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ep. 7
Suling's voiceover states: "We've come so far..." Suling, with long hair, adorning an armoured breastplate with a map in her hand and a knife secured to her hip, looks forward from a small boat with sails. Behind her are Nadia and Auntie Fatimah, both armed and armoured. Coconut, with a X-shaped scar on her left eye, perches on the boat's edge. "I hope Aunt Lian Neo would be proud." Suling reflects. Around them, the waves lick the boat angrily. She continues, "Looking back...' In the library, Suling is at the table reading. Nadia is behind her, standing in front of a bookshelf and looking at the books. Nadia stares at the books in concentration while Suling pores over a book on the table as a butterfly hovers near a vine. Coconut snoozes on a blanket on top of a cardboard box full of books, which has a paper with the words "Nap in progress" pinned on it. Writing instruments are strewn all across the table.Nadia looks over her shoulders at Suling and interrups the silence, "Do you think it's really true that it all started because a girl won a school race against a bunch of boys?" Suling stretches and lets out a loud "YAWN", as Coconut does the same. Suling puts her arm on the backrest of the chair and looks at Nadia. Coconut is resting on her other arm, playing with her clothes. Suling narrows her eyes at Nadia and states sarcastically, "Aunt Lian Neo says everything in our records is true." Coconut looks at Nadia and lets out a "MEW". Nadia looks down at them, thoughtfully. Suling and Coconut get off the chair, and Suling reaches for a few books on a bookshelf, while Nadia and Coconut watch her. Suling says, "I've read this a million times, but when I think about it..." She trails off. Her face is filled with exasperation. "I just hear Aunt Lian Neo's voice in my head." Behind her, a chibi Nadia sighs. Suling looks at Nadia, a glint of mischief in her eyes. "Do you want to hear my version?" Suling continues. "All of us had learnt the history of why the first rebellion took place." A flashback of race day is shown, with a row of people at the start line. Three people look determinedly ahead: In the middle is a dark-skinned girl with an orange headband and dark hair, while next to her are a tanned girl with dark brown hair and fair-skinned boy with light brown hair. "It started because of a girl named Safiyah." The middle dark-skinned girl is shown, her eyes fierce and determined. The race begins. Safiyah, in lane 3, is in the lead, followed closely by the fair-skinned boy in lane 2. Suling narrates: "She bested the son of a prominent man in the government. He was also a powerful leader of his religious house." As Safiyah celebrates happily with a gold medal around her neck, the boy beside her sulks and crosses his arms. He is wearing a silver medal with the number 2 on it. The three winners take the podium at the awards ceremony, while the boy's parents look angrily on. "Safiyah was never supposed to have won." "And because they were powerful people who whispered into the ears of more powerful people, it soon became law that girls and boys could not compete in school sports events together." A scene of the boy's parents dressed in formal wear at an upscale event as they network with a well-dressed couple. The mother, a dark-haired fair-skinned woman in a cheongsam, says, "It's really silly to let girls and boys race against one another." The father, in a formal military suit with glasses and a moustache, agrees. "It's true. Of course our boy would let a girl win. He's a gentleman." The woman they are speaking to, who has wavy auburn hair and is wearing a white furcoat, tells them, "It's a simple enough thing to change." The mother replies, "I knew you'd be able to help..." A scene of a row of old shophouses with a narrow road and large lorries parked along the road is shown. A man is at the door of a shophouse. Several carton boxes are neatly stacked beside him. Two figures are seen running around the bend of the road. Suling continues:" And so the girls continued to run on their own." Safiyah, in a white uniform shirt, light blue shorts, and brown satchel, dashes down the road, followed by another girl. They leap over the cartons merrily, while the man spins around in shock, yelling "OI!" He glares at them and asks aloud: "Why do they look like boys?" "Girls these days..." The scene shifts to the two women at the event. The mother of the boy who came in second place is seen whispering conspiratorily with the woman in furcoat. Suling narrates, "And because they were powerful people who whispered into the ears of more powerful people, it soon became law that girls could not have short hair." Safiyah stands with her short, cropped hair loose around her face, with her orange headband in her hand. The woman in the furcoat whispers to a bespectacled man reading the papers. He then speaks to a man in a suit in a boardroom, who then announces the law to a group of attentive people. Suling continues: "It became harder to run, because the weight of being a girl pulled them back." A scene of all the girls racing on the track with long ponytails is shown. As the girls rest on the track, they pant and sweat. One drinks from a waterbottle. Suling says: "A weight they carried, endured, because they wanted to do what they loved." A male coach looks at the girls and says to the woman beside him, "Girls really shouldn't sweat so much." Safiyah, in long braided hair, overhears him and frowns as he continues, "It's unseemly." Suling narrates: "And because they were powerful people who whispered into the ears of more powerful people, it soon became law that girls should not sweat..." Scenes of powerful people whispering to each other are fragmented around Safiyah as she stands with one arm crossed over her body. Suling continues, "...which was quite a feat for a tropical country." "The law soon had to be amended that girls should not sweat while in motion..." "But that didn't quite work either, for a variety of reasons." A scene is shown of a man and woman in bed, covered with a blanket. Sweat trickles down the woman's face and arms. "So, soon the law was amended that girls should not sweat while in motion in public." A scene shows multiple woman looking forward with tense expressions. Safiyah, standing in the middle, looks resentful."That put a stop to the running." Suling pictures a scene of two rows of shophouses, with an empty road running down it. "It became safer to stay indoors." Safiyah resentfully stares out the window at the sky, as the wind blows and the leaves rustle.A scene of Safiyah in the rain, with arms stretched out and eyes closed as she enjoys the rain. Two girls behind her are laughing and playing in the rain. The two girls run down the streets under the rain. Suling narrates, "But that did not keep all the girls inside. They snuck out at night, when the air was cool, or when it rained, because the rain would mask the sweat. And sitting still, allowing the rain to fall on their faces, allowing their bare feet to—" A man holding an umbrella interrupts. "Hey!" "Why is she running about at night in the rain with her bare feet?" The girls look back at him, eyes wide in fear. He continues, "What kind of family would allow their daughter to do that?" Safiyah stands with her back facing the reader. Red-tinged scenes of angry people shouting and whispering to each other swirl around her. Suling continues narrating. "And because they were powerful people who whispered into the ears of more powerful people, it soon became law that girls should not run about in bare feet." A scene of a woman wrapping a bandage around a young girl's foot as she cries in pain. "And soon it was amended that feet were actually quite unncessary for seemly girls." The woman tightens the bandages. "And so they were bound, wrapped and allowed to decay. Bones broken. Tears ignored. It worked in the past, why shouldn't it work now?" The girl whose legs were bound hobbles down a pathway, holding a pillar for support. "The first rebel leader was a woman named Tania." A scene is shown of a woman with light brown hair and gold-rimmed glasses peeking out from behind a wall fearfully as a policeman questions another man. "Tania was 24. Born at 4:44am. Not just hunting hour, but during the most inauspicious moment, right down to the very unlucky minute." A scene of her furtively glancing at a pair of scissors on a table. In the next photograph, Tania is shown leaving the room, her hair short and rumpled. The scissors rest on the table, with a long lock of hair beside it. Suling says, "No one knew exactly how the censors were able to find the exact documents of Tania's birth given she was an orphan – her mother dying in birth, and her father unknown. But powerful people were up in arms."A baby lies crying at the foot of a door, bundled up in a green wrap and a note placed on it. A woman looks at the baby with concern. Suling says, "And because fear spreads fast, Tiger girls were secretly drowned, then not so secretly as it became legal for female Tiger babies to be disposed of – for the benefit of society of course." A scene is shown of women carrying their babies and queueing up to register their baby to various policemen. The policemen harrass the women. Suling says, "Some said, better just the Tigers than all of us." A scene of a woman as she stares at her baby in horror. A dark-skinned woman with dark hair and an orange headband, resembling an adult Safiyah, leaps over a table to avoid some policemen with a baby in her arm. Suling narrates, "The first rebellion took place in the Year of the Tiger." Tania, with cropped hair, holds a baby and runs across a beach as she yells out instructions. She is clothed in a loose-fitting cyan shirt and brown pants. On the beach, Safiyah, also with cropped hair, looks at a baby, determined. A policeman watch as multiple small boats leave the shore. In the present day, Nadia and Suling are seated in front of the bookshelves. Nadia is cross-legged, playing with Coconut who is cuddled up on her lap. Suling's arms are folded across her knees. Nadia says, "I don't understand why they hate us so much." Nadia scratches Coconut, who reacts in pleasure. Nadia and Suling look down in silence. Nadia lets out a long breath. She glances at Suling. "It's getting late..." Suling stands up and extends a hand to Nadia. Nadia smiles and reaches her hand out to Suling. Suling looks at her and says, smirking, "I'll race you to dinner." They both leave the library. A scene of Safiyah with short hair and an orange headband, running happily with a gold medal around her neck. Nadia and Suling look at each other as they jostle each other to race towards dinner. Around them, the sunset casts a warm, orange glow. Suling concludes, "And to think it had all begun, or so it was told, because a girl was too fast for her own good."
ep. 7