In Part 1, we spoke to three quintessential Singaporean Ah Bengs; filmmaker Royston Tan, BooksActually founder Kenny Leck, and Shanghai-based Director of Photography Jeffrey Ang. We continue the second part of this discussion
WHERE HAVE ALL THE AH BENGS GONE: THE INTERVIEW, CONTINUED
a.k.a 3 Bengs and a lady tok tok lim kopi
NING: Let’s talk fashion because that was very important to Ah Bengs. How do they accessorise?
KENNY: I remember in the ’90s, it was essential to have a pointed handle comb tucked at the back pocket of your branded jeans, which must be like Versace or Armani. I remembered saving up in secondary school, and eventually bought a pair of Trussardi jeans. Fast forward to present time, the Ah Bengs that I know have definitely toned down in their dressing but that weakness for expensive “wearables” is still there. Nowadays some are into limited edition sneakers, some are into watches, and some are still very comfortable wearing a thick gold chain wrist bracelet.
ROYSTON: For Ah Beng, brands very important. In the past, like the ’90s or the 2000s Bengs, the elementary level is Alien Workshop and baggy pants. Then later, upgrade to Armani and Versace with accessories that are very, very loud. Then ’80s got orange comb in pocket. Then ’90s we move towards metallic accessories like silver rings. One thing very important for Ah Beng is lighter. It’s not just for smoking at tea dance. A cigarette lighter has these two metal prongs which we push out and use when we fight. So after we punch, we use it to scrape the person’s face lah, basically. Ah Beng 是很爱美的 (very vain pot)! So no matter what right, you can get injured anywhere but face cannot be injured! This is really the accessory for Ah Beng. And Ah Beng is very 相争 (competitive) so they very tech one. So with the newest phones, right, it’s never the geeks but the Ah Bengs ’cause they need their handphone more than anything else.
JEFF: You can’t define an Ah Beng by the way he dresses or accessorises himself because there are Bengs from all walks of life, regardless of their education or family background. How this stereotype came about is because some of them are deemed less educated or not so “powderful” in English, and are more comfortable conversing in Hokkien which is frowned upon by the youngsters and a Westernised society like Singapore.
Back in my teenage years the fashion sense of Ah Bengs were greatly influenced by Hong Kong and Japanese idols. Baggy pants, loose fitting shirts, permed curly bangs like in 风云雄霸天下 (Storm Riders), a comb with a sharpened handle that’s serves both as a weapon and beauty tool were synonymous with the Beng look. The thing with Ah Bengs is that it will take a long time—or maybe even never—for them to move on from such fashion trends. But of course that was back in the ’80s. Ah Beng fashion evolved into the gangster style in the ’90s following the success of the 古惑仔 (Young And Dangerous) movie franchise, with tattoos, long hair like Ekin Cheng, tight-fitting shirts, or baggy suits. I guess from the ’80s to ’90s it was the iconic years of Ah Beng fashion.
Perhaps you can still spot Bengs in their late 40s now, wearing clothes or hairstyle from that era which renders them Lao Beng now! In current times, Bengs are less defined by how they dress but more on how they speak or conduct themselves in public. Some of modern day Bengs are quite brand conscious although their preference may be towards designs that are more ostentatious and loud with big logos. But hey, it’s all subjective when it comes to fashion as one man’s meat is another man’s poison.
Credit: zhuanlan.zhihu.com
N: What were some Beng things you and your friends did back then?
J: When I was growing up, things like social media and online games were not that popular. Some didn’t even exist yet. We spent most of our time hanging out in shopping centres, discos, or billiard salons. There was also tea dance which some of the discotheques operate in the afternoon. Not to mention skating rinks where we would skate to pop music and form “the dragon”. We would make a line while skating round the ring and as more and more people join in, the “dragon” is formed! More often than not, fights would break out between opposite groups in these premises because they were trying to impress the Ah Lians. Hahaha!
R: I was 18 or 19 years old when I got my “freedom” so every single night we would go clubbing. We’d go to Sparks, we’d go to the gao zup place there, and then drink, and then puke already, drink again, and then continue. And after that we will go to the 7-Eleven and sit and smoke outside, have our cup noodles and things like that. Me and my friends were quite cheeky lah, we would go to 7-Eleven and steal a lot of alcohol. We stole it not because we didn’t have the money but because it was fun. Then at the end of the year we would return all the bottled drinks that we had stolen. Hahaha!
K: We probably did things that would get us arrested now so I can’t really say exactly what. We also probably did some good things, though at this moment, I can come up with a long list of bad things and not so much good things. I don’t know how to write it down without it being incriminating. Hahahaha… Is there a Statute of Limitations for this in Singapore?
N: Any funny incidents that you guys laugh about when you look back?
J: Oh yes, now that we are Lao Bengs it’s always funny when we look back and realise how ridiculous we were when we were young. We liked to hang out late into the night and sometimes past midnight, and miss the last bus home. So what we did was to pool whatever money we had and flag a cab. We would then start to negotiate with the cab driver to send us to our destination with the money that we pooled, which in most cases was short of the amount required. I must say we were quite lucky and did succeed in convincing the cab drivers most of the time. In some instances when we were not so lucky, we had to stop where our money could bring us to and walk back from there.
K: One thing that I can share was that we used to sneak back to the school’s football field on weekend afternoons. During those times, the school gate would be locked, and no trespassers were allowed, including students. But we always need to play soccer on a field, and we’d just climb over the fence to do just that. One time, a police car came by, parked outside the side gate, and sounded its siren at us. It shocked all of us, and we rushed to grab all our gear, and whatever, and climbed out through the back gate. It was probably deeply embarrassing for an Ah Beng but we thought it was funny as hell that we had managed to “escape”.
R: A lot of things happened in the clubs. The Ah Beng thing is this: you can just dance and do whatever you want, you can also accidentally bang into people, and that is okay. But what’s not okay is if you stare at them. And sometimes you know, you accidentally stare at the person? Like, I want to look at the other person’s back because the shirt very nice but the person thought I stared at him, so in the end we got to settle at the toilet lah. Very funny one! We just go to the toilet, close the door, and we talk it out. What’s interesting about this Ah Beng culture is that you fight it out and settle the whole thing, and then once that’s done you become friends. Sometimes very, very good friends!
N: Ah Bengs of the 70s/80s were often in gangs. Any stories to share?
J: There were countless brawls that took place in Newton Circus between gangs back then. One was fatal.
R: Back then some coffee shops were run by gangsters but they were quite kind to us kids. In the late ’80s, I saw for the first time how they pia jwee (broke beer bottles) and attack each other. I’ve also witnessed when one of the elders passed away, a whole bus of Bengs and gang members came in to pay their respects. K: Out of 10, at least nine of us were in gangs. Some were just “play play” school gangs that were just more a gang of bullies. Some of us got into the real secret societies, and those who were lucky enough, managed to leave the “company” before it becomes a Hotel California for you. All of us have a file with the SSB (Secret Societies Branch of the Singapore Police Force) whether you are active or inactive.
The legal powers to curb the proliferation of gangs in Singapore is like an iron fist so the gangs are definitely a pale shade of what they were in the past. I’d probably add that it’s for the better. Secret societies are like capitalistic businesses that do not always know when to stop at what ends to add to their bottomline. It has destroyed lives, and has not always made the world a better place. The first thing to know is that they are not as “romanticised” or heroic as they portrayed in the Hong Kong movies.
N: Many Ah Bengs were also neglected kids and found comfort in gathering to dance or bio girls outside Far East Plaza ‘cos there was a sense of belonging. What are your thoughts?
R: Yes it’s true but they are also kids who had fallen out of the educational system, people who just aren’t good in studies. Back then they categorise them at a very, very early age, as early as primary school, when they go into normal stream or normal tech, straightaway they feel like “we are the outcasts, we are the inferior product coming from the factory”. So they feel they need to have a sense of belonging, to find people who will believe in them. So they create their own micro little universe lah. I mean, ultimately everyone wants to feel a sense of belonging and even if they were to mix with the Express Stream people, they will feel that they’re looked down upon. Personally myself, as a Normal Stream student, I experienced that. I didn’t even talk to the Express Stream students because we also feel that they belong to another universe and our worlds don’t cross.
K: I think all of us saw it as a form of companionship, and the comfort that we had strength in numbers. Some of us did come from good solid families but when you are a teenager, your friends always seem to come first.
J: I guess in those days being in gangs gave teenagers a sense of belonging or in some cases being “cool”. Kids in those days were always looking for a fight. It could be as simple as staring incidents: it would always start off with staring and someone challenging the opposite gang “siong simi?” (“what are you staring at?”). If the reply was somewhat unsatisfactory, which happens in most cases, or vulgar, then a fight would break out. I remember there was one time, I was meeting a friend in Far East Plaza and I was chased by a group because I was wearing my U2 T-shirt. Apparently there was a fight between the U2 gang and Depeche Mode gang earlier and they had mistaken me for one of the members! These were downtown gangs which were basically kids naming themselves after the band they support.
N: What happened to most of your Beng friends? Share stories!
J: Well, we have friends that started off as cabin crew and later moved on to become pilots. We have also an entrepreneur that turned his family business into a very profitable one selling roasted suckling pig. Then again, we also have a few that could not be contacted as they are on the run because of gambling debts. I guess in life, you win some, you lose some.
K: I think one of my biggest regrets is losing a friend who was probably struggling with depression that we did not understand. He was 17 when he decided to end his life. I was older than him by about two years, and his elder brother had been my primary and secondary schoolmate. I was closer to this elder brother, and by extension, he was like a younger brother to us. He was also oddly mature for his age. My last moment of interacting with him was at the Toa Payoh bus interchange when I was in Sec 5, and probably going through a huge mess of gang activities. Before he got onto his ride, he told me that if I ever needed any help, just call him or his brother. To hear and remember that kind of words from someone who was 15, it was like finding another pair of hands holding up the sky together with you.
R: Most of them have gotten married and moved on already. It was a phase of their life. Like one of my Ah Beng friends say: “我们已经玩够哦… 在玩都是一样的!” so I decided I didn’t want to do this anymore. One good example is my friend Josepheus Tan. He is a successful Ah Beng who went through many difficult times. He was sent to Boys Home and all, but now he is doing a lot of pro bono work to help people who cannot afford legal fees. So I think he’s a very good example. A lot have moved on to opening pubs, being in the entertainment business, and one of my friends is the executive creative director of an ad agency.
But there’s also people who have really fallen through the cracks. I have friends who became drug addicts. It’s been a good eight years since I’ve last seen a friend of mine who was a tall, good-looking Ah Beng… look like Korean pop star that kind… but drugs just changed his life. He became totally paranoid and then just disappeared. I wish I knew what happened to him but we lost contact with him and no one knows if he’s dead or alive.
Credit: Josephus Tan’s Facebook
N: What are your Ah Beng friends doing right now? Like work, family, church?
K: Most of us are your normal average Singaporeans. Some did time in Changi. Among my peers, none became deeply religious.
J: Of the group of people that hung out together, most of them have become fathers and husbands, successful in their own careers. I have friends from those days who are now doing rather well, ranging from pilots to interior designers.
R: A few years ago, there was a Sparks union that invited everyone who used to go to Sparks to come back. Even the DJ was the same. I was there and it was a very emotional journey. What was shocking when I saw all these Ah Bengs was that I’d expected them to be in some tough jobs but a lot of them were in advertising and ad agencies! So when they were playing the techno song Drive Me Crazy which is our anthem— very important, this Ah Beng anthem— suddenly all of them cannot resist. They all put their hands in their pockets to pull out their light sticks and I haven’t seen light sticks on the dance floor for a very, very frickin’ long time!
Actually, very easy one to tell whether they Ah Beng or not: you start playing all these techno songs and they will start shaking and moving and doing a certain dance that is uniquely truly Singapore. And a lot of my Ah Beng friends also open their own clubs, where they play the kind of music they like. Techno has been replaced by 慢摇 Chinese pop (a style of Asian Electronic Dance Music that mixes vocals and melodies from Mandopop songs with EDM, taking influence from classic Eurodance, Trance and House). So it’s like it’s come full cycle.
N: Okay final question: Teach us your favourite Ah Beng lingo!
R: KNNCCB heng gao gan ah! (Ed’s note: We’re not going to translate this, okay?)
J: Apart from vulgarity, I guess to make my head turn whenever I hear it anywhere in the world would be SIAO EH or something which rhymes like steady poon pee pee.
K: Hmmmm, gotta be Kan Ti Tu or Kan Ter in Hokkien which is F*ck Spider or F*ck Pig in parlance. To tell someone to f*ck spider, it means their dick is really that small and non-existent. And to f*ck pig is because our Chinese culture always relates stupidity to being a pig though in real life, we know that pigs are one of the smartest mammals.
