Where I Live (Part I)

Every day, I look around me, in the place in which I live, and realise what a peculiar and artificial state this is. It is the most heavily 'churched' area in this entire region; it is the most heavily Chinese; it is the most obviously Machiavellian; it is a synthesis of odd parts made unique by time and space, by commerce and grace.

Every part of the machine has been crafted by deliberate consideration. Even if at times that consideration has not been the smartest or wisest, it has been deliberate and the justifications clear. Whether the justifications were sufficient or even morally correct, is of course a different thing. But this little place is certainly the most artificial (in the original sense of 'made by art') place in this realm entire; it is the gateway between two very large and interesting oceans — large in culture, history and variety.

There is no other island in the world that bridges all the major civilisations of the past, as well as all the major ones of the present. Living here is sometimes like living in a panopticon, a central hub from which one sees everybody else more clearly than they see each other. It is interesting to see through Anglo-Chinese eyes, and Anglo-Indian eyes, and the relentless lenses of the American (and post-American) world.

Just the other day I was reflecting on how I made the transition from birth in the West to studies in the East; scholars from this island tend to make the reverse transition. It is all an enigma, but one I've begun to disentangle.