the problem of cultural and national identity crisis in the country after the withdrawal of Western imperial force. This absence , but unlike the trace of memory, the "sickness" of "local mentality" of the British as their superior still exists, which convinces Fei-Loong that the population has to find its identity through "the hard way".

Tony's intervention about the "temptation of the flesh" might be meant to remind the audience of the corrupted human nature which may bring the downfall of a new country, which is displayed shortly after through the corrupted character of Mr. Tan.

Nevertheless, no matter how beautiful Fei-Loong expressed his ideals, they are as trivial as his drinking. "Excessive intellectualism" which is typical of Lim's protagonists, the WOGs. The fact that Fei-Loong conveys his ideals in a night bar accounts for the portrayal of Fei-Loong as at least, an ideal and at most, an inebriated ideal who is drunk with liquor and western conceptions and ideals - indeed, a (post-)colonial drunkard.

More to come...